1 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:12,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:16,079 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 4 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: tech are you? So? Here in America, the sport of 5 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:26,439 Speaker 1: American football, whereas we call it football, is back in 6 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:29,720 Speaker 1: full swing. And I heard a little rumor that tonight 7 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,880 Speaker 1: during Monday Night football, PayPal's going to do something that's 8 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,880 Speaker 1: something is I have no idea. I've heard that's going 9 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,560 Speaker 1: to be entertaining and funny, and maybe it'll tie into 10 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: a recent ad they did with Will Ferrell where he 11 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 1: runs into a bunch of wind chimes. Don't know for sure, 12 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: but I do know that if you tune into the 13 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:55,040 Speaker 1: game on ESPN, you can actually see whatever this is unfold. 14 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: And I think the hope is that this is going 15 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: to be a big talking point, and I'm certainly curious. 16 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 1: But in the meantime, I thought it would be cool 17 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:09,360 Speaker 1: to talk about the origins and evolution of PayPal. So 18 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: this is kind of a high overview, mostly about the 19 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:15,080 Speaker 1: formation of PayPal and then a little bit about its 20 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 1: evolution because this is a topic that I've actually touched 21 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: on a few times in tech stuff while talking about 22 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,760 Speaker 1: other companies, primarily eBay, or when I was talking about 23 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: the origins of Elon Musk's obsession with the letter X, 24 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:31,480 Speaker 1: because that actually plays a big part of it too, 25 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: But I have never done a full episode dedicated to 26 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:38,919 Speaker 1: the fintech company that set the standard for everybody else, 27 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,319 Speaker 1: Like PayPal is a pretty remarkable success story, especially when 28 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: you expand that out to say, okay, let's look at 29 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: some of the influential figures who are part of PayPal's founding. 30 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:54,279 Speaker 1: They largely went on to do lots of other stuff 31 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:58,800 Speaker 1: and become really really wealthy in the process. But in 32 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: the beginning, before there was PayPal, there were two other entities, 33 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 1: so starting first with one called Confinity, although even this 34 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 1: company reportedly had an earlier name called field Link, that 35 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,840 Speaker 1: was co founded by Max Levchin and Peter Tiel in 36 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:22,080 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight with a few other partners. Although Levchin 37 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: and tel are typically the only two you read about 38 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: in most histories, they weren't the only ones, but they 39 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: were the ones that were, you know, referenced the most. So. 40 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 1: Levchin was born in Ukraine in nineteen seventy five. His 41 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: family immigrated to the United States in the early nineties. 42 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,240 Speaker 1: He was interested in computer science, and he earned a 43 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:45,840 Speaker 1: degree in the field of computer science at the University 44 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:49,919 Speaker 1: of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in nineteen ninety seven, and 45 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,720 Speaker 1: then like the next year, he would co found this 46 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:57,240 Speaker 1: company that would eventually evolve into PayPal, which is quite 47 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:00,320 Speaker 1: a stratospheric rise. I mean, to go from a rush 48 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:03,800 Speaker 1: college graduate to co founding a blockbuster of a company 49 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: in just a year, that's incredible. Of course, we also 50 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,440 Speaker 1: know lots and lots of stories in Silicon Valley about 51 00:03:09,639 --> 00:03:15,239 Speaker 1: college dropouts who go on to forge incredibly successful entrepreneurial careers. 52 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,240 Speaker 1: Just a quick reminder, for every great success story there is, 53 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: there are countless stories of people who dropped out of 54 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: college and then regretted it later. So it's by no 55 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: means a guarantee. I mean, if you've got a really 56 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:31,280 Speaker 1: great idea and you're also lucky, then you know you 57 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: might have a really good shot anyway. The other co 58 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,280 Speaker 1: founder Peter Tiel, he's almost a decade older than Lefchen. 59 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: He was born in nineteen sixty seven, and he was 60 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: born in what at that time was referred to as 61 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,000 Speaker 1: West Germany. We just call it Germany now because it 62 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: unified again. He was just a year old when his 63 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,320 Speaker 1: family immigrated to the United States. Teel majored in philosophy 64 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:57,280 Speaker 1: at Stanford University, graduated in nineteen eighty nine, and he 65 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 1: leaned heavily into libertarianism, and to this day, Teal is 66 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: known as being a political activist as well as an entrepreneur. 67 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,920 Speaker 1: Levchen would successfully convince Teal to serve as the CEO 68 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 1: for Confinity once it launched. Reportedly, Teal didn't want to 69 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,240 Speaker 1: do that initially, he just wanted to be an investor, 70 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: but Levchen convinced him to serve as CEO. Now, there 71 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 1: were four other co founders of Confinity, whom, as I 72 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, they often don't get talked about nearly as 73 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: much in the various articles and histories of PayPal, But 74 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: those other four co founders included Upon ken Howery, Luke Nosek, 75 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: and Russell Simmons, all of whom have earned the descriptor 76 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: entrepreneur to say the least. So their goal, at least, 77 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 1: as described by Fintech magazine, was to quote democratize financial 78 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:57,240 Speaker 1: services and empower people and businesses to join together and 79 00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:01,800 Speaker 1: exchange value for better experiences end quote. But that doesn't 80 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: really mean much, right, Like I mean, yeah, it tells 81 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:05,920 Speaker 1: you what the end goal is, but it doesn't tell 82 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: you through which methods are they planning to achieve this goal. 83 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: So I would argue this gets maybe a tiny bit confusing. 84 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,680 Speaker 1: So on a more specific and perhaps less grandiose level, 85 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:22,039 Speaker 1: the original aim of Confinity was to develop a payments 86 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: platform built on top of the palm pilot. And you 87 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:29,279 Speaker 1: may not remember what these devices were if you are 88 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: younger than someone likes say myself. The smartphones made old 89 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:39,279 Speaker 1: personal digital assistants or PDAs obsolete, but way back in 90 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 1: the day these things were like the go to tech 91 00:05:42,839 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: accessory if you were in business. Palm pilots were a 92 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,160 Speaker 1: type of PDA. So these are digital devices that could 93 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: access stuff like email and contacts and calendars and that 94 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 1: kind of thing. Often they didn't have any direct Internet 95 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:00,440 Speaker 1: connectivity on their own. What you would do is you 96 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:05,560 Speaker 1: would sync your device to a computer that did potentially 97 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:09,360 Speaker 1: connect to the Internet, and you would do this through 98 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:11,359 Speaker 1: various means. It might be through a cable, or it 99 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:13,560 Speaker 1: could be through an infrared sensor. A lot of them 100 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:17,039 Speaker 1: had those including the palm pilot, and you would carry 101 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:20,360 Speaker 1: this around with you, and while it didn't have all 102 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 1: the capabilities of a smartphone, it did boost what you 103 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:27,040 Speaker 1: could do just on a regular cell phone. So business 104 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,640 Speaker 1: leaders would typically have each of these types of devices. 105 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,120 Speaker 1: So it's no big surprise that gradually PDAs and cell 106 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 1: phones would converge into the form factor of smartphone, and 107 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: then it would take a few more years for smartphones 108 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:45,799 Speaker 1: to become a consumer product beyond just the business elite. Anyway, 109 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: Levchin and Teal were essentially trying to make a product 110 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:52,640 Speaker 1: that would let business leaders exchange money digitally through mobile devices, 111 00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:55,400 Speaker 1: and the way this would work was through beaming data 112 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: through infrared signals. So, like I said, they had infrared 113 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:02,880 Speaker 1: lights and infrared sensors, sort of like a television remote, 114 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:06,520 Speaker 1: but you know, TV remotes typically only just beam stuff 115 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,800 Speaker 1: to a receiver connected to your TV. In this case, 116 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,520 Speaker 1: the palm pilots had both the sending and receiving elements, 117 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: so it's like a transceiver. So you had to point 118 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,120 Speaker 1: the devices toward each other, you know, you had to 119 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: have a line of sight between the two palm pilots 120 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:24,720 Speaker 1: in order to make one of these transfers happen. Once 121 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:27,160 Speaker 1: you did that, you still had another step to take. 122 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:31,080 Speaker 1: Like you didn't just magically have money added into an account. 123 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:32,640 Speaker 1: What you would have to do is you would have 124 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:35,320 Speaker 1: to take your Palm pilot, synk it back to your computer, 125 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:38,520 Speaker 1: log into the Confinity website, and then you would choose 126 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:41,160 Speaker 1: how you wanted your money credited to you, like you 127 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:45,240 Speaker 1: could receive a credit like a credit card. Some Essentially 128 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: you could have a check cut for you, so that 129 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:50,200 Speaker 1: means you gonna have to wait for the check to 130 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: come to the mail, or you could do direct deposit 131 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:55,680 Speaker 1: to your bank account. It all depended on how much 132 00:07:55,720 --> 00:07:58,720 Speaker 1: you trusted Confinity, I guess because in those early days, 133 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: I think a lot of people forget this, but in 134 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: the early days of e commerce, there was a lot 135 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,680 Speaker 1: of worry and anxiety around how would you handle digital 136 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: transfers of money in a way that wouldn't put you 137 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:12,320 Speaker 1: at risk. Like no one wanted to put their credit 138 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: card into a website, let alone have their bank account 139 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:21,120 Speaker 1: connected to an online service. So this wasn't a seamless 140 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:25,640 Speaker 1: service at this stage right the beaming of information between 141 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: palm pilots, but it was the beginning of something Teal 142 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,679 Speaker 1: and Levchin saw that the world was likely going to 143 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 1: move more toward a mobile landscape. It would take about 144 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:41,160 Speaker 1: a decade for that to actually happen, but it certainly did. 145 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:45,679 Speaker 1: You can't deny that the mobile web completely changed the 146 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:50,000 Speaker 1: way the Internet worked for the average person. So the 147 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:54,160 Speaker 1: name Confinity itself was a portmanteau of confidence and infinity. 148 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,880 Speaker 1: The team focused on cryptography because obviously it's necessary to 149 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:02,199 Speaker 1: protect any sort of financial transactions between mobile devices. You 150 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: want to make sure that only the parties that are 151 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 1: involved in the transaction are able to access that. You 152 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,800 Speaker 1: don't want anyone snooping in and being able to, you know, digitally, 153 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:14,679 Speaker 1: steal cash. They also worked on the concept of digital wallets, 154 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:18,319 Speaker 1: so a virtual account where you could keep deposits, withdrawals, 155 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:20,679 Speaker 1: and transfers in a way that was reliable and secure 156 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:25,240 Speaker 1: and didn't necessarily require you to constantly tap into that 157 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:28,440 Speaker 1: through like a more established financial institution to get like 158 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:30,760 Speaker 1: a check cut or something like that. So this would 159 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,640 Speaker 1: help reduce the number of steps needed to interface with 160 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: money from a user perspective. Confinity developed a money transfer service, 161 00:09:38,480 --> 00:09:41,000 Speaker 1: and this is the service that ended up getting the 162 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 1: name PayPal. So originally PayPal was not the name of 163 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:48,679 Speaker 1: a company. It was just this service from Confinity. But 164 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier, Confinity was just one of two 165 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:58,840 Speaker 1: entities that ultimately would evolve into PayPal. There was, as 166 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:03,760 Speaker 1: Yoda might say, another sky Walker or you know, just 167 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:09,120 Speaker 1: another another company. That another company was the original X 168 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: dot com. Well not the original X dot com actually, 169 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:16,160 Speaker 1: because X dot com existed before this did. This is complicated. Okay, 170 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:19,480 Speaker 1: so today, if you say x dot com, you're referring 171 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:23,240 Speaker 1: to the entity that was formerly known as Twitter. Now, 172 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: at the time of PayPal's founding, X dot com was 173 00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:30,120 Speaker 1: known as an online financial company. More on that than 174 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:33,640 Speaker 1: just a moment. But really, the original x dot com 175 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:37,440 Speaker 1: was neither of those things. It was instead the URL 176 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 1: for a company called Pittsburgh Power Computer. I found that 177 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:43,960 Speaker 1: thanks to Jimmy Sony, who wrote a piece on Medium 178 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:46,200 Speaker 1: about the origins of X dot Com. He's also written 179 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:51,000 Speaker 1: extensively about various founders in Silicon Valley in a book 180 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:55,320 Speaker 1: called The Founders. Pretty handy there. Anyway, even this story 181 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:57,880 Speaker 1: gets more complicated, of course it does. So the owners 182 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: of Pittsburgh Power Computer were in a jam, so they 183 00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:07,360 Speaker 1: had established a website at www dot PPC dot com. However, 184 00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:11,360 Speaker 1: they lost that URL after a company called Network Solutions 185 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:15,960 Speaker 1: bought out the contract for their domain hosting that granted 186 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:18,920 Speaker 1: them that address. So they reached out to Network Solutions 187 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:21,400 Speaker 1: to find out what other URLs they might be able 188 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:25,679 Speaker 1: to secure for themselves, and they found that www dot 189 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:28,760 Speaker 1: x dot com was available and they said, oh, we'll 190 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:32,079 Speaker 1: have that one please. Now, this almost didn't happen because 191 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:35,520 Speaker 1: while they were able to secure the URL from the 192 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:40,920 Speaker 1: DNS point of contact through the network company, their Internet 193 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:44,880 Speaker 1: service provider said that looks totally sus and we are 194 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:47,440 Speaker 1: not going to let you have it. However, the owners 195 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:51,560 Speaker 1: builled out the necessary paperwork to establish this as their URL, 196 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: and whoever it was that objected to x dot com 197 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:57,679 Speaker 1: at their ISP must not have looked at the forum 198 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:00,120 Speaker 1: because when it was all sudden and done, they they 199 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:03,800 Speaker 1: were able to secure x dot com after all. Shortly thereafter, 200 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:07,480 Speaker 1: the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority scooped up all the remaining 201 00:12:07,559 --> 00:12:10,560 Speaker 1: one letter URLs that were left. There were twenty three 202 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:13,680 Speaker 1: unassigned ones at that time. The ones that had been 203 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:16,600 Speaker 1: taken at that point were x, Q, and Z, So 204 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:18,840 Speaker 1: if the pair had even dawdled a little bit, they 205 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:20,959 Speaker 1: wouldn't have been able to get x dot com at all, 206 00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 1: because it would have been sort of a manifest destiny 207 00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:28,839 Speaker 1: kind of land grab from the Iana. Anyway, the pair 208 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:32,839 Speaker 1: of business owners held onto this URL even though they 209 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:36,400 Speaker 1: ultimately sold the computer company. So they kept the URL 210 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:38,640 Speaker 1: after selling the company, and they kept it for stuff 211 00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: like their personal emails, because like having name at x 212 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:45,199 Speaker 1: dot com. That's kind of fun, right, And then we 213 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:48,280 Speaker 1: get up to nineteen ninety nine. That's when Elon Musk, 214 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: who was fresh off of selling his first company, zip Too, 215 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:55,080 Speaker 1: popped up with an interest in buying the x dot 216 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,720 Speaker 1: com URL. He had not been the first person to 217 00:12:57,840 --> 00:12:59,680 Speaker 1: approach the pair, but he was the first to have 218 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:02,560 Speaker 1: a pick that they actually found to be interesting, and 219 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:05,680 Speaker 1: that pitch was to bring investment and banking to the 220 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:09,520 Speaker 1: internet writ large. The early services would be similar to 221 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:14,080 Speaker 1: what Confinity would provide, like linking banking and transfers to 222 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:17,800 Speaker 1: email addresses, but Musk's grand plan was to get into 223 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: all things financial, with x dot com being kind of 224 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:23,200 Speaker 1: a portal to everything you can think of in the 225 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:27,000 Speaker 1: finance world online. The former owners of x dot com 226 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:30,880 Speaker 1: accepted some cash and perhaps more importantly, a stake in 227 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,520 Speaker 1: Musk's company. And Musk groused about that last bit. He 228 00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:37,640 Speaker 1: actually publicly groused about it in an article, but he 229 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:39,960 Speaker 1: agreed to the terms so that he could gain possession 230 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: of x dot com, and initially X dot COM's focus 231 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:46,840 Speaker 1: was on being able to make payments online through email. Interestingly, 232 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: Musk's HQ for X dot com was in an office 233 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 1: building and the company occupying the office next door to 234 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 1: them was you guessed it, Confinity. We'll talk more about 235 00:13:57,840 --> 00:13:59,719 Speaker 1: that in just a moment, but first let's take a 236 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:12,120 Speaker 1: quick break to thank our sponsors. We're back, okay, before 237 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:15,040 Speaker 1: the break I had mentioned. Now we have two different 238 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:20,360 Speaker 1: fledgling fintech companies occupying office space literally next door to 239 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:24,080 Speaker 1: each other. Now, both companies had large scale plans to 240 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:28,720 Speaker 1: become like all encompassing online financial institutions, but they were 241 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:32,840 Speaker 1: taking slightly different pathways in order to get to that destination, 242 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:37,160 Speaker 1: and in the early days, they were not directly competing. 243 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:42,120 Speaker 1: They each offered complementary methods to process payments online, but 244 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:45,800 Speaker 1: they didn't directly overlap. They also chatted with each other 245 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 1: a bit. According to the aforementioned Jimmy Sony. Each company, 246 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:52,600 Speaker 1: the employees felt like the employees of the other company 247 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,960 Speaker 1: were taking the wrong path. So essentially they were both saying, like, man, 248 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:59,520 Speaker 1: those lunkheads over next door, Gosh, they sure do have 249 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:01,600 Speaker 1: it wrong. And they had both groups saying this at 250 00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: the same time about the other ones. Anyway, we should 251 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: also set the scene a little bit to remind ourselves 252 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:09,120 Speaker 1: of what the world was like, because this is the 253 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:13,880 Speaker 1: late nineteen nineties, right We were in an inflationary period 254 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:18,000 Speaker 1: of the dot com bubble. Like startups were going banana 255 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:20,800 Speaker 1: at this time. They were popping up all over the place. 256 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:23,440 Speaker 1: A lot of them were flush with cash, either from 257 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:27,360 Speaker 1: angel investors or going public really early on before they 258 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: had much to show for it, and just getting flooded 259 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:33,800 Speaker 1: with you know, people buying tons of stock. And investors 260 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,440 Speaker 1: saw the Internet in general and the Web in particular 261 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:39,560 Speaker 1: as being the digital equivalent of a gold rush, so 262 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 1: investors didn't want to be too late to the party 263 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:43,880 Speaker 1: or else they would miss out. So a lot of 264 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:46,760 Speaker 1: startups were getting injected with way too much money for 265 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:50,520 Speaker 1: their own good, and this would become undeniable once the 266 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: bubble did begin to burst in like two thousand and 267 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:57,360 Speaker 1: two thousand and one, and at the time in the 268 00:15:57,480 --> 00:16:00,520 Speaker 1: late nineties, it just seemed like even the sky wasn't 269 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:03,680 Speaker 1: the limit. There was no limit. The limit does not exist, 270 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:06,240 Speaker 1: as mean girls would tell you. But it turned out 271 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: that the mean girls were being extra mean because the 272 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:12,600 Speaker 1: limit did exist, and people ran up against it pretty 273 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:14,960 Speaker 1: hardcore in two thousand and two thousand and one. But 274 00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:18,000 Speaker 1: on top of that, in the environment, there was also 275 00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:22,080 Speaker 1: this looming specter of Y two K. Now, in case 276 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:24,520 Speaker 1: you're not familiar with Y two K, maybe you were 277 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:26,640 Speaker 1: born after two thousand. You don't even know what the 278 00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:29,840 Speaker 1: deal is with Y two K. Well, here's the short version. 279 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:33,880 Speaker 1: So early on in the days of computer coding, programmers 280 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:38,400 Speaker 1: would often take a shortcut if they had to include 281 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: digits representing a year in their code. It's like a 282 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,480 Speaker 1: lot of different software would keep track of the year, 283 00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:48,400 Speaker 1: and each year the digits would go up by a number, 284 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:51,720 Speaker 1: But rather than use four digits, which would take up 285 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:55,480 Speaker 1: more valuable space, they used two digits. I mean, why 286 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:58,200 Speaker 1: wouldn't they So Like, if you were a computer programmer 287 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:00,840 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven, and you were right, some software 288 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:03,840 Speaker 1: you might designate the year just by seven to seven, 289 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 1: and then the next year it would go up to 290 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 1: seven eight. That sounds like a trifle, but keep in 291 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:11,080 Speaker 1: mind that, you know, computer science was really tied to 292 00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:15,199 Speaker 1: what we could achieve through semiconductor design and manufacturing, and 293 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,840 Speaker 1: that in itself was progressing at a very steady rate, 294 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:23,320 Speaker 1: a fast rate, but steady, and computers were under tighter 295 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:26,639 Speaker 1: limitations than what we have today, so conserving space when 296 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:29,959 Speaker 1: you were coding was actually a priority. You couldn't just 297 00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:34,240 Speaker 1: you know, be extravagant with the amount of code you 298 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:37,800 Speaker 1: were putting into your software. So this became a convention 299 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:41,320 Speaker 1: of using two digits to designate the year, help you 300 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:43,639 Speaker 1: save a little bit of time and pluss what everybody 301 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:47,000 Speaker 1: else was doing. And it stuck around even as the 302 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:50,399 Speaker 1: limitations in computing became less of a problems as we 303 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:53,320 Speaker 1: got to a point where we could afford to use 304 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:56,080 Speaker 1: four digits to designate a year or more if we wanted. 305 00:17:56,480 --> 00:18:00,200 Speaker 1: But the convention was already in place, And meanwhile, I'm 306 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:03,800 Speaker 1: kept on advancing as time often does, and it meant 307 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:06,720 Speaker 1: that those two digit counters were getting closer to nine 308 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:10,240 Speaker 1: to nine, and that led people to say, huh, what's 309 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:13,240 Speaker 1: going to happen when the calendar turns to January first, 310 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:16,399 Speaker 1: two thousand and that was a huge question. Some folks 311 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,679 Speaker 1: thought nothing really important was going to happen. Others worried 312 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:25,040 Speaker 1: that it could mean global chaos. So in the financial world, 313 00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:28,080 Speaker 1: for example, there were a lot of very understandable concerns 314 00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:30,920 Speaker 1: because the worry was that the computer systems that were 315 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:34,879 Speaker 1: now responsible for financial operations around the world would suddenly 316 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:37,760 Speaker 1: interpret the two digits to mean that it had turned 317 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:40,920 Speaker 1: back to nineteen hundred again, and this in turn would 318 00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:44,560 Speaker 1: affect all these calculations that depended in part on what 319 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:47,280 Speaker 1: year it was, So, for example, calculating the amount of 320 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:51,840 Speaker 1: interest an account was accruing, that could totally create an 321 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 1: issue like no one knew what would happen either would 322 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,080 Speaker 1: it credit the wrong amount, would it take money away? 323 00:18:57,119 --> 00:19:00,639 Speaker 1: Would it just crash the system? If suddenly the appeared 324 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:04,280 Speaker 1: to term back in time ninety nine years, what happens then? 325 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:08,640 Speaker 1: So people were worried that everything from total financial collapse 326 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:13,120 Speaker 1: to everyday appliances going haywire would occur. Thanks to these 327 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:17,679 Speaker 1: space saving measures. Some programmers that introduced decades earlier, but 328 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:21,560 Speaker 1: companies like Confinity and x dot Com they started up 329 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:24,760 Speaker 1: well after the world had started to worry about what 330 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:28,080 Speaker 1: might happen upon the dawn of two thousand. As such, 331 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:32,000 Speaker 1: they were able to anticipate and sidestep those issues, largely 332 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,280 Speaker 1: because they could take measures to make sure their systems 333 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:38,680 Speaker 1: would continue to operate as designed after we were done partying. 334 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,040 Speaker 1: Because it was nineteen ninety nine, so in a way, 335 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:45,800 Speaker 1: they were being looked at as the future of finance 336 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:52,200 Speaker 1: because unlike the established financial world, these weren't legacy companies 337 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:58,760 Speaker 1: like legacy institutions that were then attempting to digitize and 338 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:03,360 Speaker 1: become modern nice. They were in fact of the digital 339 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: age themselves, and so they weren't burdened by this massive 340 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 1: legacy of systems that may or may not be compatible 341 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:14,320 Speaker 1: in the new era. So that ended up being like 342 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:18,919 Speaker 1: a big selling point for both Confinity and x dot Com. Meanwhile, 343 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:22,639 Speaker 1: Confinity had landed a pretty sweet deal, and it was 344 00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:25,760 Speaker 1: a deal that forced the company to pivot. But that 345 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:29,479 Speaker 1: pivot might have been what ensured its ultimate success, and 346 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:33,440 Speaker 1: that was partnering with a little online e commerce platform 347 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:38,600 Speaker 1: called eBay. So in the old days of eBay, users 348 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:42,159 Speaker 1: could put stuff up for auction and bid for stuff 349 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:45,959 Speaker 1: that was for auction. You could also eventually put in 350 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,840 Speaker 1: an actual buy price and just buy things outright rather 351 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:53,480 Speaker 1: than bidding for them. But once someone won this bidding war, 352 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:55,960 Speaker 1: even if they're the only one bidding on something, whatever 353 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,600 Speaker 1: it may be, well, then it was time for the 354 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:02,600 Speaker 1: person who won the auction to pay up. Except there 355 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:07,320 Speaker 1: was no digital means to transfer money. So originally on eBay, 356 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:10,760 Speaker 1: the deal was if you won an auction, you were 357 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,359 Speaker 1: expected to write a check to the seller and to 358 00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:19,000 Speaker 1: send the check to them through the mail like the 359 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:23,520 Speaker 1: postal service, like a caveman, essentially, so obviously, this slowed 360 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:27,280 Speaker 1: things down considerably. Sellers had no incentive to send stuff 361 00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 1: right away because they didn't yet have cash in hand. 362 00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:34,639 Speaker 1: They weren't guaranteed to have actually received a check yet. Meanwhile, 363 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,880 Speaker 1: the buyers might worry that they were sending a check 364 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,760 Speaker 1: off only to never receive that you know, he man, body, pillow, 365 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: or whatever it was they were buying. Confinity's PayPal service 366 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:50,400 Speaker 1: sped things up considerably. eBay would urge customers to sign 367 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,760 Speaker 1: up for PayPal accounts to expedite payment. You know, you 368 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:57,080 Speaker 1: just connected your email to PayPal and then you could 369 00:21:57,080 --> 00:22:00,239 Speaker 1: start depositing money into a PayPal account and use that 370 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:06,520 Speaker 1: to purchase stuff, and Confinity saw great success because lots 371 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:09,520 Speaker 1: of people on eBay preferred this to the old method 372 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:11,399 Speaker 1: of cutting a check and sending it through the mail, 373 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,960 Speaker 1: So PayPal and Confinity started to see a lot more 374 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,240 Speaker 1: folks sign up for service. Now, by this time x 375 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:22,879 Speaker 1: dot Com and Confinity were more directly competing with one another, 376 00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 1: and this meant that Confinity was doing pretty darn well. 377 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,080 Speaker 1: And I'm sure that rubbed musk the wrong way, but 378 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:33,080 Speaker 1: neither company was doing as well as it could have 379 00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:36,200 Speaker 1: been because they were spending a lot of their time 380 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,840 Speaker 1: and effort in an attempt to out compete the other. 381 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:42,360 Speaker 1: And that just meant that they were trying to drink 382 00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:45,960 Speaker 1: each other's milkshakes, and they could have been directing that 383 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:51,280 Speaker 1: attention toward fostering a stronger business. Gradually, the two Camps 384 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,199 Speaker 1: came to a realization that by merging the two companies together, 385 00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:59,240 Speaker 1: they could bolster their services. They could combine where it 386 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:04,040 Speaker 1: made sense and incorporate the complementary features that each one 387 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:08,359 Speaker 1: offered to make a better product overall for customers, and 388 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:10,960 Speaker 1: that this would be a fifty to fifty partnership a 389 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,119 Speaker 1: true merger. Bill Harris, who had served as CEO of 390 00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:17,920 Speaker 1: X dot Com leading up to this merger, would continue 391 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: on as CEO of the newly merged company. Must would 392 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:25,560 Speaker 1: be a sort of co CEO. Peter Thiel, who had 393 00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: been CEO of Confinity, would become the executive vice president 394 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:33,640 Speaker 1: of finance, and Levchen would become the company's Chief Technology 395 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,520 Speaker 1: Officer or CTO. And initially the plan was that the 396 00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:41,560 Speaker 1: Confinity brand name would ride off into the sunset. They 397 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:46,119 Speaker 1: were going to retire Confinity. The new company would instead 398 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:50,919 Speaker 1: be called not PayPal but X dot Com. PayPal would 399 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:54,159 Speaker 1: continue to be the name of the payment service, the 400 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,560 Speaker 1: money transfer service, but it would not be the name 401 00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:00,000 Speaker 1: of the company, at least not initially. There were actually 402 00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,720 Speaker 1: talks of rebranding the name of the service as ex 403 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:07,919 Speaker 1: hyphen PayPal, which seems confusing to me because you're like 404 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:10,640 Speaker 1: X PayPal, you mean something that used to be PayPal 405 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,600 Speaker 1: but isn't PayPal anymore. And in fact, the folks over 406 00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,440 Speaker 1: at PayPal were not crazy about this idea. They did 407 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:18,880 Speaker 1: not agree with Elon Musk that X was the coolest 408 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,040 Speaker 1: letter in the alphabet and that everything should be named 409 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:25,119 Speaker 1: after X. Meanwhile, Musk was very much adamant on that, 410 00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:28,440 Speaker 1: and things did not go very smoothly for this newly 411 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,000 Speaker 1: merged company. It turned out that there were a lot 412 00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: of disagreements between the various parties who were coming together 413 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:41,800 Speaker 1: to form this new entity. So Peter Thiel resigned as EVP, 414 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,400 Speaker 1: and Musk and the Board of Directors had Bill Harris 415 00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:50,040 Speaker 1: removed as CEO and Musk took his place because Bill 416 00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,720 Speaker 1: Harris was seen as not being focused enough on the 417 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,679 Speaker 1: technology side of things. From what I understand this is 418 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:00,720 Speaker 1: based off of various articles that were written well after 419 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:04,159 Speaker 1: all of this happened. Teal actually came back to the 420 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:08,560 Speaker 1: company after Bill Harris was removed as CEO, and Teal 421 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:12,119 Speaker 1: would become the chairman of the board of directors. Elon 422 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:16,720 Speaker 1: Musk began making some pretty hefty demands of the company, 423 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:21,080 Speaker 1: like really really aggressive goals, ones that would have been 424 00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:24,239 Speaker 1: difficult to achieve both from a business standpoint and a 425 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:28,320 Speaker 1: technological standpoint. This might sound familiar because his style doesn't 426 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:32,000 Speaker 1: seem to have changed much over at formerly known as Twitter, 427 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:37,560 Speaker 1: where he has both reduced the staff dramatically through layoffs 428 00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:42,280 Speaker 1: and also placed some really aggressive goals for the people 429 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:45,160 Speaker 1: who were left behind. Well, he was doing that over 430 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: at X dot com as well, and he was really 431 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,840 Speaker 1: gung ho on that name, Like he was just absolutely 432 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,280 Speaker 1: fixated on X, thinking that it was the coolest letter 433 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,399 Speaker 1: and that this was going to really make people want 434 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:02,760 Speaker 1: to use the company's products and services. Other stakeholders were 435 00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:05,000 Speaker 1: not so sure about that. They were worried that one, 436 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:07,680 Speaker 1: no one was going to know what X dot com 437 00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:11,520 Speaker 1: was all about because the name was not particularly evocative 438 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,359 Speaker 1: of what it was doing anyway. And they were also 439 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:16,960 Speaker 1: more worried that people might think it was linked to 440 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,520 Speaker 1: pornography because of the designation of X rated movies. So 441 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 1: they were worried like, one, they're not going to know 442 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:24,640 Speaker 1: what we do, and two, if they do think they 443 00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:26,800 Speaker 1: know what we do, they're going to think it's pornography 444 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:30,440 Speaker 1: related and that's not the case. So what happens next 445 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:34,320 Speaker 1: has become something of internet legend, or really tech legend. 446 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,960 Speaker 1: The story goes that while Musk was traveling to Australia 447 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:41,879 Speaker 1: to celebrate his honeymoon with his first wife, Peter Teel 448 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:45,720 Speaker 1: organized the board of directors to remove Musk from the 449 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:50,000 Speaker 1: position of CEO so to hold a coup the way 450 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,960 Speaker 1: Musk did with Bill Harris and boot Musk from the company. 451 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:58,000 Speaker 1: So this was in two thousand. Also on the board 452 00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:00,919 Speaker 1: of directors at that time was Rydehoff, who would go 453 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,120 Speaker 1: on to found the company LinkedIn. There are a lot 454 00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:06,359 Speaker 1: of luminaries in the tech world wrapped up in the 455 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,000 Speaker 1: story of PayPal. We'll touch back on that before the 456 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,919 Speaker 1: end of this episode. So Musk was ousted, however, he 457 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,479 Speaker 1: retained his stake in the company and that would go 458 00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,480 Speaker 1: on to make him really filthy rich. Now, to be clear, 459 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:21,200 Speaker 1: Musk was already rich, It's not like he was coming 460 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:24,640 Speaker 1: from humble beginnings, but this would be a really big boost. 461 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,840 Speaker 1: More on that than just a moment. But Peter Thiel 462 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,679 Speaker 1: took on the job of CEO, and ultimately the folks 463 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,639 Speaker 1: remaining at the company needed to figure out what they 464 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:36,879 Speaker 1: were going to call it. Confinity had been retired as 465 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:38,800 Speaker 1: a brand, and no one really felt like that was 466 00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:42,800 Speaker 1: the strongest name X dot com everyone agreed was confusing 467 00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:45,879 Speaker 1: and potentially self defeating, so they turned to the most 468 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:48,879 Speaker 1: successful service that the company had offered, and that was 469 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,679 Speaker 1: the one used by countless people on eBay. They chose 470 00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,760 Speaker 1: to rename the company PayPal. Okay, we've got some more 471 00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:59,720 Speaker 1: to talk about with PayPal's origins and a little bit 472 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:12,400 Speaker 1: about evolution, but first let's take another quick break. Okay, 473 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:16,600 Speaker 1: we're back. So between two thousand and two thousand and two, 474 00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:21,400 Speaker 1: PayPal establishes its identity using the PayPal name for the company, 475 00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:27,000 Speaker 1: and begins to innovate even further in the payment space 476 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:31,560 Speaker 1: and establish itself as a successful payments processing platform for eBay, 477 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,919 Speaker 1: and by two thousand and two, it was ready to 478 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:39,160 Speaker 1: hold an initial public offering an IPO, and thus become 479 00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:42,000 Speaker 1: a publicly traded company on the stock market. Now, I 480 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:45,680 Speaker 1: often say that tech startups really all startups, but tech 481 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:49,600 Speaker 1: startups in particular usually have one of two goals. Either 482 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,560 Speaker 1: go public, which brings in tons of money through the 483 00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:56,600 Speaker 1: stock market, and thus early investors angel investors can see 484 00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:58,720 Speaker 1: a big return for supporting the company when it was 485 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 1: a weedy little startup. Or option two, get acquired by 486 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:06,400 Speaker 1: a much larger company for hopefully a huge amount of 487 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,520 Speaker 1: cash that also allows early investors to see a really 488 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:13,280 Speaker 1: big return on their initial investment. PayPal actually managed to 489 00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,440 Speaker 1: do both in two thousand and two. It went public 490 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:19,000 Speaker 1: in two thousand and two in February and raised more 491 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:22,200 Speaker 1: than seventy million dollars in the process. But that was 492 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,240 Speaker 1: chicken scratch. I mean, part of the reason it was 493 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,720 Speaker 1: chicken scratch is that this is two thousand and two. 494 00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,720 Speaker 1: That means the world had already seen the dot com 495 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:33,400 Speaker 1: bubble burst at that point. So while the market was 496 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:37,760 Speaker 1: in recovery, the craze around tech stocks where it would 497 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:40,680 Speaker 1: rocket a stock to the moon, those were a thing 498 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,880 Speaker 1: of the past. PayPal still did well. It just didn't 499 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,840 Speaker 1: explode like the dot com companies that went public in 500 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:50,840 Speaker 1: the late nineties before everyone came to terms with reality. 501 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,720 Speaker 1: But then later in October two thousand and two, eBay 502 00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:58,600 Speaker 1: made an offer that the shareholders couldn't refuse. So hasn't 503 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:00,920 Speaker 1: even been a publicly traded company for a year yet, 504 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,160 Speaker 1: and eBay says, we want to acquire you. And it 505 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:07,080 Speaker 1: ended up being for the princely sum of one point 506 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:11,800 Speaker 1: five billion dollars billion. With a B. PayPal would become 507 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:15,240 Speaker 1: the official payment provider for eBay. In the process, not 508 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:17,960 Speaker 1: just not just an option, it's the official one. The 509 00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:22,240 Speaker 1: founders would all become millionaires. Musk was the largest shareholder. 510 00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,560 Speaker 1: He would pocket a quarter of a billion dollars himself. Y'all, 511 00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,200 Speaker 1: I would not mind getting tossed out of a company 512 00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:29,880 Speaker 1: if it meant that a couple of years later I'd 513 00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,560 Speaker 1: be paid two hundred and fifty million. Smack aarows. That 514 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,120 Speaker 1: seems like a fate I would welcome. Several of the 515 00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,760 Speaker 1: co founders left the company upon the completion of this acquisition. 516 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:42,560 Speaker 1: So Max Levchin, who kind of was the guy who 517 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:44,960 Speaker 1: came up with the idea for Confinity in the first place, 518 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:46,960 Speaker 1: he left, and he would go on to found a 519 00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:50,680 Speaker 1: media sharing service called Slide. Peter Thiel left and he 520 00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:54,120 Speaker 1: founded a hedge fund called Clarium Capital, and then later 521 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:58,360 Speaker 1: on he founded the data analysis firm Palanteer, which all, 522 00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:00,920 Speaker 1: that's a podcast topic that's just waiting to happen, but 523 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,760 Speaker 1: I'll leave it for now. The folks who were part 524 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,800 Speaker 1: of those early days at PayPal would a lot of 525 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,160 Speaker 1: them would go on to create some really large tech companies, 526 00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,200 Speaker 1: or they would take existing tech companies and then boost 527 00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:17,080 Speaker 1: them considerably. Musk did this. Like Musk gets credit for 528 00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:20,080 Speaker 1: creating a lot of tech companies, but in many cases 529 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:22,400 Speaker 1: those were companies that were founded by other people, and 530 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,160 Speaker 1: then Musk kind of came in and sort of took 531 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:29,160 Speaker 1: them over. So like with Musk, you've got Tesla and SpaceX, 532 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:31,920 Speaker 1: and these days you have like x, Dot Ai and 533 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,320 Speaker 1: lots of others. With tel you've got Pal and Tier, 534 00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:40,360 Speaker 1: which is that big data analytics company. You've got LinkedIn, YouTube, 535 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,560 Speaker 1: Yelp affirm. All of these came from people who had 536 00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:47,120 Speaker 1: previously worked over at PayPal. The group of entrepreneurs who 537 00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:50,480 Speaker 1: fostered PayPal into a company that eBay acquired for one 538 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,680 Speaker 1: point five billion became known as the PayPal Mafia. It's 539 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:58,040 Speaker 1: a group of business leaders who largely became serial entrepreneurs. 540 00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:02,360 Speaker 1: They often invest in one another products and projects. Not always, 541 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:05,440 Speaker 1: but I mean there's a lot of cross pollination going 542 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:08,680 Speaker 1: on between the group, and so they were just seen 543 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:12,840 Speaker 1: as this incredibly influential and powerful group of tech business 544 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:17,880 Speaker 1: owners who went on to create success after success. Several 545 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,080 Speaker 1: of them today are billionaires, So that is a heck 546 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:25,080 Speaker 1: of an alumni to belong to. As for PayPal, under 547 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:28,600 Speaker 1: the operation of eBay, it actually largely got to operate 548 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:33,240 Speaker 1: as an independent entity. It was not micromanaged by eBay 549 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:35,160 Speaker 1: for the most part, so there was a lot of 550 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:39,880 Speaker 1: innovation in digital payments, and PayPal as a result, continued 551 00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 1: to grow its influence. It began to find its way 552 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 1: into lots of different types of storefronts, not just eBay. Meanwhile, 553 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,680 Speaker 1: eBay itself was starting to encounter a few challenges with 554 00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:55,160 Speaker 1: PayPal flourishing while eBay was not growing as quickly. One 555 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 1: investor in particular began to push for the two to 556 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:02,200 Speaker 1: part ways more than a decade after they first joined. 557 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:06,280 Speaker 1: So in twenty fourteen, Carl Icon, who is often referred 558 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:10,760 Speaker 1: to as an activist investor, which means he invests a lot, 559 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,520 Speaker 1: like he buys a lot of shares of companies, and 560 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,720 Speaker 1: that gives him pretty powerful rights as a shareholder to 561 00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,600 Speaker 1: tell companies what they should do, and he gets kind 562 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:23,040 Speaker 1: of irritated if they don't do it. Anyway, That's what 563 00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:26,800 Speaker 1: he was known for. He called on eBay to spin 564 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:30,600 Speaker 1: off PayPal, and he argued that PayPal was doing well, 565 00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:32,760 Speaker 1: but it would do even better if it were freed 566 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,840 Speaker 1: from the corporate oversight of eBay, that eBay was essentially 567 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:41,360 Speaker 1: holding PayPal back. Now. eBay's board of directors initially dismissed 568 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,680 Speaker 1: this suggestion, but then later in twenty fourteen, they kind 569 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,520 Speaker 1: of came around to the same conclusion, and in twenty fifteen, 570 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,440 Speaker 1: eBay did in fact spin PayPal off and PayPal once 571 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,360 Speaker 1: again became a publicly traded company on the stock market. 572 00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,040 Speaker 1: So it had done that in February two thousand and two, 573 00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:02,120 Speaker 1: and then in twenty fifteen it would come back to 574 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:05,600 Speaker 1: the stock market as its own company. PayPal continued to 575 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:08,840 Speaker 1: offer news services, and like I said, lots of storefronts 576 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,880 Speaker 1: began to use PayPal as at least a payment option 577 00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,920 Speaker 1: for customers, if not the only one. Interestingly, in twenty 578 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,759 Speaker 1: twenty one, eBay announced it would end support for sellers 579 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,960 Speaker 1: to use PayPal accounts in order to handle funds. You 580 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,560 Speaker 1: can still use PayPal to buy stuff on eBay, but 581 00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:28,640 Speaker 1: the people selling it, they wouldn't collect the funds in 582 00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:31,719 Speaker 1: their PayPal accounts. Instead, those funds would have to be 583 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:35,920 Speaker 1: directed to their bank accounts. This would mean that eBay 584 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:41,040 Speaker 1: would be able to institute a processing fee for each 585 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:43,920 Speaker 1: of those transactions, which was I think thirty cents plus 586 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:48,600 Speaker 1: a percentage of however much the transaction was. And that 587 00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:52,799 Speaker 1: really is the reason for this, right eBay decided to 588 00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:56,440 Speaker 1: get rid of PayPal because PayPal was getting those transaction fees. 589 00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:59,960 Speaker 1: This way, eBay could get those transaction fees and PayPal 590 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:03,160 Speaker 1: would not have access to that anymore. You can still 591 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,800 Speaker 1: again purchase through PayPal, like if you go on eBay 592 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:08,960 Speaker 1: today and you want to buy something, you can use 593 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,799 Speaker 1: PayPal to complete your half of the transaction, but on 594 00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:13,920 Speaker 1: the back end of the seller side, it was a 595 00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,480 Speaker 1: different story. Over the years, PayPal has formed partnerships with 596 00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:21,680 Speaker 1: many other financial institutions, which gives it, you know, definitely 597 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,640 Speaker 1: the era of legitimacy right Like Initially, there was a 598 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:30,719 Speaker 1: lot of skepticism about digital money companies, Like there was 599 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:34,080 Speaker 1: just a lot of fear that these things would be 600 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,879 Speaker 1: a flash in the pan and then ultimately you would 601 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:39,640 Speaker 1: have investors and customers left holding the bag when it 602 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:43,799 Speaker 1: would fail. But PayPal stuck around and it formed partnerships 603 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:46,799 Speaker 1: with companies like credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard, 604 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,840 Speaker 1: and major banks like Wells Fargo, as well as with 605 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,400 Speaker 1: big tech companies like Google and Apple. So if you 606 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,680 Speaker 1: were to use Google Pay or Apple Pay, then PayPal 607 00:35:55,760 --> 00:36:00,120 Speaker 1: would be incorporated into those offerings as well. It also 608 00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,319 Speaker 1: acquired numerous other companies in the fintech space over the 609 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:06,440 Speaker 1: years and back In twenty twenty one, PayPal introduced the 610 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:11,239 Speaker 1: ability to pay for purchases using cryptocurrency, So again, pretty innovative. 611 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:14,600 Speaker 1: I mean, I still have issues of cryptocurrency not really 612 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:19,239 Speaker 1: acting much like a currency, well, specifically Bitcoin. Other cryptocurrencies 613 00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:22,200 Speaker 1: are a little more stable. Bitcoin, though, is so volatile 614 00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:24,719 Speaker 1: that I don't really see it being used as a 615 00:36:24,760 --> 00:36:29,600 Speaker 1: currency in a way that makes anyone feel comfortable. Anyway. Also, 616 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,200 Speaker 1: I've heard some younger folks say they don't like PayPal, 617 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:37,719 Speaker 1: they don't trust PayPal. Instead they use Venmo, which, well, 618 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,759 Speaker 1: I got some bad news for you if that's your 619 00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:43,840 Speaker 1: point of view, because Venmo has been part of PayPal 620 00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:48,200 Speaker 1: since twenty thirteen. It didn't start that way. Venmo was 621 00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,600 Speaker 1: a service created by another company in two thousand and eight, 622 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,360 Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, somewhere around there. But in twenty thirteen, 623 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:59,280 Speaker 1: PayPal bought that company, so Venmo is a subsidiary of PayPal. 624 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:03,680 Speaker 1: If you think that Venmo is more trustworthy than PayPal, 625 00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,240 Speaker 1: you just need to know that they're all the calls 626 00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:10,080 Speaker 1: coming from inside the house. Anyway. PayPal has also been 627 00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:13,399 Speaker 1: the center of a few different controversies, more than a few. 628 00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:16,319 Speaker 1: I mean, any company that has been around for a 629 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:18,200 Speaker 1: while certainly has had a few. But if you're a 630 00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:20,919 Speaker 1: financial company, well, for one thing, you got a big 631 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:23,800 Speaker 1: target painted on you, right like, if you are handling 632 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:26,440 Speaker 1: digital payments, hackers are going to want to try and 633 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:28,640 Speaker 1: find a way to get access to that. You know, 634 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:33,080 Speaker 1: it's essentially a digital bank robbery. But apart from the 635 00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:37,040 Speaker 1: fact that PayPal is constantly having to invest in security 636 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:40,879 Speaker 1: because of its attractiveness as a target, there are also 637 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,160 Speaker 1: other issues. There have been a couple of data breaches. 638 00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:45,920 Speaker 1: There was one in twenty seventeen that leaked the personal 639 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:49,120 Speaker 1: identifiable information of more than one and a half million customers. 640 00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:52,440 Speaker 1: That's not great. In twenty fifteen, there was a really 641 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:57,200 Speaker 1: nasty case where the US Treasury Department pursued PayPal because 642 00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:01,799 Speaker 1: they were accused of processing payments that were for illegal activities, 643 00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:05,440 Speaker 1: including things like black market nuclear weapons, which is a 644 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,280 Speaker 1: big old yaoza. So, like a lot of cryptocurrency companies 645 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:12,239 Speaker 1: that are under scrutiny for similar situations, PayPal had to 646 00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:15,759 Speaker 1: deal with that as well. Today the market cap for 647 00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:20,800 Speaker 1: PayPal is more than seventy billion dollars. That's not too shabby, 648 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,080 Speaker 1: And as I said, a lot of the people who 649 00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:26,080 Speaker 1: were involved in PayPal in the early days, they went 650 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,040 Speaker 1: on to create some of the most influential companies in 651 00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:32,840 Speaker 1: the tech sector. Even those who were staying with PayPal, 652 00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:36,200 Speaker 1: you know, the ones who didn't necessarily become millionaires overnight 653 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,120 Speaker 1: when eBay purchased PayPal, the ones who were there when 654 00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:43,320 Speaker 1: eBay spun PayPal back off. A lot of them became 655 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:47,040 Speaker 1: millionaires when PayPal became publicly traded. And you know, people 656 00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:50,480 Speaker 1: who had been compensated in part through stock options. If 657 00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:53,200 Speaker 1: they executed those options, they could have walked away with 658 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:56,239 Speaker 1: quite a bit of money too. So PayPal has certainly 659 00:38:56,360 --> 00:39:00,480 Speaker 1: fueled quite a few people's personal wealth as well as 660 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:04,839 Speaker 1: a lot of my purchases of vinyl online. PayPal's kind 661 00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:06,960 Speaker 1: of my way to go for that. So yeah, that's 662 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,680 Speaker 1: a quick look at the birth and evolution of PayPal. 663 00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:12,880 Speaker 1: There's a lot more we could talk about. I mean, 664 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:16,360 Speaker 1: a lot obviously happened between two thousand and two and today, 665 00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:19,960 Speaker 1: way too much for just one episode. A lot of 666 00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:23,520 Speaker 1: that ends up being kind of the growing pains of 667 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,840 Speaker 1: a division underneath a larger company. That's something that I 668 00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:30,920 Speaker 1: have experienced personally as well, having been part of how 669 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,960 Speaker 1: stuff works, and then that was purchased by Discovery Communications. 670 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,640 Speaker 1: That was me getting a first hand experience of what 671 00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:39,520 Speaker 1: it's like to be part of a company that was 672 00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,560 Speaker 1: once really nimble and agile and then incorporated into a 673 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:47,520 Speaker 1: much larger corporation. PayPal kind of saw similar things, although 674 00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: obviously the details were totally different. But yeah, maybe I'll 675 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:56,160 Speaker 1: do another episode where I'll specifically talk about what happened 676 00:39:56,200 --> 00:40:00,480 Speaker 1: at PayPal under the umbrella of eBay, beyond just the 677 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:04,080 Speaker 1: highlights that I touched on in this episode. But that's 678 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:07,400 Speaker 1: it for today's episode of Tech Stuff, A quick look 679 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:11,440 Speaker 1: at the history of PayPal. Just a quick reminder. Like 680 00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 1: I said, there's apparently going to be some sort of 681 00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:18,520 Speaker 1: cool slash funny thing going on during Monday night football 682 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:23,160 Speaker 1: on ESPN involving PayPal, and I'm certainly curious as to 683 00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,480 Speaker 1: what that might be. It's not often that I hear 684 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:30,160 Speaker 1: buzz and get a chance to pass it on to 685 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,480 Speaker 1: everybody else, but this is one of those cases where 686 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,400 Speaker 1: I have heard the buzz, so I wanted to communicate 687 00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,319 Speaker 1: it to all of y'all. Anyway. In the meantime, I 688 00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,000 Speaker 1: hope everyone out there is doing well and I'll talk 689 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:51,480 Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. 690 00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:56,799 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 691 00:40:56,920 --> 00:41:00,680 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. You