The Jewish Hand Behind the Internet: eBay
The Jewish boasting page writes on the Jewish first President of eBay, the Canadian-born Jeff Skoll:
Jeff Skoll did not create eBay, non-Jew Pierre Omidyar did in 1993.
For Omidyar, born to French and Iranian parents, creating an on-line auction Website was a Labor Day weekend hobby project. For its first couple of years, it was simply a free Web-site Omidyar ran on his own home page along with several other of his Web page creations. During the first few months, he tried to recruit Skoll, a Jewish French-Canadian he met through friends, to become his partner. Skoll turned him down, choosing to remain at Stanford Business School.
In early 1996, Omidyar's Internet service provider began charging him $250 a month to host the site. Omidyar was forced to start charging a fee, which he passed along to the site's users based on the sale price of auction items. As the checks started rolling in Omidyar realized he needed help. Again, he approached Skoll.
In early 1996, Omidyar's Internet service provider began charging him $250 a month to host the site. Omidyar was forced to start charging a fee, which he passed along to the site's users based on the sale price of auction items. As the checks started rolling in Omidyar realized he needed help. Again, he approached Skoll.
This time, after a few months of consulting for eBay, Skoll signed on as its first full time employee and President.
Skoll grew up in Canada and showed early signs of being a driven entrepreneur.
At twelve, he was selling Amway products door-to-door. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a 4.0 grade point average, he set up two high tech companies before moving to Palo Alto to enroll at Stanford Business School. Compensating for Omidyar's easy going ways and enjoyment of programming, Skoll was the driven leader who planned the business and made things happen.
He hired key people, established much of the culture, and constantly pushed to build the business.
The result is the number one auction Web site in the world. It grossed $3.9 billion in 2004, netted $936 million and was worth $53 billion by mid 2005, all of which made both Omidyar and Skoll very wealthy. Skoll has since left eBay and now devotes the bulk of his time to philanthropic activities, particularly his Skoll Foundation to which he has donated $250 million.
The result is the number one auction Web site in the world. It grossed $3.9 billion in 2004, netted $936 million and was worth $53 billion by mid 2005, all of which made both Omidyar and Skoll very wealthy. Skoll has since left eBay and now devotes the bulk of his time to philanthropic activities, particularly his Skoll Foundation to which he has donated $250 million.
The Foundation supports social entrepreneurs working to effect lasting positive social changes worldwide. In 2003, Skoll won recognition from Business Week magazine as "one of the most innovative philanthropists of the past decade".
Ed Skoll also interacts with fellow Jewish Internet entrepreneurs.
We have named the Israel-loving financier and Board member of Facebook, Peter Thiel, in our section on that company. Thiel together with the Ukrainan Jew Max Rafael Levchin founded PayPal. The company was then bought by eBay.
In an excerpt from "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0", by Sarah Lacy, we can see how Skoll "became friends with the PayPal crew" of Jews and even entered the movie business:
The PayPal mafia even had Hollywood success.
Jeff Skoll was one of the first eBay executives who became friends with the PayPal crew when eBay bought the company in 2002. He started up Participant Productions on a lark, and it has been one of the most profitable productions companies in Hollywood. Among its first four films were Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, North Country, and An Inconvenient Truth.
Skoll's success convinced Max and Peter to start dabbling in Hollywood, bankrolling the 2006 indie flick Thank You for Smoking, along with David Sacks, PayPal's former chief operating officer.
While Sacks continued to play the Hollywood game, he also launched a new social networking site for families, called Geni.com.
While Sacks continued to play the Hollywood game, he also launched a new social networking site for families, called Geni.com.
It allows people to fill out their family trees and link them to the family trees of spouses and in-laws. Anyone on the tree can add to the tree, the idea being that over time you discover people you're related to that you didn't know. It's a bold idea, one of the first Web 2.0 start-ups aimed squarely at families.
Peter Thiel, naturally, backed it early on. And in Geni's first venture capital round with Charles River Ventures, it got nosebleed $100 million valuation. The CRV partner who wrote the check was George Zachary, Skoll's early partner in Participant Productions and a friend of Max and Peter's. By 2006, the PayPal mafia was an incestuous world where, for now, everyone seemed to be making lots of money.
Just to clarify both David Sacks, PayPal's former chief operating officer, and George Zachary, "Skoll's early partner in Participant Productions and a friend of Max and Peter's", are Jewish.
Another Jew in Skoll's present entourage is Larry Brilliant who we detail more in our section on Google where he for 3 years was responsible for Google's philanthropic arm Google.org. In 2009 Brilliant joined a new organization set up by Jeff Skoll. But Dr. Brilliant also said he would remain as an advisor to Google.
Skoll was President of eBay until 1998 when he became Vice President, Strategic Planning and Analysis, until back problems necessitated his departure from full-time employment at the company.
Just to clarify both David Sacks, PayPal's former chief operating officer, and George Zachary, "Skoll's early partner in Participant Productions and a friend of Max and Peter's", are Jewish.
Another Jew in Skoll's present entourage is Larry Brilliant who we detail more in our section on Google where he for 3 years was responsible for Google's philanthropic arm Google.org. In 2009 Brilliant joined a new organization set up by Jeff Skoll. But Dr. Brilliant also said he would remain as an advisor to Google.
Skoll was President of eBay until 1998 when he became Vice President, Strategic Planning and Analysis, until back problems necessitated his departure from full-time employment at the company.
Once eBay's second largest stockholder (behind only Omidyar) he subsequently cashed out a portion of his company holdings, yielding him around $2 billion.
