VC · #489
Founders Fund
Contrarian metal. SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril. The book is the brand.
$59B AUM · Seed to late · San Francisco · jobs
- Founder-GP
- Peter Thiel · PayPal
- Help
- 76Midas tape. Trae Stephens · Anduril. Not a platform.
- Typical check
- $5–50MConcentrated. Hard tech, defense, frontier.
- Impact/$
- 3.6×
- Friendly
- Keep. No public founder-canning on this book.
On our ledger
Associate · market
$165k
$142k–$180k. Market reports, 2026. Not a work-email tick. Carry is the product after partner.
- Affinity: $17B AUM. SpaceX, Palantir, Stripe.
- Midas 2026: Thiel / Founders Fund · SpaceX.
- Midas 2026: Thiel #5 SpaceX · Stephens #7 Anduril.
- SpaceX, Palantir, Stripe on the book.
- · Vintage chart is the field (Cambridge / Preqin / Carta medians). Firm IRRs are private. We do not invent them.
- · Score 0–99: founder-GP, S-tier unicorns, founder-rated help, overlap with our hottest seats, public outcome ranks (Strebulaev-Jackson, Dealroom).
- · No founder-GP: the book is discounted. Operator partnerships are not the same as having built a company.
- · Help is Founders Choice Elo where published, else a public-tape read. 92% of VCs claim value-add; 15% of founders call it critical.
- · Impact/$ is a TrustBand multiplier: S-tier hits per √(AUM × typical check). Small books that still hit, win.
- · If they iced the founder and canned them, they are not founder-friendly. Hard cut. Public tape only (Uber/Travis, WeWork/Neumann).
- · You cannot buy this rank.