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Keith Rabois

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Keith Rabois
Keith Rabois at the 2011 TechCrunch Disrupt
Rabois in 2011
Born (1969-03-17) March 17, 1969 (age 55)
Edison, New Jersey, U.S.
EducationStanford University (BA)
Harvard University (JD)
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, Investor, Lawyer
Known forPayPal, LinkedIn, Square, Opendoor, Yelp, Xoom, YouTube, Yammer, Palantir, Lyft, AirBnB, Eventbrite and Quora.
SpouseJacob Helberg

Keith Rabois (born March 17, 1969) is an American technology executive and investor. He is a managing director at Khosla Ventures. He was an early-stage startup investor, and executive, at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide, and Square. Rabois invested in Yelp and the Xoom Corporation prior to each company's initial public offering (IPO). For both investments he insisted on being a board of directors member.[1]

Rabois is considered a member of the PayPal Mafia.[2][3][4] Rabois has been involved in investments in YouTube, Palantir Technologies, Lyft, Airbnb, Eventbrite, wish.com,[5] Relcy[6] and theorg.com.[7]

Early life and education

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Rabois was born on March 17, 1969,[citation needed] and raised in Edison, New Jersey.[8] He studied political science as an undergraduate at Stanford University, receiving his B.A. in 1991 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1994.[9][10] While at Stanford, he became acquainted with Peter Thiel, then-editor and co-founder of The Stanford Review. Rabois later contributed to the libertarian newspaper.[11] Rabois was one of several students reprimanded for shouting homophobic slurs outside an instructor's home, including the suggestion that the instructor "die of AIDS." Rabois stated that the incident was designed to challenge Stanford's rules on student speech.[12][13][14] Thiel later defended Rabois in his book, The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus.[15]

Career

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Postgraduate

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He clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for a year and worked at Sullivan & Cromwell for nearly four years.[16][10] In 1999, he was an adviser to Dan Quayle's presidential campaign.[17]

Information Technology

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PayPal

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Rabois was Executive Vice President, Business Development, Public Affairs, and Policy at PayPal from November 2000 to November 2002.[18]

LinkedIn

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Between January 2005 and May 2007, Rabois worked at LinkedIn as its vice president for Business and Corporate Development.[18] LinkedIn was founded by Reid Hoffman, also a former employee at PayPal and a member of the PayPal Mafia.

Square

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After some unsuccessful ventures, in 2010, Rabois joined Square, a company that provides an electronic payment service, as its Chief Operating Officer (COO).[3][18]

Sexual harassment charge
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Rabois left Square in January 2013 due to the threat of a lawsuit over sexual harassment accusations by an employee; Rabois claims that the relationship was consensual. A spokesperson from Square said in a statement that "Keith exercised poor judgment that ultimately undermined his ability to remain an effective leader at Square."[13][19][20][21]

Venture capital

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Khosla Ventures

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In March 2013, Rabois joined venture capital firm Khosla Ventures. Rabois left in 2019.[22][23] In January 2015, Rabois joined the board of directors of Scribd as an observer after Khosla Ventures led a new investment round in the company.[24] Rabois returned to Khosla Ventures in January 2024 as one of five managing directors.[25]

Founders Fund

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In 2019 Rabois left Khosla Ventures and joined Founders Fund as a general partner.[26][27][28]

In 2021 while at Founders Fund Rabois co-founded Miami-based OpenStore, a retail-holding startup that acquire brands in the Shopify ecosystem.[29] It raised $75 million at a $750 million valuation.[30]

Rabois left Founders Fund in January 2024 to rejoin Khosla Ventures, but continues to represent it on the boards of Ramp, Found, and Trade Republic.[25]

Other ventures

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Opendoor

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In April 2014 Rabois co-founded Opendoor, a home buying and selling marketplace.[31][32][33]

Alliance of American Football

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In March 2018 Rabois invested in the Alliance of American Football, along with Peter Thiel and Peter Chernin. He sat on the league's board of directors.[34]

Politics

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In April 2013, a lobbying group called FWD.us was launched, with Rabois listed as one of a major contributor on the group's website.[35] In January 2020, Rabois stated that he would rather vote for Donald Trump than Bernie Sanders.[36] In 2019 Rabois also stated that Pete Buttigieg was his top choice for the Democratic ticket.[37][38]

In 2023 Rabois praised the Parental Rights in Education Act law in Florida.[39][40]

On September 12th, 2024, he and his husband, Jacob Helberg, will host J.D. Vance for a fundraiser benefitting the Donald Trump for President campaign. [41]

Personal life

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In November 2015 Rabois purchased a house in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco. He planned a renovation that included a new penthouse level, a basketball court, lockers and a sauna, but received pushback from six of his neighbors.[42][43][44][45]

In 2018 Rabois married Jacob Helberg. The ceremony held in Saint Barthélemy was officiated by Sam Altman.[46][47]

In November 2020 it was reported that he moved from California to Miami, Florida.[48]

References

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  1. ^ "Xoom: Management: Executive Officers and Directors". January 11, 2013. Archived from the original on September 24, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  2. ^ "Meet the PayPal mafia". Archived from the original on July 28, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  3. ^ a b "latimes.com". August 24, 2010. Archived from the original on January 6, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  4. ^ "gigaom.com". Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  5. ^ "Keith Rabois". Founders Fund. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  6. ^ Gage, Deborah (July 17, 2014). "Relcy Emerges With $9M to Tackle Problem of Mobile Search". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017.
  7. ^ Musgrove, Annie (February 20, 2020). "The Org collects $8.5 million from Founders Fund and Sequioa to publish organisation charts of companies". Tech.eu. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  8. ^ "Keith Rabois: Did you really grow up in Edison". Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  9. ^ Weigel, Moira (December 20, 2021). "The Making of Peter Thiel's Networks". The New Republic. Archived from the original on September 29, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Weinberg, Cory; Bernard, Zoe (November 18, 2019). "In Keith Rabois' Silicon Valley, Nice Guys Finish Last". The Information.
  11. ^ "Masters of Their Domain". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on June 24, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  12. ^ "Officials condemn homophobic incident, no prosecution planned". February 12, 1992. Archived from the original on June 12, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  13. ^ a b "Keith Rabois, COO Of Square, Resigns After Relationship With Employee, Harassment Allegations". HuffPost. January 26, 2013. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2013.
  14. ^ Packer, George (November 21, 2011). "No Death, No Taxes: The libertarian futurism of a Silicon Valley billionaire". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
  15. ^ Trotter, J. K. "The Free Speech Peter Thiel Will Defend: "Faggot! Faggot! Hope You Die of AIDS!"". Gawker. Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  16. ^ "Lunch Talk with Keith Rabois on a Career in Law, Startups and Venture Capital". Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  17. ^ Stein, Joel (February 2, 2022). "How Miami became the most important city in America". FT Magazine.
  18. ^ a b c "Keith Rabois' LinkedIn page". Archived from the original on October 27, 2013. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  19. ^ "A note from Keith". January 25, 2013. Archived from the original on January 28, 2013.
  20. ^ "Interview: Keith Rabois Talks About Sexual Harassment Claim, Becoming a "Distraction" at Square and What's Next". January 25, 2013. Archived from the original on July 26, 2014. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  21. ^ ""Keith Rabois Is Silicon Valley's Hottest Commodity Right Now"". SFGate. Archived from the original on February 24, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
  22. ^ "Former Square COO Keith Rabois Joins Khosla Ventures". Forbes. February 26, 2013. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  23. ^ "Keith Rabois on Khosla Ventures website". Archived from the original on July 25, 2013.
  24. ^ Ha, Anthony (January 2, 2015). "Scribd Raises $22M For Its Subscription E-Book Service". TechCrunch.
  25. ^ a b Konrad, Alex (January 9, 2024). "Keith Rabois Makes A Surprise Return To Khosla Ventures, Five Years After Joining Founders Fund". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 10, 2024.
  26. ^ "Keith Rabois joins Founders Fund amid transition at the firm". TechCrunch. February 20, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  27. ^ Primack, Dan (February 20, 2019). "Scoop: Keith Rabois leaving Khosla Ventures for Founders Fund". Axios. Archived from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  28. ^ Roof, Katie (February 20, 2019). "VC Keith Rabois Bolts From Khosla Ventures to Join Peter Thiel's Founders Fund". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on August 15, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  29. ^ Shah, Saqib. "PayPal Mafia's Keith Rabois has acquired 40 Shopify sellers in the past year through his startup OpenStore. He's not slowing down despite the recent problems in the aggregator space". Business Insider. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  30. ^ Konrad, Alex. "OpenStore Raises $75 Million To Acquire More Shopify Sellers, Reaches $750 Million Valuation In Eight Months". Forbes. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  31. ^ "Khosla Ventures' Keith Rabois finally launches his real estate startup". April 3, 2014. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  32. ^ "Keith Rabois' Homebuying Startup OpenDoor Raises $9.95M From Everyone". TechCrunch. July 7, 2014. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  33. ^ "Here's investor Keith Rabois' bold new home-selling startup: OpenDoor". VentureBeat. May 29, 2014. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  34. ^ Balakrishnan, Sara Salinas, Anita (March 20, 2018). "Peter Thiel's venture firm is backing a new football league to rival the NFL". CNBC. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  35. ^ "Our supporters". FWD.us. Archived from the original on April 16, 2013. Retrieved April 17, 2013.
  36. ^ Bowles, Nellie; Griffith, Erin (March 2, 2020). "NY Times:Silicon Valley Leaders' Plea to Democrats: Anyone but Sanders". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  37. ^ Calanacis, Jason (February 19, 2019). "E904 Keith Rabois (Khosla/PayPal) advice for anti-VC/anti-hustle climate, Thiel, Trump, Thatcher-PT1". YouTube. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020.
  38. ^ Calanacis, Jason (February 22, 2019). "E905 PT2 Keith Rabois PayPal/FoundersFund: censorship, secondary shares, selling, getting into tech". YouTube. Archived from the original on February 22, 2019.
  39. ^ Keith Rabois [@rabois] (May 10, 2022). "Sounds like a wise policy to me" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  40. ^ Ben Schreckinger (May 24, 2023). "DeSantis needs a new Republican lane, Elon Musk might be paving it". Politico.
  41. ^ Theodore Schleifer (August 27, 2024). "JD Vance is keeping up his aggressive fund-raising schedule on behalf of Trump". New York Times.
  42. ^ Brinklow, Adam (March 28, 2017). "Glen Park residents fume over tech billionaire's plan for three-story addition with basketball court". Curbed SF. Archived from the original on October 13, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  43. ^ "What Happens When Your Neighbor Is A Venture Capitalist". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on September 19, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  44. ^ "Planning Application Glen Park" (PDF). 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 2, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  45. ^ "Tech Entrepreneur's San Francisco Remodel Upsetting Neighbors". March 29, 2017. Archived from the original on April 2, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  46. ^ Schleifer, Theodore (May 7, 2019). "How Pete Buttigieg became the new toast of Silicon Valley's wealthiest donors". Vox. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  47. ^ "Instagram post by Jacob Helberg". Instagram. January 12, 2019. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  48. ^ Robert Hackett (November 17, 2020). "Silicon Valley loses another tech icon". Fortune. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
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