Peter Thiel on how the PayPal team didn’t get along—and why that’s good:

“We were less smoothly functioning… but people felt ownership. They raised their voices when things were off track.”

PayPal went from $0 to $1.5B in 4 years.

Peter thinks its intense culture was key to its success:

“The PayPal period was a very compressed four years from start to when eBay acquired it. It was a relatively entrepreneurial, somewhat chaotic culture. We had a lot of very strong personalities.

He contrasts that against hiring people who just fall-in-line and argue less:

”I think a lot of companies bias towards having people who more distinct the Kool-Aid, which, and there's plusses and minuses to both. You'll have a more smoothly functioning company, but you'll maybe have less dissent when things are going wrong.“

The PayPal Mafia was a team that argued, obsessed, and cared deeply. It didn’t mind friction. That culture ultimately minted a generation of legendary founders: Reid Hoffman. David Sacks. Chad Hurley. Jeremy Stoppelman.

Full video: This Week in Startups “Peter Thiel on being a contrarian“ (Mar 2015)