How to Invest in Silicon Valley’s Most Valuable Companies at Pre-IPO Prices 1 Silicon Valley – the go-to funding source and epicenter of wealth creation in the technology sector – is about to produce another bumper crop of profits through a new round of IPOs. Companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Uber (among others) are all expected to go public soon. When they do, they’ll hand venture capital backers up to 1,000 times their investments, according to the latest data from CrunchBase. No, that’s not a typo… A mere $10,000 investment in each of these companies is about to be worth $10 million. You’d expect that everyday investors like us would be completely locked out of this IPO profit bonanza. At least, that’s what the media reports, and what average investors are led to believe. But our analysts have uncovered a loophole. It allows us to invest along with top tech venture capitalists. And not just any run-of-the-mill startup financiers. This simple loophole allows you to invest your money alongside the single greatest group of Silicon Valley wealth creators since Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. How to Invest in Silicon Valley’s Most Valuable Companies at Pre-IPO Prices 2 They’re affectionately known as the “PayPal Mafia.” Why? Because just like the mafia always get their man, the PayPal Mafia always nail their investments. And we’re about to show you how you can invest right alongside them. WHAT (OR RATHER, WHO) IS THE PAYPAL MAFIA? The PayPal Mafia is no “mafia” at all. Instead, it’s a tight-knit group of serial entrepreneurs responsible for a new generation of wealth and power. They officially came into existence when eBay Inc. (EBAY) acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in the summer of 2002. This single deal set into motion one of the greatest wealth transformations ever witnessed on Wall Street. How so? Well, the original owners, engineers, and computer scientists behind PayPal didn’t simply cash in their winnings and retire. Instead, they treated the deal as a springboard for even more success. Over 200 members strong, the PayPal Mafia used the proceeds from the deal to found dozens of other companies. Amongst the standouts, seven companies went on to be valued at more than $1 billion. And two of the companies went on to be valued north of $10 billion. These are what Wall Street’s elite refer to as “unicorns” – companies that go on to be valued at more than $1 billion. As the name suggests, they’re extremely rare. And yet, this one group of venture capitalists has been responsible for creating at least seven unicorns. In short order, they’ve become the single most successful group of venture capitalists the world has ever known. It’s only been possible because the group is as diverse as it is brilliant. How to Invest in Silicon Valley’s Most Valuable Companies at Pre-IPO Prices 3 There’s Russel Simmons, a former engineer who would go on to co-found Yelp Inc. (YELP). And there’s executive And we can’t Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD), forget to mention as well as an early investor in Facebook Inc. (FB), Zynga Inc. (ZNGA), Digg, and a host of other successful entrepreneurial web enterprises. And then there are engineers Steve rock star, Chen, Jawed Karim, and Chad Hurley, who co-founded YouTube. Elon Musk. In And we can’t forget to mention entrepreneurial rock addition to being star, Elon Musk. In addition to being the Chairman of SolarCity Corp. (SCTY), he created the breakout the Chairman companies Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) and SpaceX. of SolarCity, It’s all in a day’s work for Elon Musk… You know, he’s created redefining the auto industry, turning battery makers and the solar energy industry on their heads, and opening up the breakout space for commercial transportation to the International companies Tesla Space Station and an expedition to Mars. and SpaceX. Finally, there’s the “Don” of the PayPal Mafia, Peter Thiel, and his trusted “consigliere,” Max Levchin. A skilled computer scientist, Levchin created a company known as Slide, which Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) bought for a “mere” $180 million. Afterwards, Levchin co- founded Yelp and a number of other firms. Thiel, meanwhile, became the first outside investor in Facebook. At 47, he’s considered a legend in both the tech and hedge fund worlds. He’s made investments in dozens of early-stage tech startups that have become massive successes... so his involvement in the opportunity we’ve been tracking – he was a co-founder– should be enough to get any investor energized. In all, the PayPal Mafia have gone on to create and build enterprises worth more than $200 billion. Smart, savvy, How to Invest in Silicon Valley’s Most Valuable Companies at Pre-IPO Prices 4 and connected doesn’t even begin to describe this group, or explain how they’ve churned out such wildly successful companies again and again. What we do know is that following their movements and investing alongside them is incredibly profitable. It’s why we’re so excited about the PayPal Mafia’s latest endeavor – because this promises to be one of their greatest wealth creators yet. DATA MINING ON STEROIDS The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times estimate that this is one of the most valuable private tech companies in Silicon Valley today. And that’s not your usual hype. This startup is doubling in size – every year. The newest PayPal Mafia firm is called Palantir. Just because it’s new, doesn’t mean this company doesn’t play with the big boys. It even counts the most secretive agencies of the U.S. government as customers, as well as the biggest banks in the world – including Morgan Stanley (MS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM). To put that in perspective, it’s Silicon Valley’s largest corporate tenant, occupying 250,000 square feet of downtown buildings. The only bigger tenant? Stanford University, which boasts nearly 20,000 students. Plus, Palantir was just valued at $15 billion. That ranks it third among the most valuable companies backed by venture capitalists. It’s How to Invest in Silicon Valley’s Most Valuable Companies at Pre-IPO Prices 5 now right below car-hailing service Uber and smartphone maker Xiaomi. In short, the company helps So what does Palantir do? organizations Like many PayPal Mafia startups that reinvent their industries, Palantir is a data mining company – created to look at patterns help customers transform how they use their data. and mine data The company name “Palantir” actually refers to a magical from their “seeing stone” from the fantasy novels by popular author J.R.R. Tolkien. networks – In short, the company helps organizations look at patterns think of it as and mine data from their networks – think of it as data data mining on mining on steroids. But it does much more than simply comb through an organization’s information networks. steroids. You see, its technology and data applications benefit everyone from mega-cap multinationals and big governments, to small municipalities, businesses, or even private health organizations. This can manifest itself through speeding up lifesaving drug research in pharmaceutical companies or tracing salmonella outbreaks across the globe. It can help detect cyber fraud and employee theft, and even expose terror- financing networks. Palantir has helped banks maximize their profits as they sell foreclosed homes, and it’s helped organizations identify fraud in the insurance industry, controlled case management, and protected intellectual property. The company helps government regulators and businesses alike detect insider trading, oversee market traders, and equip law enforcemant. Palantir technology applications even helped recoup $8 of every $13 recovered in the How to Invest in Silicon Valley’s Most Valuable Companies at Pre-IPO Prices 6 Bernie Madoff scam – that’s almost 61.5% of the total given back to victims. Palantir delivers technology solutions to complex problems ranging from healthcare delivery to cyber security, disease response, legal intelligence, and a host of other industries and applications. Its cross-industry applications mean that the potential customer list is practically endless. This firm has the potential to quickly leapfrog into the S&P 500 and take its place alongside some of the top tech startups of the past few years. Many of the tech IPOs of the past decade went public with little more than a great idea and questionable profitability. But when Palantir goes public, it will have a huge client list and contracted income streams from some of the largest global organizations. You can see how this company has massive potential – and why investors are clamoring to own a piece of it. EXPLOITING THE SILICON VALLEY LOOPHOLE I can hear the question you’re asking now: If Palantir is still privately held, and if it hasn’t had an IPO yet, how do we invest in this company... or others just like it? The answer is simple – you use an investment loophole. Specifically, we suggest that you invest in publicly traded funds that hold large stakes in privately held startups – funds like GSV Capital Corporation (GSVC). Launched in April 2011, GSVC gives investors the chance to own a piece of VC- backed private companies through one publicly traded security. It’s the ability to participate in the growth of tomorrow’s stars today. The firm’s investment philosophy is based on identifying game-changing businesses with disruptive technologies and services. The management team has been pretty successful in doing just that, too.