Nah, he didn’t. He started a company that later merged with the company that started Paypal. Paypal launched before he even joined up.
What would later become PayPal was originally established by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek in December 1998 as Fieldlink, later renamed Confinity,[8] a company that developed security software for hand-held devices.[9] Having had no success with that business model, however, it switched its focus to a digital wallet.[10] The first version of the PayPal electronic payments system was launched in 1999.[11]
In March 2000, Confinity merged with x.com, an online financial services company founded in March 1999 by Elon Musk, Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho.[12] Musk was optimistic about the future success of the money transfer business Confinity was developing.[13]
themurphy@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I think this quote proves the point I’m making.
Sorry for saying it was PayPal directly he founded, but it seems they pretty much bought the platform from Musk at put another label on it. (and ofc added to it)