Thiel Fellowship Challenges Higher Ed with $100 Billion Startup Success

Peter Thiel’s Fellowship continues to challenge conventional wisdom by funding young entrepreneurs with $200,000 to leave or skip college and build billion-dollar startups. Launched in 2011, the program has generated more than $100 billion in business value, with notable alumni such as Figma CEO Dylan Field and Scale AI co-founder Lucy Guo. These young founders have demonstrated that real-world experience and mentorship can often outweigh the perceived benefits of traditional higher education [1].

Dylan Field, who co-founded Figma at the age of 19, dropped out of Brown University to pursue his vision of democratizing design tools. With the support of the Thiel Fellowship, he transformed his dorm room idea into a $40 billion company, leading to his recent billion-dollar IPO and a personal net worth of approximately $5 billion. Field credits the fellowship with giving him the freedom and resources to focus entirely on his startup, stating that the program offered “uninterrupted time to build something amazing” [2].

Similarly, Lucy Guo, who became the youngest self-made female billionaire, left Carnegie Mellon University to co-found Scale AI with Alexandr Wang. The company, which recently sold to Meta in a $14 billion deal, was valued at over $29 billion at the time of acquisition. Guo’s 5% stake made her a billionaire at 24, and she has since credited the Thiel Fellowship with connecting her to a network of ambitious and driven individuals who helped shape her path [3].

Another success story from the program is Mercor, a $2 billion AI hiring platform co-founded by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha—all Thiel Fellows. The trio chose to leave prestigious universities like Harvard to capitalize on the rapid advancements in AI and the growing demand for recruitment technologies. Hiremath described the fellowship as a chance to “give it [his] all,” while Midha emphasized the urgency he felt in not missing the AI boom [4].

Thiel’s skepticism of the traditional education system has only grown stronger with time. He has often criticized higher education as a “corrupt institution” and has argued that the rising cost of college tuition and diminishing job prospects make the investment increasingly unwise. According to a recent Indeed survey, 38% of graduates feel that their student loans have limited their career growth more than their degrees have accelerated it. Thiel’s program offers a tangible alternative, focusing on mentorship, real-world experience, and entrepreneurial freedom [5].

The fellowship’s success stories highlight a broader shift among Gen Z and millennials who are re-evaluating the value of college degrees in favor of startups, innovation, and alternative education models. As Silicon Valley continues to celebrate high-achieving college dropouts, Thiel’s program remains a powerful force in reshaping how young entrepreneurs build their careers [6].

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[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] fortune.com/2025/08/16/gen-z-millennial-founders-college-dropout-entrepreneurs-peter-thiel-fellowship/