Founders

Thiel Fellows' companies reach $100M revenue two and a half times as often as YC's

By Yoram Wijngaarde and Dealroom Next-Gen API October 27, 2026

Of the 420 companies founded by Thiel Fellows, 17 (4.0%) have verified annual revenue of $100M or more. For Y Combinator it is 94 of 5,849 (1.6%). Among companies founded before 2020 the two are level, at 3.6% and 3.5%. The gap is in newer companies: seven of the 132 Thiel companies founded since 2020 have passed $100M, including Anthropic, Cognition and Mercor, against eight of YC's 3,159.