Keith Rabois (born March 17, 1969) is an American technology executive and investor. He is currently a general partner at

Founders Fund Founders Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. Formed in 2005, Founders Fund had more than $11 billion in aggregate capital under management as of 2022. The firm invests across all stages and sectors, including aerospace, artificia ...

. He is widely known for his early-stage startup investments and his executive roles at

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

, Slide, and

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

(now known as Block, Inc.). Rabois invested in

Yelp Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publish crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in San F ...

and Xoom prior to each company's

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

("IPO") and sits on both companies' boards of directors. He is considered a member of the PayPal Mafia, a group that includes PayPal co-founders

Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in F ...

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The B ...

, and PayPal employee and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim. Additionally, Rabois has been involved in investments in

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, Palantir, Lyft,

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...

, Eventbrite, Wish, an
The Org

Early life and education

Rabois was born on March 17, 1969 and raised in Edison,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

. Rabois studied political science as an undergraduate at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, receiving his B.A. in 1991 and a J.D. from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

in 1994. While at Stanford, he became acquainted with

, then-editor and co-founder of ''

The Stanford Review ''The Stanford Review'' (also known as ''The Review'') is a student-run newspaper that serves Stanford University in Stanford, California. It was founded in 1987 by Peter Thiel and Norman Book. History In 1987, after around 500 students particip ...

''. Rabois later contributed to the libertarian newspaper. Rabois was one of several students reprimanded for shouting homophobic slurs outside an instructor's home, including the suggestion that the instructor "die of AIDS." Rabois stated that the incident was designed to challenge Stanford's rules on student speech. Thiel later defended Rabois in his book, ''The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus.'' He clerked for the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * Eastern District of Louisiana * ...

and worked at

Sullivan & Cromwell Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Known as a white-shoe firm, Sullivan & Cromwell is recognized as a leader in business law, and is known for its impact on international affairs, such ...

Business career

PayPal

Rabois served as Executive Vice President, Business Development, Public Affairs, and Policy at

from November 2000 to November 2002.

Between January 2005 and May 2007, Rabois worked at

as its vice president for Business and Corporate Development. LinkedIn was founded by

, also a former employee at

and a member of the PayPal Mafia.

Square

After some unsuccessful ventures, in 2010, Rabois joined

, a company that provides an electronic payment service, as its Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Sexual harassment charge

Rabois left Square in January, 2013 due to the threat of a lawsuit over sexual harassment accusations by an employee; Rabois claims that the relationship was consensual. A spokesperson from Square said in a statement that "Keith exercised poor judgment that ultimately undermined his ability to remain an effective leader at Square."

Khosla Ventures

In March 2013, Rabois joined venture capital firm

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successf ...

. Rabois left in 2019.

Scribd

In January 2015, Rabois joined the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit orga ...

of Scribd after Khosla Ventures led a new investment round in the company.

Opendoor

In April 2014, Rabois co-founded Opendoor, a home buying and selling marketplace.

Alliance of American Football

In March 2018, Rabois invested in the

Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan area ...

, along with Peter Thiel and

Peter Chernin Peter Chernin (born May 29, 1951) is an American businessman and investor. He is the chairman and CEO of The Chernin Group (TCG), which he founded in 2010. TCG manages, operates and invests in businesses in the media, entertainment, and technolog ...

. He sat on the league's

Founders Fund

In 2019 Rabois left Khosla Ventures and joined

as a general partner. In 2021, while at Founders Fund, Rabois co-founded Miami-based OpenStore, a retail-holding startup that acquire brands in the

Shopify Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Shopify is the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. The Shopify platform offers online ret ...

ecosystem. It raised $75 million at a $750 million valuation.

Politics

In April 2013, a lobbying group called

FWD.us FWD.us is a 501(c)(4) pro-immigration lobbying group based in the United States that advocates for prison reform, status for undocumented immigrants, particularly for DACA recipients, and higher levels of immigration visas, particularly for H ...

was launched, with Rabois listed as one of a major contributor on the group's website. In January 2020, Rabois stated that he would rather vote for

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

than

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 20 ...

. In 2019 Rabois also stated that

Pete Buttigieg Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg ( ; ; Sometimes pronounced or , but not by Buttigieg himself. born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former military officer who is currently serving as the United States secretary of transp ...

was his top choice for the Democratic ticket.

Personal life

In November 2015, Rabois purchased a house in Glen Park. He planned a renovation that included a new penthouse level, a basketball court, lockers and a sauna, but received pushback from six of his neighbors. In 2018, Rabois married Jacob Helberg. The ceremony held in St. Barts was officiated by

Sam Altman Samuel H. Altman ( ; born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. He is the CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator. Early life and education Altman grew up in St. Louis, Missouri; his mothe ...

. In November 2020, it was reported that he moved from California to Miami, Florida.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rabois, Keith Living people American business executives Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Stanford University alumni People from Edison, New Jersey Gay men LGBT people from New Jersey Harvard Law School alumni 1969 births Sullivan & Cromwell people Alliance of American Football executives Midas List