Thiel founded Pay Pal and was the first outside investor in facebook. He did a course for Stanford on start-ups and the notes have been posted online.
I'm on the third lecture so far and am finding it fun, interesting reading.
http://blakemasters.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup
Peter Thiel lectures on creating a Start-Up
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Peter Thiel lectures on creating a Start-Up
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