We realized that if PayPal failed, it would create a massive loss of over $200 million in venture capital, so we decided to pitch our best ideas to each other, including an early version of LinkedIn.

During our offsite when PayPal was burning cash, I pitched LinkedIn as my best startup idea, but I can't disclose Max and Peter's ideas from that session.

After selling PayPal to eBay in October 2002, I recognized that the consumer internet was just beginning, contrary to the belief that it was over, and I decided to pursue the LinkedIn idea.

After leaving Scribd, I immediately discussed new ideas with Paul Graham, and we decided to apply to Y Combinator again, even though we didn't have a product yet. I co-founded a subscription billing service called PipePay, but we didn't want to compete directly with Stripe, which was doing really well at the time.

PayPal's final major pivot involved establishing a sustainable business model by introducing limits on free credit card transactions, which converted a significant portion of users to paid accounts.

With Zip2, we built incredible technology, but it never really got used as we intended. I wanted to go direct to consumers instead of being constrained by our customers, which led to the creation of X.com, which became PayPal.

In 2008, with the market collapse, we realized we needed to start making money, so we focused on monetizing our site and cutting costs.

The evolution of PayPal involved multiple pivots, including a shift from hardware to software and the introduction of email payments, which were driven by customer needs and market dynamics.

We took out a credit card and set up meetings with potential investors, knowing that if we didn't raise money, we would have to shut down the company.