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.

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.

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.

We prefer to build products in-house but decided to acquire X1 to quickly enter the credit card space and offer a competitive product.

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.

At Zip, we raised about $370 million and achieved a valuation of $2.2 billion after our Series D round last month.

Zip is a procurement software company that provides a single point of contact for employees to request purchases, routing them for approval across various departments before integrating with the ERP financial system.

PayPal's growth was driven by its two-sided marketplace, connecting buyers and sellers, and its viral mechanism through eBay.

The first major pivot for PayPal was transitioning from a focus on encryption technology for mobile to developing a cash payment system on mobile devices.