Alumni networks

Startup mafias

When a company trains great people, they leave to start their own. 16 alumni networks, 51 named startups, and $1.15tn of unicorn value founded by people who worked at the same place first.

Alumni of PayPal

PayPal Mafia

The original startup mafia. Early PayPal staff went on to found or fund LinkedIn, YouTube, Yelp, Tesla, SpaceX and Palantir.

TeslaSpaceXLinkedInYouTubeYelpPalantir+2
10 founders named8 startups
Alumni of OpenAI$1.03tn in unicorns

OpenAI Mafia

Researchers and leaders who left OpenAI have started several of the most valuable AI labs of the decade.

AnthropicSafe SuperintelligenceThinking Machines LabPerplexityAdeptCovariant+2
19 founders named8 startups
Alumni of Google DeepMind$19.1bn in unicorns

DeepMind Mafia

London's deepest bench of AI talent. DeepMind alumni now run labs in London, Paris, New York and the Bay Area.

Inflection AIMistral AIIsomorphic LabsLatent LabsIneffable IntelligenceH Company+2
11 founders named8 startups
Alumni of Google Brain$7.8bn in unicorns

The Transformer Eight

Six of the eight Google authors of "Attention Is All You Need" (2017), the paper behind today's language models, went on to found companies.

Character.AICohereSakana AIEssential AIInceptiveNEAR Protocol
7 founders named6 startups
Alumni of Meta (Facebook)$15.8bn in unicorns

Meta Mafia

Early Facebook engineers built work tools and Q&A; Meta's AI research group FAIR seeded Europe's best-funded model lab.

AsanaQuoraMistral AI
6 founders named3 startups
Alumni of Palantir$63.2bn in unicorns

Palantir Mafia

Palantir alumni have built defence technology and wealth-management software companies worth tens of billions.

Anduril IndustriesAddepar
4 founders named2 startups
Alumni of Skype

Skype Mafia

Skype's Estonian engineering team turned Tallinn into a startup capital and seeded one of London's biggest fintechs.

WiseStarship Technologies
3 founders named2 startups
Alumni of Revolut

Revolut Mafia

Revolut alumni had founded 46 startups by 2025, second only to Deliveroo among UK unicorns.

Kikosync.TodayInovat
4 founders named46 startups
Alumni of Monzo

Monzo Mafia

Monzo alumni had started 23 companies by 2025, from fintech consultancies to grocery apps.

11:FSLollipopP2P
3 founders named23 startups
Alumni of Wise

Wise Mafia

Wise (formerly TransferWise) alumni had founded 30 startups by 2025.

Plum
1 founders named30 startups
Alumni of Skyscanner

Skyscanner Mafia

Scotland's travel unicorn has produced 23 alumni startups, including an electric courier.

Packfleet
23 startups
Alumni of Deliveroo

Deliveroo Mafia

Deliveroo alumni have founded 53 startups, more than any other UK unicorn. Know one? Add it.

Named members coming. Know one? Add it.

53 startups
Alumni of Klarna

Klarna Mafia

Klarna alumni have founded 66 startups, the most of any European unicorn in Accel's count.

Named members coming. Know one? Add it.

66 startups
Alumni of Spotify

Spotify Mafia

Spotify alumni have founded 61 startups across Stockholm, London and New York.

Named members coming. Know one? Add it.

61 startups
Alumni of Waymo (Google self-driving project)$8.6bn in unicorns

Google Self-Driving Mafia

Google's self-driving car project trained the founders of three autonomous vehicle companies.

Aurora InnovationNuroKodiak Robotics
4 founders named3 startups
Alumni of SpaceX$4.2bn in unicorns

SpaceX Mafia

SpaceX engineers left to build 3D-printed rockets, in-space factories and orbital transfer vehicles.

Relativity SpaceVarda Space IndustriesImpulse Space
3 founders named3 startups

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