My Rich Nerd,
Elon Musk is worth $801.6 billion (pre-SpaceX IPO lol), Peter Thiel $28.3 billion, Reid Hoffman $2.7 billion, Luke Nosek $2.7 billion, Ken Howery $1.5 billion, and Max Levchin $1.9 billion. What do they have in common? Billionaire status, sure. But that's not the interesting part 🤔
They were all pivotal members of a "little" startup from the late 1990s called… PayPal, which sold to eBay for $1.5 billion. The founders and early employees ended up with piles of cash, asking themselves, “What do I do with this money?” They put their cash straight back to work — into each other and their next thing — rather than letting it sit idle in a checking account. The press later called the whole network "The PayPal Mafia." A non-exhaustive list of what they went on to create:
Tesla (which is a car I drive. My horn is not a fart sound, I promise)
LinkedIn (which hosts my most professional headshot)
YouTube (which I scroll cat videos on)
Yelp (which my beautiful wife, Diana, uses to research new tofu spots)
Palantir (no one know what they actually do)
SpaceX (which is about to be the largest IPO ever…)
This group understood two things: your opportunities come from the people you know — and who know you, and you have to put your money to work.
That first lesson is the Rich Nerd law of the universe. You may not like it or think it's fair. It's still how the world works. And I know the objection: but I'm the more qualified candidate. Maybe you are. Here's the thing — it rarely gets decided on qualifications alone.
This Isn't Just a Billionaire Thing 🤝
We've got Rich Nerds in this very community living this law.
Jaylynn was working at a nonprofit when her coworker tipped her off about a paralegal opening — exactly the job she wanted. She got it. Jonathan didn't even apply for the job he has now; his old manager recommended him to his new one. And my brother Sal? Guess who got him the job at Best Buy. Me. His own blood. They didn’t even interview him!
In none of these cases did anyone fire an application into the LinkedIn void and wait. It was just people they knew, vouching for them. That's the whole game.
How To Actually Do It (Without Being Cringe)
You don't need to become a LinkedIn guru posting "blessed" every Tuesday. You just need to:
Stay in touch with old coworkers (a "hey, how are you?" text takes 4 seconds)
Help people before you need anything from them
Tell people what you're working on — they can't refer you to opportunities they don't know you’d be good for.
So that's lesson one handled.
Lesson two, actually putting your money to work, is the one that quietly stresses people out the most. You've got some money, and a voice in the back of your head asking what do I actually do with this? You're not alone, and you don't have to figure it out by yourself.
That's the whole idea behind Wealth Maxxing: a small group of like-minded people growing together — our networks and our net worth. We're taking the last few founding members (who all get a private intro call with me and a lifetime membership). Come build your money mafia with us. 🤓💸
— Imran
