Danielle Strachman: Funding Dropouts and Renegades

Today’s guest is Danielle Strachman, co-founder of 1517 venture fund which, in their own words, backs dropouts working on hard problems and sci-fi scientists at the earliest stages of their startups. 

Prior to starting 1517, Danielle worked with Peter Thiel, and Michael Gibson (who I Interviewed in Series 8, Episode 60) and together, they ran The Thiel Fellowship for five years. For those who don’t know, The Thiel Fellowship was set up to fund students who were 22 or under, giving them a total of $100k over two years so that they could dropout of the traditional education system and pursue important work. The Fellowship guided them through this process which would often involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement. Past founders backed by the Fellowship include Vitalik Buterin  who was still a teenager when the fellowship allowed him to drop out and work on Ethereum full time, as well as Laura Deming, the founder of The Longevity Fund and Dylan Field of Figma.

In this episode, we discuss how Danielle went from tutoring to starting the Thiel Fellowship to venture capital, what common traits the founders she has backed share and the lessons she learned from Peter Thiel.

Please enjoy my conversation with Danielle Strachman.

Danielle Strachman on Twitter / 1517 venture fund  / 1517 Substack

Danielle on Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Sponsorship / YouTube

Mentioned in this episode:

Innovations Academy, San Diego

Danielle's writeup of recent 2E camp for teens 

Noor Siddiqui, Founder of Orchid