Comment by bigiain

> The real substance is — how the fuck did he meet Peter Thiel at 23, and how can somebody recreate that?

He kinda answers that fairly early on:

"I'd just graduated in 2003, and my friends were starting a company with Peter Thiel. They flew me down to have dinner with Peter."

So to get rich, all you need to do is come from enough privilege that you graduate well connected with rich friends...

Sounds like your story supports that too - if you didn't connect with rich people in school, meeting (and becoming friends with them) at startups is a reasonable second alternative.