Max Levchin, an online security specialist and Peter Thiel, a hedge fund manager co-founded PayPal. In 1998, they met at conference at Stanford University where Thiel provided a lecture. Levchin and Thiel agreed to become partners and created the company known as Field Link which produced encyption software for wireless devices such as cellphones and palm pilots. Their idea was to make the handheld devices of consumers as a secure digital wallet. Field Link did not click and the company was re-organized as Confinity. The name of the company was derived from the words confidence and infinity. The company offered money transfer services using palm pilot and other Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). In 1999, Confinity launched PayPal when its engineer developed a software enabling consumers to pay electronically. <ref>[https://www.paypal-media.com/history PayPal History]</ref> | Max Levchin, an online security specialist and Peter Thiel, a hedge fund manager co-founded PayPal. In 1998, they met at conference at Stanford University where Thiel provided a lecture. Levchin and Thiel agreed to become partners and created the company known as Field Link which produced encyption software for wireless devices such as cellphones and palm pilots. Their idea was to make the handheld devices of consumers as a secure digital wallet. Field Link did not click and the company was re-organized as Confinity. The name of the company was derived from the words confidence and infinity. The company offered money transfer services using palm pilot and other Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). In 1999, Confinity launched PayPal when its engineer developed a software enabling consumers to pay electronically. <ref>[https://www.paypal-media.com/history PayPal History]</ref> |