Facebook shareholder to launch a reality show about young IT-entrepreneurs

U.S. investor in technology projects Peter Thiel will launch a TV show to find IT-entrepreneurs under the age of 20 years, Mashable website reports.

20 Under 20: Transforming Tomorrow TV show aims at selecting 20 promising projects in Silicon Valley and giving $100 K to each to implement their ideas. The program will consist of two issues which will be released on American CNBC channel in 11th and 12th of July.

Peter Thiel is known for his investments in Facebook at its early stage. The entrepreneur invested $500 K in the project in 2004 in exchange for a share of 10% and a position in the board of directors. In 1998, Thiele, along with businessman Max Levchin created Confinity Company as a result of merging with X.com that became the electronic payment service PayPal. In 2002 the company was bought by online auction house eBay for $ 1.5 B.

Apart from Thiel, the jury of the show will include other well-known entrepreneurs and investors. For example, Sean Parker (the president of Facebook, a co-founder of music service Napster), and Elon Musk (a co-founder of X.com) will participate in the show.

Interestingly that in order to get a prize, participants must leave university. The thing is that Thiel is known for public criticism of higher education in the United States, in his opinion, the value of this institution is much exaggerated, and the education bubble will burst soon. In addition, Thiel argues that high costs of education in the United States prevent the graduates from doing business, because they have to pay huge debts after graduating from university.