• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

The Silicon Valley Megadonor Olympics

A semi-scientific mid-cycle power ranking of who’s trending up (Marissa Mayer, Vinod Khosla), who’s trending down (Jan Koum, Peter Thiel), and who’s massively overhyped among the nouveau riche tech money crowd.

Vinod Khosla
Khosla’s upcoming Biden event, which he is hosting at his Portola Valley home with his wife, Neeru, is selling tickets ranging from $6,600 to $100,000. Photo: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunc
Theodore Schleifer
May 8, 2024

It’s time, at last, to revisit one of our favorite pastimes here at Puck: ranking the megadonors, machers, and money men and women fueling the race for the White House. As I recently reported, Joe Biden is flying out to Silicon Valley this Friday for a major fundraising tour. Hosting a presidential visit at your home is a huge honor—one often vied for by sharp-elbowed donors desperate to get every check attributed to their bundler I.D.—and Biden has chosen to bestow that honor on two fundraising thoroughbreds, Marissa Mayer and Vinod Khosla.