Something Ventured · 2025-10-13 · 56 min
In this episode of the Something Ventured podcast, I spend time with Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson, the people behind 1517 Fund. 1517 is a venture capital firm that defies Silicon Valley's fixation on elite credentials from Stanford, Harvard and the like. Their paths to venture capital are anything but typical. Danielle shares how her 20 years in alternative education, from founding a tutoring company to launching a San Diego charter school rooted in homeschooling principles, shaped her belief in lifelong learning for all. Michael, a former philosophy PhD 'dropout', recounts how he joined Peter Thiel's orbit through the Seasteading Institute and helped launch the Thiel Fellowship, which famously paid young innovators to skip college. Together, they explain how their time at the Thiel Foundation inspired the 1517 Fund - named after Martin Luther's 1517 theses, a nod to challenging modern "indulgences" like college diplomas. We unpack the flaws in traditional education, from the "higher education bubble" and soaring tuition costs to the growing acceptance of gap years and autodidacts.
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