Blake Masters (author)

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Blake Masters
Blake Masters by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Masters in 2021
Born (1986-08-05) August 5, 1986 (age 35)
Denver, Colorado, U.S.
EducationStanford University (BA, JD)
Occupation
  • Venture capitalist
  • Author
EmployerThiel Foundation
Known forZero to One
Political partyRepublican
Children3

Blake Masters (born August 5, 1986) is an American venture capitalist, author, and the president of the Thiel Foundation. Masters co-wrote Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future with Peter Thiel in 2014, based on notes Masters had taken at Stanford Law School in 2012. He is a candidate in the 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona.[1] Throughout his campaign, he has aligned himself with Donald Trump and other figures of the "America First" movement. [2]

Early life[]

Masters was born in Denver, Colorado in 1986, and he grew up in Tucson, Arizona after his family moved there when he was 4 years old.[3]

Career[]

After attaining an undergraduate degree in political science at Stanford, Masters attended Duke University School of Law for a year.[citation needed] Masters clerked for a United States attorney for four months in 2010 prior to transferring to Stanford Law School.[4][5] In January 2011 he met Peter Thiel at Stanford. They exchanged emails with each other a year later and Thiel invited Masters to attend a class he was to teach in spring 2012. Masters would post detailed notes from Thiel's lectures on a blog which grew popular within the tech community.[6] Renditions of Masters's notes reappeared online, prompting Masters to get in contact with Thiel about compiling them into a book.[6] Zero to One was released in September 2014 and received warm reviews from The Atlantic and Publishers Weekly.[7][8] According to Politico, the book portrayed "globalization as the enemy of innovation."[9] Masters was included on Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2014.[10]

Masters co-founded Judicata, a legal research service, in 2013. The website officially launched in 2017, though Masters left the project in 2014.[11] The website was acquired by Fastcase in 2020.[12]

Masters was chosen by Thiel, among other employees of his, to help serve on the presidential transition of Donald Trump in November 2016.[13][14] In October 2019, Masters suggested he'd launch a primary challenge against Republican U.S. Senator Martha McSally, expressing concern McSally was not a good candidate, citing the 2018 United States Senate election in Arizona, which Masters said was a "winnable" race.[15] In January 2020, Masters said he would not run.[16]

2022 Senate race[]

Main article: 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona

In April 2021, Masters reappeared as a potential candidate in the 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona, having received $10 million from Peter Thiel in the run-up to a potential bid to challenge incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly.[17]

Masters officially entered the race on July 12, 2021.[18] Promoting himself as "an America first conservative",[14][19] Masters announced a platform of opposition to H-1B visas and criticism of Big Tech monopolies. Masters supported the audit of the vote in Maricopa County.[20] He called election integrity the "top issue" of his campaign, adding that while President Joe Biden was the congressionally-certified president, "it's really hard to know" the winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[20] A few months later, Masters stated he personally thought "Trump won in 2020" in a campaign ad and appeared at a fundraiser with the former president at Mar-a-Lago shortly afterward.[21]

Masters issued NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to fundraise for his campaign, announcing that the first 99 donors to contribute over $5,800 to his campaign would receive a limited edition NFT that would allow access to a private chat server and live events, as well as a copy of his book signed by Masters and Thiel.[22][23] Within the first 36 hours, Masters had raised $575,000 for his campaign from selling NFTs alone.[24]

Personal life[]

Masters is married and has three sons.[19]

References[]

  1. ^ "Blake Masters launches GOP run against Sen. Kelly of Arizona". AP NEWS. 2021-07-12. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  2. ^ Axelrod, Tal (November 6, 2021). "Trump to attend fundraiser for Arizona GOP Senate candidate". TheHill.
  3. ^ Schleifer, Theodore (October 2, 2019). "One of Peter Thiel's closest aides might run for the US Senate". Vox. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  4. ^ Brandom, Russell (April 26, 2021). "Peter Thiel is spending $10 million to back a business partner's Senate bid". The Verge. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  5. ^ Drucker, David M. (April 16, 2021). "Republican associate of Peter Thiel eyeing Arizona Senate race". Washington Examiner. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Gallagher, Billy (September 16, 2014). "Zero to One: How Blake Masters went from being Peter Thiel's student to co-author". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  7. ^ Thompson, Derek (September 25, 2014). "Peter Thiel's Zero to One Might Be the Best Business Book I've Read". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  8. ^ "Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future". Publishers Weekly. August 11, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  9. ^ Isenstadt, Alex (May 17, 2021). "Rise of a megadonor: Thiel makes a play for the Senate". Politico. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  10. ^ Dill, Kathryn (November 5, 2014). "30 Under 30: Political Animals". Forbes. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  11. ^ Ambrogi, Robert (May 3, 2017). "After Five Years in Stealth Mode, Judicata Reveals Its Legal Research Service". LawSites. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  12. ^ Hudgins, Victoria (September 3, 2020). "Fastcase Acquires Judicata as it Eyes Expanding Further Beyond Legal Research". Law.com. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  13. ^ Dwoskin, Elizabeth (November 28, 2016). "Peter Thiel seeks Silicon Valley insiders who will help Trump". The Washington Post. The Gazette. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  14. ^ a b Drucker, David M. (July 12, 2021). "'The president is smarter than that': How Blake Masters plans to woo Trump's endorsement in Arizona Senate race". Washington Examiner. Yahoo! News. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  15. ^ Sanchez, Yvonne Wingett (October 2, 2019). "Sen. Martha McSally may get another Republican primary challenger". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  16. ^ Sanchez, Yvonne Wingett (January 2, 2020). "Potential McSally primary challenger decides against 2020 Senate race". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  17. ^ Isenstadt, Alex (April 26, 2021). "Peter Thiel makes $10M bet on associate in Arizona Senate race". Politico.
  18. ^ Sanchez, Yvonne Wingett (July 12, 2021). "Blake Masters enters GOP Senate race, saying age, political experience 'overrated'". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  19. ^ a b Cooper, Jonathan J. (July 12, 2021). "Blake Masters launches GOP run against Sen. Kelly of Arizona". Associated Press. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  20. ^ a b Alex Rogers and Michael Warren (17 July 2021). "2020 election becomes early dividing line for Republicans in crucial 2022 Senate race in Arizona". CNN. Archived from the original on 2021-07-17. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  21. ^ Samuel Goldman (November 10, 2021). "Blake Masters is betting Republicans won't notice he didn't quite endorse election fraud claims". The Week.
  22. ^ Fuchs, Hailey. "NFTs move to influence Congress, even if lawmakers have no clue what they are". POLITICO. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  23. ^ Examiner, Emily Brooks, Washington. "NFTs propel Blake Masters fourth-quarter fundraising: 40% of $1.38M haul from digital tokens". Colorado Springs Gazette. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  24. ^ Quiroz-Gutierrez, Marco (January 10, 2022). "An Arizona GOP candidate raised $575,000 in 36 hours selling NFTs as politicians look to a new kind of fundraising tool". Fortune.

External links[]

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