Paul Gu dropped out of Yale University four years ago to become an entrepreneur. In the time since he has moved to California and teamed up with two former Google executives to create a company, Upstart, that matches borrowers with lenders online.
Mr. Gu is like many other Silicon Valley hopefuls, except in one respect. He is a Thiel fellow, one of a select few who were given $100,000 each to leave college to pursue their start-up dreams. "It has sort of good and bad associated with it," Mr. Gu says of how people react when they find out that he is a fellow. "It comes with a whole set of assumptions and mixed views. People want to know if you think nobody should go to college."
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