Venture capitalist and founder of PayPal Peter Thiel said that there are some industries that are just not as appealing as computers and the Internet.
"One of the reasons people aren't putting that much money into biotech is that it's been a bad area for 15 to 20 years," he told Press:Here. "It's had a history of failure."
With computers and the Internet, investors have been enjoying around 40 years of success, he said, explaining the growth of Silicon Valley. "We've had a much spottier record with atoms," Thiel said.
That doesn't mean that any other industry isn't worth pursuing, but they must be asked hard questions to figure out why it's not garnering more support. "We have to ask some hard questions of why these things haven’t worked in the past," he said. "We had to try to learn from what’s gone wrong."
Thiel also said that he is in favor of "pairing" scientists with business people in an effort to succeed.
Thiel also seemed to believe that older companies lack innovation and it's noticeable by the dragon hoards of cash that both Apple and Google have. "Google is innovating a lot, but not to the amount of cash they have," he said. Instead, that money should be going to new developments or ideas rather than sitting in pile.
