Early-PayPal. Strategic Advisor & Business Consultant. Author of The PayPal Wars.

Eric M. Jackson is a strategic advisor and business consultant who played a critical role in building PayPal and subsequently created multiple successful businesses. An award-winning author and sought-after speaker, Jackson is part of the so-called PayPal Mafia that went on to found and develop some of the world’s top technology companies. He is also the executive director of Jackson Advisory Group.

Early in his career, Jackson quit his job at Arthur Andersen after being recruited by Peter Thiel to join the startup team at PayPal. While there he served as PayPal’s first head of U.S. marketing and oversaw its product-marketing campaigns. 

At a critical moment when the company was bleeding millions of dollars, Jackson developed and implemented PayPal’s revenue model, which turned around its fortunes and led to profitability. During Jackson’s time at PayPal, the company grew from 2,500 to 25 million users, went public, and was acquired by eBay.

In his years since PayPal, Jackson has started multiple companies. Most recently, Jackson served as the chief executive of TransitNet, a fintech company that provides tools to assist with title verification for cryptocurrencies. The company’s patent-pending title registry service can generate verified third-party records of ownership for crypto wallets, helping users meet their "know your customer" and money laundering compliance requirements.

Jackson previously served as the CEO of CapLinked, a venture-backed technology company that was dubbed the “go-to place for setting up and closing deals” by the Wall Street Journal. He also founded World Ahead Media, an independent media firm that he grew to profitability before it was acquired.

He has served on the boards of a number of technology startups and non-profit corporations, including CritiqueIt, Inc., a collaboration software company that was acquired in 2018 by 2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), and Global Fast, a non-profit focused on sustainable market-based economic development that was acquired by a top-ranked global charity.

His book, The PayPal Wars, which chronicles the tumultuous origins of PayPal, won the Writers Notes Book Award, was hailed as "celebrated" by The Economist, and was praised by legendary business author Tom Peters as “the best description of business strategy unfolding in a world changing at warp speed.” It details how Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Max Levchin, David Sacks, Reid Hoffman, and the rest of the "PayPal Mafia" created the startup that would go on to become the largest fintech company in the world.

A frequent commentator on technology and policy, Jackson has appeared on Bloomberg, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, and he has been quoted in publications ranging from the New York Times to TechCrunch. 

Jackson has spoken at conferences around the world, including the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, the Lang Di Fintech Conference in Shanghai, and the BlockFin Summit in San Francisco. He also served as the featured speaker at events hosted by the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, and the Catholic University of America.

Jackson graduated with honors from Stanford University, where he was editor-in-chief of The Stanford Review, studied overseas in Moscow, and served as a student representative on the university’s Board of Trustees alongside Condoleezza Rice and Charles Schwab.

Eric M. Jackson lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two daughters.