Greetings,

From a big bet to a powerful sermon — the choices that catapulted Trae Stephens into Peter Thiel’s inner circle stand out in Silicon Valley.

Natasha Mascarenhas tracks the story of Founders Fund’s Faithful Warrior, Trae Stephens. In a church in San Francisco last June, he preached to nearly 300 people on the ties between Christianity and innovation. While it’s not what made him a rising star, the rarity of his story makes it worth studying.

See the personalities behind the bets,

Matthew

The Rise of Founders Fund’s Faithful Warrior

In late June, roughly 300 people—many of them founders, venture capitalists and other techies—piled into a windowless room on a Thursday night in a church in downtown San Francisco. Some were at Epic Church San Francisco to worship, while others privately admitted they were angling for an introduction to one of the people preaching that evening: Trae Stephens, a general partner at Founders Fund and co-founder of Anduril, a maker of high-tech defense machinery and weapons.

Dressed in black except for a pair of brown Nike Jordans, Stephens, 40, riffed on the ties between Christianity and innovation and urged founders in the audience to think about faith when deciding where to put their time and mind. “Are our tech pursuits and ambitions awakening a Balrog?” Stephens said, referring to a demonic character in “The Lord of the Rings.” “Or are they a call to participation in humanity’s redemption?”