When asked if Steve Jobs gets too much credit for the success of Apple, Thiel responds:

“There are probably ways in which he gets too little credit… The founders of these companies are not divine beings - they’re not omnipotent, omniscient, or anything like that… But I think the importance of a charismatic leader who can bring out the best in people in something that is very underestimated.”

Thiel named his venture fund Founders Fund to emphasize this idea:

“We think that these tech companies do best when they’re led by founders…. We’re much more skeptical of the tech companies that are not founder-led. I think it’s weirdly understated as a problem… [Being founder-led is] the first approximation that would tell you which [companies] you can expect to innovate in the future and which ones won’t.”

Full video: Emergent Order “From Zero to One - Peter Thiel at the Innovation Center at Cockrell School of Engineering“ (Oct 2014)