Who Would You Rather Work For: Ackman, Chamath, Cuban Or Thiel?

Each week, Benzinga surveys traders and investors to gather data on the latest trends in the market. 

We ventured away from strictly trading and opted for a discussion about venture capitalists. Accordingly, we posed the following question to over 500 traders and investors: Who would you rather work for?

• Chamath Palihapitiya
• Bill Ackman
• Mark Cuban
• Peter Thiel

The top response by our readers was Chamath Palihapitiya, with 36% of respondents indicating this selection. Over the last year, Chamath has become the billionaire voice of the retail investor. Furthermore, he has invested in numerous hot companies through SPACs such as Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. SPCE, earning him the nickname of the SPAC King.

Coming in second was Mark Cuban at 27%. Cuban is one of the more visible VCs in the country, whether it be his role on "Shark Tank," his ownership of the Dallas Mavericks, or any of the other things you might not know about him. His recent decision to accept the meme crypto Dogecoin DOGE/USD as payment at Dallas Mavericks games also earned him more fans among retail investors.

The next highest chosen selection was Peter Thiel, with 21% of respondents saying they’d prefer to work for the VC. Thiel is one of the more prominent investors in the U.S., as well as the co-founder of both Paypal Holdings Inc PYPL and Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR. He recently made headlines for his comments about Bitcoin, calling it a Chinese financial weapon. 

The lowest-scoring response was Bill Ackman, with only 16% of respondents saying they would prefer to work for the Pershing Square Capital CEO. While Ackman has been a big name on the street for years, he shot back into the limelight after crushing the market in 2020. Ackman put a hedge on sometime in mid-February 2020, which in a few weeks was worth over $2.5 billion. He then managed to cash out his hedge near the market bottom in March before switching to a more optimistic outlook.

(Photo: Left to Right: Bill Ackman by Insider Monkey/Flickr; Chamath Palihapitiya by JDLasica/Flickr; Mark Cuban by Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons; Peter Thiel, Voice of America/Wikimedia Commons.)