Peter Thiel Says He Never Invests In A CEO Who Wears A Suit

Getty / Araya Diaz

Superstar venture capitalist Peter Thiel has strong opinions about the tech business and fashion. In Thiel's new book, "Zero To One," he reveals his venture fund's policy on suits: never invest in a tech CEO who wears one, The Economist reports.

Thiel, an early investor in many successful startups, including Facebook, Yelp, and LinkedIn, says his trick about suits saved him from making bad gambles on clever businessmen trying to compensate for weak products.

"Maybe we still would have avoided these bad investments if we had taken the time to evaluate each company's technology in detail," Thiel says in his book. "But the team insight -never invest in a tech CEO that wears a suit - got us to the truth a lot faster."

Thanks to startup culture, the "kid in the hoodie" is becoming the gold standard for startup leadership, especially when searching for funding. Last week, Wired reported on several women who found trouble when seeking funding for their startups. One was told to "hire a young guy in a hoodie."