Are they trying to persuade? I figure they were just trying to signal their "loyalty" to some audience they have in mind.
I found this hilarious:
"The Thiel Fellowships, which began in 2011, initially provided $100,000 each to 22 high school students with big ideas for changing the world… Unsurprisingly, these dreams came to nothing."
Because of [0]:
"He dropped out of university in 2014 when he was awarded with a grant of $100,000 from the Thiel Fellowship, a scholarship created by venture capitalist Peter Thiel and went to work on Ethereum full-time."
Which I guess is "nothing" for these sorts of people.