# Rory O'Reilly

> Rory O'Reilly is the CEO and co-founder of Knot, a New York fintech building the API layer that lets people switch the card on file across hundreds of merchants like Netflix and Amazon in a single tap. A Thiel Fellow and Harvard dropout, he built Knot with his brother Kieran after a decade of ventures together - turning YouTube clips into viral GIFs at gifs.com, riding an early Ethereum wave, and running Millions, the gamified debit card that became the biggest challenger bank on TikTok. Knot raised a $10M Series A led by Nava Ventures with Amex Ventures and Plaid backing.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Knot
- **Organizations:** Knot, Millions, gifs.com, Thiel Fellowship
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** High school, Sewanhaka High School, Dropped out (no degree), Harvard University
- **Known for:** Thiel Fellow (received $100,000 from Peter Thiel to leave college and build), Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Harvard Innovation Fellow

## Career timeline

- **2013** — Co-founded gifs.com with brother Kieran, a tool turning YouTube videos into GIFs via the YouTube API; went viral across Reddit and Imgur
- **2014** — Left Harvard as a Thiel Fellow; Peter Thiel granted each brother $100,000 to drop out and build
- **2014-2020** — Built an early crypto/Ethereum venture, reportedly selling roughly $80M of Ethereum
- **2020** — Co-founded and ran Millions, a gamified debit card and the largest challenger bank on TikTok and YouTube
- **2021** — Millions raised $3M; gave away cash on Twitter as a growth tactic
- **2020** — Co-founded Knot with brother Kieran after seeing how painful updating cards on file was
- **2023** — Knot closed a $10M Series A led by Nava Ventures with Amex Ventures and Plaid participating

## Achievements

- Thiel Fellow (received $100,000 from Peter Thiel to leave college and build)
- Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree
- Harvard Innovation Fellow
- Co-founded gifs.com, generating millions of GIFs monthly
- Built Millions into the largest challenger bank on TikTok and YouTube
- Co-founded Knot and raised a $10M Series A from Nava Ventures, Amex Ventures, and Plaid
- Knot processes roughly 1 of every 650 newly issued cards in America

## Latest updates

- **2023-08** — Knot closed its $10M Series A led by Nava Ventures, with Amex Ventures and Plaid participating.
- **2025-06** — O'Reilly marked a decade since the gifs.com days in a public reflection on the brothers' ten-year building journey.

## Links

- Website: https://knotapi.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-oreilly
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/RoryOReilly

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/rory-o-reilly
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-03