Luke Nosek received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In the summer of 1995, while still in college, he co-founded SponsorNet New Media, Inc., along with fellow Illinois students Max Levchin and Scott Banister. Nosek then worked for Netscape Communications Corporation. In 1998, with Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Ken Howery, Nosek co-founded PayPal, serving as its vice president of marketing.

After PayPal went public and was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, Nosek left the company to travel and pursue angel investing. In 2005, with Peter Thiel and Ken Howery, he started Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with over $1 billion under management.