Lucky streak? Sounds like he had a hand in shaping all those companies and he knows the people at Google doing the acquisitions. He created Gmail. He's a technical expert putting his money to work in businesses he understands and can help grow.
'When I was living in Italy, I was once trying to tell someone that I hadn't had much success in doing something, but I couldn't think of the Italian word for success. I spent some time trying to describe the word I meant. Finally she said "Ah! Fortuna!"'<p>-- pg
He's playing the game at a whole other level. With his intelligence and connections in SV, I don't think calling it luck does it justice.<p>I'm still waiting for him to start a hedge fund so that non-connected SV-outsiders can get in on his action.
As I understand it, being "lucky" as an angel involves (in the first place) quality deal flow. With Paul's background I would bet he's got <i>incredible</i> deal flow.<p>(There are a lot of other things too, I'm sure, but this is a big one.)