20VC: Steve Jurvetson on 20 Years of Friendship with Elon Musk, How To Analyse Market Timing, Why Venture Does Not Scale & Why He Has Never Sold A Share in Any Company He Holds
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2020
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Steve Jurvetson is the Co-Founder @ Future Ventures who announced their debut and flagship $200M Fund in 2019. Steve's incredible portfolio includes the likes of SpaceX, Tesla, Planet, Memphis Meats, Hotmail, and the deep learning companies Mythic and Nervana. Steve also sits on the board of both SpaceX and Tesla. Prior to founding Future, Steve was the co-founder of renowned valley firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson where he led investments in 5 companies that went public in successful IPOs and several others that became billion-dollar acquisitions.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Steve made his way into the world of startups and Silicon Valley and how that led to his creation of “The Lean Startup Movement”?
2.) How does Steve think about and assess market timing? How does Steve assess technical risk? Given the long term horizons of such deep tech projects, does Steve think we need to change the 10 + 2-year fund life structure? How would Steve like to see funds structured?
3.) Given the sheer size of outcomes if these plays work, how does Steve assess his own price sensitivity? How does Steve approach the challenge there is a lack of downstream investors for such deep tech projects? How does Steve try and catch an industry on the cusp of a transition?
4.) How does Steve assess his own relationship to money? How has it changed over the years? Why does Steve fundamentally believe that venture partnerships do not scale? Where do venture partnerships breakdown? How can one introduce cognitive diversity into a firm?
5.) Having worked with Elon Musk across both SpaceX and Tesla, what does Steve believe makes Elon one of the most gifted entrepreneurs of our time? What is Steve's most memorable moment from his many years of friendship with Elon? What have been his biggest takeaways from SpaceX and Tesla?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Steve’s Fave Book: Out Of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World
Steve's Most Recent Investment: Prellis Biologic
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We are back for another week in the world of the 20-minute VC, and I always love to see you behind the scenes, |
| 0:04.1 | and you can suggest both future guests and questions for the show on Instagram at H. Debbings, |
| 0:08.4 | 1996, with two bees. But to the episode today, and I'm thrilled to welcome a Peloton lover, |
| 0:13.1 | who's probably in the same league of love in terms of Peloton as me, which really is quite saying something. And so with that, I'm thrilled to welcome Steve Jervison, managing director and founder at Future Ventures, who announced their debut in flagship |
| 0:24.5 | $200 million fund in 2019. Steve's incredible portfolio includes the likes of SpaceX, Tesla, |
| 0:30.8 | Tesla, Planet, Memphis Meets, Hotmail, and the deep learning companies, Mythic and Nirvana. |
| 0:35.9 | Steve also sits on the board of both SpaceX and Tesla, and prior to founding future, Steve was the co-founder of renowned Silicon Valley |
| 0:42.3 | firm, Draper Fisher-Jervison, where he led investments in five companies that went public, |
| 0:46.7 | in successful IPOs, and several others that became billion-dollar acquisitions. But before we |
| 0:51.6 | move into the show today, digital hit in new gear in 2020 and companies |
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| 1:38.4 | That's Amplitude.com forward slash 20VC. And speaking of incredible products there, |
| 1:43.6 | harness is a truly modern digital wealth |
... |
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