20VC: Tim Draper on Investing In Tesla, The Best Pitch He Has Ever Seen & The Evolution of Venture and Startups
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 ā¢ 637 Ratings
šļø 22 February 2016
ā±ļø 24 minutes
šļø Recording | iTunes | RSS
š§¾ļø Download transcript
Summary
Tim DraperĀ is the founding partner of leading venture capital firmsĀ Draper AssociatesĀ and DFJ. Some of his Venture successes include Skype, Baidu, Tesla, Hotmail, Twitch.tv, and hundreds of others. Fun fact about Tim, it was his original suggestion to useĀ viral marketingĀ in web-based email to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail, YahooMail, and Gmail and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique by thousands of businesses.Ā His prominence is evident through his being named 100 most influential Harvard Alumni, and seven on the Forbes Midas List. He was named Always-On #1 top venture capital deal maker.
We would like to say a special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data used in the show today and you canĀ check out Mattermark Search here!
1.) How TimĀ made his way into startups and the investing industry?
2.) Having founded Draper Associates in 1985, how hasĀ Tim seen the investing landscape develop over time?
3.) Draper obviously invests across a variety of stage, butĀ what is Tim's preferred stage? Where does he see the most opportunity for venture returns? Why?
4.) Of all the companies Tim has seen, which was the best pitch? Why? Which founder inspired Tim the most? Looking back,Ā is there anything you would have done differently?
5.) What isĀ DraperU? What are the plans for the future? What is the vision? Why did Tim choose to do a reality show in StartupU? Has it been a very different experience being the lead in a TV show compared to investing in startups?
6.)Why is behind Tim's immense belief in Bitcoin. Why is this? When did TimĀ realize the potential? How long will adoption take?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Tim's Fave Book:Ā The Startup Game by William Draper,Ā MichaelĀ Rothschild: Bionomics
Tim's Most Recent Investment:Ā Laurel and Wolf,Ā Favor Delivery
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the 20 minute VC. I am your host, Harry Stebbings, and what a special week we have for you this week. |
| 0:06.0 | With the theme of Draper Father and Son Week, yesterday we have the legend Tim Draper joining us on the show. |
| 0:13.2 | And on Wednesday we'll be featuring the fantastic Adam Draper, Tim's younger son, who is running the most fantastic accelerator at Boost. |
| 0:22.0 | But back to today's episode, and where do you really start with Tim? I mean, he's the founding partner of leading |
| 0:26.9 | venture capital firms, Draper Associates and DFJ. And some of his venture successes include |
| 0:32.9 | Skype, By-Doo, Tesla, Hotmail, Twitch.TV, and hundreds of other incredible firms. |
| 0:40.3 | And a fun fact about Tim, it was his original suggestion to use viral marketing in web-based |
| 0:45.5 | email to geometrically spread an internet product to its market. |
| 0:49.4 | And this was instrumental to the success of Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail, and it's been adopted as a standard |
| 0:56.4 | marketing technique by thousands of businesses across the globe. And his prominence is evident through |
| 1:01.4 | his being named 100 most influential Harvard alumni, and 7 on the Forbes Midas list. But before we |
| 1:07.7 | dive into the show today, we have to tip our hat to the amazing team at |
| 1:11.4 | Mattermark. As always, where would we be without their incredible data and analysis? And if you |
| 1:16.6 | like a long form article or two, then follow at Thinker on Twitter for the best curation of |
| 1:21.7 | startup and VC articles there is. Seriously, the newsletter really dictates all of my reading. |
| 1:27.3 | And that's not a sponsor |
| 1:28.1 | at all. I just love what they're doing at Mattermark. But now it's time to dive into the show |
| 1:32.3 | with Tim. So without further ado, it's such an honor to welcome Tim Draper, founder at DFJ. |
| 1:38.8 | Three, two, one, zero. You have now arrived at your destination. |
| 1:47.3 | Well, Tim, it's such an honor to welcome you to this very special episode of the 20-minute VC. |
| 1:52.3 | Thank you so much for joining us. |
| 1:54.1 | Great. Thanks for having me on your show. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Twenty Minute VC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Twenty Minute VC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright Ā© Tapesearch 2025.