AIBC

Tim Draper

Tim Draper is an American venture capital investor, and in 1985, he founded the company that would become Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). He also founded Draper Associates and Draper University. In July 2014, Draper received wide coverage for his purchase at a US Marshals Service auction of seized Bitcoins from the Silk Road marketplace website. He also spent in excess of $5 million to push a ballot initiative to divide California into three smaller states, which has met the signature threshold but was removed from the ballot by a decision in the Supreme Court of California.

Draper studied at Phillips Academy, he obtained High School General. Then, he holds a bachelor’s degree of science focused on Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Then he obtained a master’s degree of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

While at Stanford, Draper interned at Hewlett-Packard as a marketing engineer. Draper made national headlines as a student when he created the popular campus board game “Stanford – The Game” alongside Heidi Roizen, who was a student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business at the time.

dfj

Since thirty-seven years, he is the founding partner of DFJ. DFJ is a venture capital firm that partners with extraordinary entrepreneurs who are changing the world. Since 1985, DFJ’s core funds have raised $4B, which has been deployed in more than 300 portfolio companies, including AdMob, Baidu, Box, Hotmail, Skype, Solarcity, SpaceX, Tesla Motors, Tumblr, Twitter and Yammer. DFJ works with companies at seed, early and growth stages, with the goal of partnering with entrepreneurs to build iconic and lasting businesses. DFJ Growth is the later stage investment practice that focuses on investing in private technology companies that are addressing huge market opportunities, scaling very rapidly, and poised for category leadership.

draper associates

He is also the Founding Partner of Draper Associates. Draper Associates, founded in 1985, is a seed-stage venture capital firm that encourages entrepreneurs to drive their businesses to greatness, to transform industries with new technologies, and to build platforms for extraordinary growth, jobs, and wealth creation. In 2016, the firm raised a $190M fund to invest in the foremost technology companies. Draper Associates’ portfolio includes Tesla, Skype, Baidu, Twitch, Cruise Automation among others. The firm’s partners are Tim Draper, Billy Draper and Andy Tang.

draper university

Moreover, he is Headmaster of Draper University since fourteen years. Draper University is the leading program in Silicon Valley for building founders. Our innovative, immersive Residential Programs in Entrepreneurship offer: essential startup skills, exposure to industry experts, a network of like-minded entrepreneurs, & mentorship from experienced venture capitalists (VCs).

In 2006, Draper through DFJ was an investor in the Series C venture round of Tesla In 2007, Draper again invested in Tesla’s Series D venture round through Draper Associates.

On June 27, 2014, Draper paid about USD $19 million for nearly 30,000 bitcoins which had been seized from the Silk Road by the US Marshals service and auctioned to the public.

On September 23, 2014, Draper told Fox Business that he predicted that one bitcoin would reach $10,000 “in three years”; on January 27, 2015, Draper wagered about $400,000 (which is 2000 bitcoins with $200 price) that the bitcoin will rebound from a recent plunge. The price of a bitcoin crossed $10,000 on November 29, 2017.

In December 2019, he predicted that bitcoin would reach USD $250,000 in 2023.

In 2017, he wrote a book “How to be The Startup Hero.” A Guide and Textbook for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs.

Draper’s recent investments include Robinhood (company), Coinbase, eShares, Tezos, DefiMoneyMarket, and OpenGov. Draper’s recent investments are centered around companies who use artificial intelligence, Bitcoin, blockchain, smart contracts, and computational genomics to apply to industries like finance, health care, and government.

Draper has spoken out for free markets and entrepreneurship globally, and against Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, stating that they limit the viability of taking companies public. In 2000, Draper spent $20 million on a failed measure to support school vouchers.

These days were brimming with insightful content, top-tier networking opportunities, and hot topics tabled by leading speakers in a festival-like atmosphere!

Check out the highlights from the mother of all conferences. With greetings from the Prime Minister of Malta himself, several other ministers, celebrities, industry giants, over 600 investors, and c level executives!

This truly has been a marvelous few days seeing the synergy of multiple industries under one roof!

We look forward to seeing you at the next SiGMA Summit in Dubai from 20 to 23 March 2022 !

Register NOW ! https://sigmaworld.events/sigma-dubai

Let’s make 2022 a turning point for the industry !