Tim Draper

Tim Draper is one of Silicon Valley’s most audacious and prescient venture capitalists, a figure known for placing bold, generation-defining bets on technologies long before they become mainstream. As a third-generation VC and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), his legendary early investments in companies like Hotmail, Skype, and Tesla showcase a remarkable eye for identifying world-changing potential.

While his traditional tech portfolio is stellar, Draper is perhaps most famous for his unwavering, almost religious, evangelism for Bitcoin. He cemented his legacy in the crypto world by purchasing nearly 30,000 bitcoins from the U.S. Marshals’ Silk Road auction in 2014, becoming a foundational and vocal champion for the technology when many were still dismissive. His visionary zeal isn’t confined to startups; he has famously campaigned for radical governance ideas like splitting California into multiple states. Through his firm and his entrepreneurial school, Draper University, he doesn’t just fund the future—he actively cultivates the fearless, unconventional mindset required to build it, embodying the spirit of high-risk, high-reward innovation that defines the technological frontier.