Timothy C. Draper
Encyclopedia
Timothy Cook Draper is the founder of the global venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson
.
Draper is third in a line of venture capitalists. His father, William Henry Draper III
(Bill Draper), founded Draper & Johnson Investment Company in 1962, Sutter Hill Ventures
in 1968, Draper International India in 1996, and Draper Richards
in 2001. His grandfather William Henry Draper Jr.
, the first Silicon Valley venture capitalist founded Draper, Gaither and Anderson in 1959.
." His confirmation to use "viral marketing" in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail
and Yahoo! Mail
, and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique to hundreds of businesses. Although Draper coined the term, "viral marketing," various viral campaigns preceded this invention (see MCI's Friends & Family Plan launched in 1991, a full 5 years prior to Hotmail's launch http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/direct-marketing/342093-1.html). Draper invested in and contributed to the development of Skype
(acquired by eBay
, now sold to Microsoft
), Baidu
, Overture
(acquired by Yahoo!
), Parametric Technology, Hotmail (acquired by Microsoft
), Tumbleweed Communications
, PLX Technologies, Digidesign
(acquired by Avid
), Preview Travel (acquired by Travelocity
), Four11 (acquired by Yahoo!), Combinet (acquired by Cisco), and Redgate
(acquired by AOL
), among others.
Draper launched the DFJ Global Network, an international network of venture capital funds with offices in more than thirty cities around the globe. He founded or co-founded Wasatch Ventures (Salt Lake City), Zone Ventures (LA), Draper Atlantic (Reston), Draper Triangle (Pittsburgh), Timberline Ventures (Woodland, WA), DFJ EPlanet (global), Polaris Fund (Anchorage), Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham (NYC), DFJ Frontier (Sacramento and Santa Barbara), and DFJ Dragon (Shanghai). Draper is featured as a keynote speaker in entrepreneurial conferences worldwide.
Draper is Founder and Chair Emeritus for The BizWorld Foundation that develops programs that teach children about business, entrepreneurship and finance in the US and around the world.
He served on the California State Board of Education in 1998–99. He launched a statewide cyber-initiative on school choice for the November 2000 California General Election.
Draper has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University
, and an MBA from Harvard Business School
.
Draper is a recurring star in The Naked Brothers Band TV series
on Nickelodeon as Principal Schmoke. Draper is the uncle to the show's stars, Nat and Alex Wolff. Moreover, his sister actress/writer Polly Draper
created and produced the show. His children—actress Jesse Draper
, Adam Draper, Billy Draper, and Eleanor Draper—also have starring roles in the project.
Draper is also a global board member of Endeavor (non-profit)
and member of the board of directors of Wigix, Inc.
Draper was named an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin
.
Administrator Phyllis. Draper's sister is Becky Draper and actress/screenwriter
Polly Draper (star of the 1980s TV show thirtysomething), who is the wife of jazz pianist/recording artist Michael Wolff
and mother to actor/singer-songwriters Nat Wolff
and Alex Wolff
(stars of Nickelodeon's The Naked Brothers Band TV series
). Draper is married to Melissa Draper and their children are Jesse Draper, Eleanor Draper, Adam Draper, and Billy Draper.
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $7 billion in capital commitments....
.
Draper is third in a line of venture capitalists. His father, William Henry Draper III
William Henry Draper III
William Henry Draper III is a prominent American venture capitalist.-Early life and career:Draper was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Katherine and banker and diplomat William Henry Draper, Jr. He attended Yale University with George H. W. Bush, graduated in 1950, the year after George...
(Bill Draper), founded Draper & Johnson Investment Company in 1962, Sutter Hill Ventures
Sutter Hill Ventures
Sutter Hill Ventures is a private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in technology-based start-up companies. The firm is based in Palo Alto, CA....
in 1968, Draper International India in 1996, and Draper Richards
Draper Richards
Draper Richards is a private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in U.S. technology companies. The firm was founded in 1996 by Bill Draper an early venture capitalist, who had previously founded Sutter Hill Ventures in 1964 together with Robin Richards Donohoe...
in 2001. His grandfather William Henry Draper Jr.
William Henry Draper Jr.
William Henry Draper Jr. was a U.S. army officer, banker, and diplomat.- Biography :Draper was born in Harlem, New York City, and received a B.A. and M.A. in economics at New York University. He joined the United States Army soon after finishing college and served during World War I as a major in...
, the first Silicon Valley venture capitalist founded Draper, Gaither and Anderson in 1959.
Career
Tim Draper is arguably the creator of "viral marketingViral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
." His confirmation to use "viral marketing" in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail
Hotmail
Windows Live Hotmail, formerly known as MSN Hotmail and commonly referred to simply as Hotmail, is a free web-based email service operated by Microsoft as part of its Windows Live group. It was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith and launched in July 1996 as "HoTMaiL". It was one of the first...
and Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! Mail is a web mail service provided by Yahoo!. It was inaugurated in 1997, and, according to comScore, Yahoo! Mail was the second largest web-based email service with 273.1 million users as of November 2010....
, and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique to hundreds of businesses. Although Draper coined the term, "viral marketing," various viral campaigns preceded this invention (see MCI's Friends & Family Plan launched in 1991, a full 5 years prior to Hotmail's launch http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/direct-marketing/342093-1.html). Draper invested in and contributed to the development of Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
(acquired by eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, now sold to Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
), Baidu
Baidu
Baidu, Inc. , simply known as Baidu and incorporated on January 18, 2000, is a Chinese web services company headquartered in the Baidu Campus in Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China....
, Overture
Overture
Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
(acquired by Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
), Parametric Technology, Hotmail (acquired by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
), Tumbleweed Communications
Tumbleweed Communications
Tumbleweed Communications Corp. provided secure messaging and secure file transfer solutions for enterprise and government customers. Tumbleweed Communications merged with Axway in 2008....
, PLX Technologies, Digidesign
Digidesign
Avid Audio is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, and during 2010 the Digidesign...
(acquired by Avid
AVID
AVID stands for:* Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges in the U.S....
), Preview Travel (acquired by Travelocity
Travelocity
Travelocity is an online travel agency and wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was a publicly traded company until taken private by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group in March 2007...
), Four11 (acquired by Yahoo!), Combinet (acquired by Cisco), and Redgate
Redgate
Redgate or Red Gate may refer to:* Red Gate Software, a software company* Red Gate, a triumphal arch in Moscow* The Memorial Gate for Virtuous Women , a South Korean filmPeople:* Elizabeth Redgate...
(acquired by AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
), among others.
Draper launched the DFJ Global Network, an international network of venture capital funds with offices in more than thirty cities around the globe. He founded or co-founded Wasatch Ventures (Salt Lake City), Zone Ventures (LA), Draper Atlantic (Reston), Draper Triangle (Pittsburgh), Timberline Ventures (Woodland, WA), DFJ EPlanet (global), Polaris Fund (Anchorage), Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham (NYC), DFJ Frontier (Sacramento and Santa Barbara), and DFJ Dragon (Shanghai). Draper is featured as a keynote speaker in entrepreneurial conferences worldwide.
Draper is Founder and Chair Emeritus for The BizWorld Foundation that develops programs that teach children about business, entrepreneurship and finance in the US and around the world.
He served on the California State Board of Education in 1998–99. He launched a statewide cyber-initiative on school choice for the November 2000 California General Election.
Draper has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, and an MBA from Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
.
Draper is a recurring star in The Naked Brothers Band TV series
The Naked Brothers Band (TV series)
The Naked Brothers Band is an American television musical comedy created by Polly Draper. The show depicts the daily lives of Draper's sons, who lead a faux rock band from New York City. As a mockumentary, the storyline is a hyperbole of their real lives, and the fictional presence of a camera is...
on Nickelodeon as Principal Schmoke. Draper is the uncle to the show's stars, Nat and Alex Wolff. Moreover, his sister actress/writer Polly Draper
Polly Draper
Polly Carey Draper is an American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer and director. She is renowned for her ensemble role in ABC's hit series Thirtysomething. In 1998, Draper starred in her screenwriting debut The Tic Code, featuring Gregory Hines which was inspired by her husband Michael...
created and produced the show. His children—actress Jesse Draper
Jesse Draper
Jessica Cook Draper is an American actress. She first became renowned as a co-star on the Nickelodeon series The Naked Brothers Band, which starred her cousins Nat Wolff and Alex Wolff and was created by her aunt Polly Draper...
, Adam Draper, Billy Draper, and Eleanor Draper—also have starring roles in the project.
Draper is also a global board member of Endeavor (non-profit)
Endeavor (non-profit)
Endeavor is a non-profit organization that pioneered the concept of High-Impact Entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Its mission is to “lead the global movement to catalyze long-term economic growth by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating the best High-Impact Entrepreneurs around the...
and member of the board of directors of Wigix, Inc.
Wigix
Wigix, also known as Wigix.com, Wigix.cn, and Wigix, Inc., is an online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer marketplace whose model mimics the financial trading platforms. The company name is an acronym for "Want It Got It eXchange". Along with Wigix.com, the company also owns China-based...
Draper was named an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
.
Personal life
Draper is the son of venture capitalist William Henry Draper III and Peace CorpsPeace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
Administrator Phyllis. Draper's sister is Becky Draper and actress/screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
Polly Draper (star of the 1980s TV show thirtysomething), who is the wife of jazz pianist/recording artist Michael Wolff
Michael Wolff
Michael Blieden Wolff is an American jazz pianist, composer, producer, actor, and jazz educator. He was the bandleader and musical director of The Arsenio Hall Show...
and mother to actor/singer-songwriters Nat Wolff
Nat Wolff
Nathaniel Marvin "Nat" Wolff is an American child actor, and singer-songwriter, composer, and keyboardist. He is the frontman of Nat & Alex Wolff...
and Alex Wolff
Alex Wolff
Alexander Draper "Alex" Wolff is an American child actor and musician, currently playing in Nat and Alex Wolff. He is best known for his role as himself on the Nickelodeon series The Naked Brothers Band, also starring his older brother, Nat Wolff; the series was created by the boys' mother, Polly...
(stars of Nickelodeon's The Naked Brothers Band TV series
The Naked Brothers Band (TV series)
The Naked Brothers Band is an American television musical comedy created by Polly Draper. The show depicts the daily lives of Draper's sons, who lead a faux rock band from New York City. As a mockumentary, the storyline is a hyperbole of their real lives, and the fictional presence of a camera is...
). Draper is married to Melissa Draper and their children are Jesse Draper, Eleanor Draper, Adam Draper, and Billy Draper.
See also
- William Henry Draper, Jr., grandfather and founder of Draper, Gaither and Anderson
- William Henry Draper IIIWilliam Henry Draper IIIWilliam Henry Draper III is a prominent American venture capitalist.-Early life and career:Draper was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Katherine and banker and diplomat William Henry Draper, Jr. He attended Yale University with George H. W. Bush, graduated in 1950, the year after George...
, father and founder of Sutter Hill VenturesSutter Hill VenturesSutter Hill Ventures is a private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in technology-based start-up companies. The firm is based in Palo Alto, CA....
External links
- Tim Draper's biography at the Draper Fisher JurvetsonDraper Fisher JurvetsonDraper Fisher Jurvetson is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $7 billion in capital commitments....
Official Site - Tim Draper profiled in The Venture Capital Journal
- Tim Draper speaks at Stanford