Draper Fisher Jurvetson

About Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the pre-eminent venture capital firm with global presence through a network of affiliated funds, with offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $5 billion in capital commitments. DFJ's mission is to identify, serve, and provide capital for extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who are determined to change the world. Over the past twenty years, DFJ has been proud to back more than 300 companies across many sectors including such industry-changing catalysts as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), United Online (UNTD), Overture (acquired by YHOO), Interwoven (IWOV), Four11 (acquired by YHOO), Parametric (PMTC), and Digidesign (acquired by AVID).

History

The Draper name is well known in the venture capital industry. General William H. Draper Jr. became the first professional West Coast venture capitalist when he founded Draper, Gaither & Anderson in 1958. Formerly Undersecretary of the Army, General Draper was responsible for economic reconstruction of Germany and Japan under the Marshall Plan. His son, William H. Draper III, has a long history in the venture capital business. In 1962, with Partner Franklin "Pitch" Johnson, he started Draper & Johnson Investment Company. In 1965, he founded Sutter Hill Ventures which he managed with great success until 1981 when he was appointed Chairman of the U.S. Export-Import Bank. In 1995, he returned to venture capital by founding Draper International, concentrating on venture investments in India.
In 1985, Tim Draper left Alex. Brown & Sons, where he and John Fisher were office mates, to become the third generation of venture capitalists in his family with the formation of Draper Associates. Tim set the tone for all of the subsequent funds with his focus on identifying outstanding teams of entrepreneurs setting out to change the world. Among the winners in this fund were Parametric Technology Corporation (PMTC), the first industrial-strength Computer Aided Design software package to leverage the client-server era, and Digidesign (which went public and was later acquired by AVID), the longstanding leader in digital editing tools for musicians.

Building on the momentum of his first fund, Tim set out to raise a larger fund and identify a partner with whom to team. In 1991, Tim brought his erstwhile office mate, John Fisher, on board to launch Draper Associates II, and a remarkable partnership was born. Over the next three years, the duo made numerous successful investments, including Medior (acquired by AOL), Combinet (acquired by CSCO), Cybermedia (CYBR), Software Quality Automation (which went public and later was acquired by RATL, which was in turn acquired by IBM), Convoy (acquired by NEON which then was acquired by SY) and T/Maker (sold for cash).

In late 1994, Tim and John received a thought provoking letter in the mail from Steve Jurvetson, a second year business school student at Stanford. Intrigued by the energy and intellect conveyed in the letter, the pair invited Steve in for a conversation. Within minutes of meeting Steve, Tim and John realized they had found their next partner - a serious technologist who would help round out the team as they set out to raise Draper Fisher Associates III. During his first year at the firm, Steve helped land Four11 (acquired by YHOO) and Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), and subsequently he was made a partner in the firm. Beyond these two investments, the trio also backed a number of other significant software ventures in Fund III, including Interwoven (IWOV), Tumbleweed (TMWD), RightPoint Software (acquired by EPNY which then was acquired by SSAG), and Webline Communications (acquired by CSCO).

In 1997, with the Internet-focused Fund III showing considerable promise, the trio of investors continued to grow the firm after raising Draper Fisher Associates Fund IV. Out of Stanford Business School they hired Warren Packard, who had been through the DFJ office the prior year pitching his start-up, Angara Database Systems, which was later acquired by Personify. Warren had previous venture capital experience working at Institutional Venture Partners and product design experience at Baxter.

At the same time, the firm hired Jennifer Fonstad from the Kauffman Fellows Program. Jennifer had recently graduated from Harvard Business School and had worked previously at Bain & Company.

Together, Warren and Jennifer added horsepower to the growing firm, leading investments in such standouts as United Online (UNTD), Direct Hit Technologies (acquired by ASKJ), and Digital Impact (which went public and was later acquired by ACXM). Draper Fisher Associates Fund IV also included GoTo.com/Overture Services (which went public and was later acquired by YHOO), Tradex (acquired by ARBA), C2B Technologies (acquired by INKT which then was acquired by YHOO), Fogdog Sports (went public and was later acquired by GSIC), Selectica (SLTC), Kana Communications (KANA) and Netmind (acquired by PUMA which then was acquired by SYNC).

In 1999, DFJ added a three-degree graduate from Harvard University, Andreas Stavropoulos, who previously worked for Cornerstone Research and McKinsey & Co. Andreas led investments in Epocrates and Everdream, both of which are making excellent progress for Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund V. Fund V has also benefited from the IPOs and subsequent distributions of Wit Capital (later became SNDV and was acquired by Charles Schwab) and the previously mentioned United Online, as well as the acquisition of Cyras by Ciena (CIEN).

In that same year, Mark Greenstein joined DFJ as CFO to manage the expanding backroom operations of the firm. Mark brought extensive experience from nearly 20 years as a Senior Manager with Deloitte & Touche and as a Partner in charge of the Palo Alto office of a regional firm started by his father. The relationship between the firm and Mark is an extension of one which dates back to the 1950s, when Mark's father Morey first met Tim Draper's grandfather while working on the audit of Draper, Gaither & Anderson.

The following year, after the partnership raised Draper Fisher Jurvetson VI, the firm brought on Raj Atluru, a three-degree graduate from Stanford University who worked previously as an investment banker for CSFB and a venture capitalist at TL Ventures outside of Philadelphia. Raj's background in both civil and environmental engineering brought significant value to the firm, and Raj has led DFJ Fund VIII’s initiatives in the cleantech and energy technology arenas.

One of Raj's first investments while at DFJ was in ViaFone, a software company enabling an array of mobile applications for enterprise customers, which was eventually acquired by Extended Systems (XTND). One of ViaFone's founders was Josh Stein, a Stanford MBA with consulting experience at BCG and prior industry experience at NetObjects and Microsoft. After ViaFone was acquired, Josh spent the next year as an executive at another wireless startup before being selected for a fellowship by the Kauffman Foundation. Josh joined DFJ in 2004, was promoted to director in 2005, and has been leading DFJ Fund VIII’s initiatives in the open source software market, as well as joining other partners in investing in next generation Internet initiatives.

Over the past twenty years, DFJ has been proud to back approximately 300 teams who have shunned the traditional path and set out to change the world through their entrepreneurial ventures. At DFJ, we recognize and salute these riskmasters, because it is these teams who pursue their visions, overcoming numerous challenges, to bring us new products and services that make all of our lives more rewarding.

As we reflect back on all the progress and accomplishments of the past twenty years, we can't help but think what the next twenty years will bring us. Advances in information technologies, life science technologies, nanotechnologies, clean energy technologies and process technologies are certain to be abundant and significantly impact the way that consumers live and corporations conduct business. We look forward to the challenge of realizing this exciting future. We look forward to working with you in actively creating this future. We look forward to the next twenty years.