Exclusive: Tim Draper on Growing Your Network As a VC & Viral Marketing in Startups
In this episode, Shamus Madan converses with Tim Draper about his journey into venture capitalism. They discuss Draper's successful investments, his advice for building networks for early VCs, and his approach to global economies. They also delve into sustaining reputation, problem-solving strategies, and their shared experiences investing in Tesla. Draper concludes with advice for budding VCs and entrepreneurs.
Key Points
- Venture capital is about identifying entrepreneurs who are dedicated, intelligent, and capable enough to make their startups work, especially in the early stages where the focus is on how impactful the success could be rather than what might go wrong.
- Tim Draper emphasizes the importance of creating a business model that leverages customers as promoters, using viral marketing to spread the product or service without spending heavily on advertising.
- Building a network in venture capital is crucial, and for those starting out, it's recommended to specialize in a certain area, focus on serving the customer well, and ensure the business is making money, as profitability allows for greater influence and the ability to spread one's mission.
Tim Draper founded Draper Associates, DFJ, and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. He funded Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, Focus Media, Robinhood, Athenahealth, Box, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC, and 15 other unicorns at the seed stage.
He is a supporter and global thought leader for entrepreneurs everywhere and is a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin, Blockchain, ICOs and cryptocurrencies, having won the Bitcoin US Marshall’s auction in 2014, invested in over 50 crypto companies, and led investments in Coinbase, Ledger, Tezos, and Bancor, among others.
He created viral marketing, a marketing method for exponentially spreading an electronic service from customer to customer, instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and Skype and other applications, particularly effective for mail and communications applications. Arguably, social media, crowdsourcing and growth hacking are all outgrowths of viral marketing.
He is regularly featured on all major networks as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative governance, free markets, and Bitcoin, and has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur of the World,” and is listed as one of the top 100 most powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by CryptoWeekly, #1 most networked VC by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, and #48 most influential Harvard Alum. Global Guru listed Tim as one of the top 30 Startup Gurus in the world.
Listen to the full story on the MBIT Podcast. Twitter of Host: @mbitpodcast Twitter of Guest: @TimDraper
Get "The Startup Hero" here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Startup-Hero-Textbook-Entrepreneurs/dp/1973585340
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Transcript
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