Tim Draper

DFJ; viral-marketing thesis, hero-investor brand

Founding partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and founder of Draper University, a Silicon Valley entrepreneurship programme. His track record includes early-stage bets on Hotmail, Skype, and Baidu, and he later became one of the most vocal institutional advocates for Bitcoin. He is credited with coining the phrase 'viral marketing' after observing Hotmail's email-signature growth strategy.