Education: Through the Eyes of a Venture Capitalist

Tim Draper, a third generation Venture Capitalist and partner in Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), holds investments that include or included: Skype, Hotmail login, Tesla, Baidu, Theranos, Athenahealth, Solar City, Box, and Parametric Technology among others. To date, Tim Draper is an active angel investor who has invested in more than 1000 private companies.

DFJ is a power house 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.

The most famous of Tim’s ideas was his concept of “viral marketing” which transformed Hotmail into a free email service that became a global entity, as customers did the marketing for Hotmail by forwarding the program to friends and colleagues. Hotmail innovation revolutionized the world and was greener in more ways than we can imagine. Hotmail reduced the need to cut down trees, pay postage and postal workers, transport mail, and saved the people of the world what could be upwards of billions in associated mailing cost. The man is genius.

DFJ has also invested in more than 30 Cleantech companies since 2001, including SolarCity, EnerNOC, Bright Source Energy, Edeniq, and Intermatix. DFJ were early investors in “green” before they even called it a green movement.

Looking to the Future

If you really want to look into the future, follow the eyes of a Venture Capitalist. Venture Capitalists are the ones that have spent their lives looking into the after years, investing in it, and creating new realities to support it.

Venture Capitalists live in that place where science fiction becomes a reality – a place where the dreamers, innovators, misfits, and crazy idealists truly flourish. It’s the bridge from the island of imagination to the mainland of day-to-day life. Looks to me like Venture Capitalists are having all the fun!

Venture Capitalists embrace their gifts. They create futures that weren’t previously going to happen. With these insights, creativity, and imagination, they set out on the quest to find answers to important questions like: What is truly going to make the difference in the world? What will have an impact? Where can we be a contribution? Where can we solve pressing issues of the world? Where can we develop energy solutions?

What Will Make the World Sustainable?

It’s not necessarily technology, it’s not innovation, and it’s not new solutions that will be the fundamental game changer in sustainability. Before all that, what truly makes the world sustainable is people. People who are thinking, creating, and developing in such a way that they architect a world that works – a sustainable future! Ironically enough, it’s also people who make the world unsustainable – so how we think and how we act makes all the difference. That’s what makes education such a critical part of the big picture.

Sustainability may not always come in the form we expected. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a green movement to make the difference. It could be an advancement totally unrelated to energy that has the most impact on the world inadvertently – just like Hotmail.com. That’s the power of education and entrepreneurship – they foster a future of theories, predictions, and architecture that start in the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs right now. That’s the alchemy of Tim Draper.

The OGM Interview

Seriously anything is possible with an open mind and technology these days. I’ve never done an interview with someone in a car before, let alone a Tesla Model S. But that’s exactly how this article went down. Tim Draper was in California and I was in Newfoundland and together we “pow wowed”, while Tim was relaxed and made himself comfortable in his Tesla Model S electric car.

I marveled at how my Hybrid Prius and Tim’s Tesla Model S are transforming the landscape of our automotive and energy industry. Before you know it we’ll all be driving electric vehicles of some sort, hybrid or otherwise. And right after that, according to Terrafugia.com, we’ll have flying cars. Times have changed!

Tim is a friendly, open guy who talks with a smile on his face. His enthusiasm comes right from the depths of his soul and blares through the phone. Passion is authentic and unmistakable. A pure pleasure to interview.

Within moments, our conversation dove into the world of education. Tim says, “I have a passion for entrepreneurs and when someone told me that entrepreneurs were born that way, in other words we couldn’t educate people to be entrepreneurs, that’s when I set out to prove that theory wrong. I was a Stanford and Harvard graduate and my business education and Venture Capitalist experience culminated into a belief that anyone can be an entrepreneur if they have a deep desire and the determination to do so.”

Draper University of Heroes

With a conviction to bring more entrepreneurs into the world, Draper University of Heroes was born. Now two years old, Draper University of Heroes is a residential and online school based in San Mateo, California, that offers a crash course in entrepreneurship.

The university’s curriculum is designed by Tim to help extraordinary people accomplish their life missions. The University of Heroes’ core curriculum includes education in: Media Training, Negotiations, Predictive Analytics, various topics in Finance, Lean Startups, Creativity Crash Course, Special CEO & Founder Series Talks, Design Thinking, Innovation, Branding, Networking, Sales Training, Manufacturing, Fundraising, and Venture Capital.

Tim says, “Our grading system here is an analogy for life, we encourage mistakes so that our students become comfortable with failure. We give no points for keeping the status quo, one point for trying and failing, and two points for trying and succeeding. This encourages our up-and-coming entrepreneurs to try new things. Some of the really cool things we get involved in are: urban and rural survival training, the task of getting a job offer in four hours, spending a night in a city with little to no resources and making it work, and creative physical challenges. We test our people in all kinds of ways – just like being an entrepreneur would. We get comfortable being uncomfortable.” You can learn more about it at DraperUniversity.com.

Tim loves entrepreneurs and believes they are heroes. He says, “The world needs more heroes and that’s the premise behind the Draper University. At this school we don’t have regular professors, we have 50 of the top heroes in business, that give talks and group activities that relate to those talks.” Spawning the list of 50 are people like Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Aaron Winsor Levie, co-founder and CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box, amongst many others. What an amazing education for those students!

To date Draper University has taught 200 students and started 60 new companies as a result. This is truly a new paradigm in education and the growth of business!

When I asked Tim what matters “the most” of all the considerations on the planet, he answered point blank, “Education, that’s what makes economies rock.”

When I asked him what advice he has for the energy industry overall he said, “People need to be sensitive to smart grids, electric cars, solar power, thermal power, and fracking and new fracking products like guar gum. People need to stay on top of their industry and understand how it’s moving and how the world is continuously changing and adjust their businesses accordingly. Technology advances are at an all-time high, and companies need to create and acquire new technology. Those that don’t will stagnate and fail over time.”

Energy is the most dynamic and exciting field on earth. It’s changing fast and people in this field are going to go through extraordinary changes and have a lot of fun doing it.