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Steve Jurvetson

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Steve Jurvetson
Jurvetson in 2021
Born
Stephen T. Jurvetson

(1967-03-01) March 1, 1967 (age 57)
Arizona, U.S.
Alma materStanford University (BS, MS, MBA)
Occupation(s)Founder and managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Co-founder, Future Ventures[1]
Spouse
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1990; div. 2018)​
    Genevieve Jurvetson
    ​
    (m. 2018)​
Children3

Stephen T. Jurvetson (born March 1, 1967) is an American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist.[2] Formerly a partner of the firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), he was an early investor in Hotmail, Memphis Meats, Mythic and Nervana Systems.[3] He is currently a board member of SpaceX among others. He later co-founded the firm Future Ventures with Maryanna Saenko, who worked with him at DFJ.[4][5]

Jurvetson was named to Forbes' "Midas List" of Tech's Top Investors in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016.[12]

He was a board member of Synthetic Genomics, Planet Labs, Nervana Systems (acquired by Intel),[13] Flux, D-Wave, SpaceX,[4][14] and Tesla.[15] Jurvetson was a member of the Tesla board of directors from 2006 to December 2020.[16][17][18]

Early life and education

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Jurvetson's father Tõnu Jürvetson fled Estonia through Germany just before Soviet re-occupation in 1944. Tõnu was married to another Estonian immigrant, Tiiu Tia Jürvetson. Even though within the family, the Estonian language was used, Steve never learned it and his parents used it as a secret language between themselves.[19] Steve Jurvetson was the first US-born Estonian to become an e-resident of Estonia.[20]

Jurvetson grew up in Dallas, where he graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas in 1985. At Stanford University, Jurvetson finished his degree in electrical engineering in 2.5 years[21] and graduated No. 1 in his class. He then earned an M.S. in electrical engineering and an M.B.A., also from Stanford. His first job out of Stanford[22] was working as an R&D engineer at Hewlett-Packard (HP). After two years at HP, he moved on as a product marketer at Apple and then NeXT Software.[11]

Jurvetson was named to the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 in 1999 to "recognize young entrepreneurs who can deliver", including making the first investment in Hotmail.[23]

Career

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Jurvetson with the first production Tesla Model S in 2015
Jurvetson with Explorer 1 and Sputnik, from his collection of space artifacts

As a consultant with Bain & Company, Jurvetson developed marketing, sales, engineering and business strategies for a wide range of companies in the software, networking, and semiconductor industries.[6] He first joined DFJ after his second year of business school, and became a partner after proving his talent on several investments.[24]

At DFJ, Jurvetson was involved in lucrative investments with Hotmail, the Chinese company Baidu,[25] Skype,[26] Interwoven, Kana, Tradex, and Cyras.[27] Cyras in particular was acquired for US$8 billion.[27] Less favorably, DFJ and Jurvetson were an early financial backer of Elizabeth Holmes and the disgraced blood-testing firm Theranos.[28]

Also in 2016, President Barack Obama appointed Jurvetson as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.[29]

On November 13, 2017, Jurvetson stepped down from his role at DFJ Venture Capital in addition to taking leave from the boards of SpaceX and Tesla following an internal DFJ investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.[30] While there were allegations of inappropriate behavior, DFJ did not receive an official complaint of harassment or misconduct.[31][32] While the findings of the investigation were not made public, anonymous sources alleged that the investigation "uncovered behaviors by Jurvetson that were unacceptable related to a negative tone toward women entrepreneurs."[17] Jurvetson stated that stepping down from his role was unrelated to the allegations, writing "I am leaving DFJ to focus on personal matters" in a statement posted to Twitter.[33] Recode reported that Jurvetson was placed on a leave of absence and then later voted out of the company.

Current

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Jurvetson cofounded a new venture fund, Future Ventures, in April 2018. The inaugural $200M venture capital fund focuses on environmentally sustainable transportation, food technology and high power computer systems.[34][35] Future Ventures closed second and third rounds of funding in January 2021 and April 2023, respectively, each for $200 million.[36][37]

Venture capital investments

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Team".
  2. ^ Winkler, Rolfe (15 February 2019). "Investor Steve Jurvetson Works to Move On With New Fund". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  3. ^ "Future Ventures Launches $200 Million Venture Capital Fund to Back the Entrepreneurs Who Forge the Future". Business Wire. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  4. ^ a b Bort, Julie (2012-09-14). "Here's Why Investor Steve Jurvetson Saved Elon Musk's Space Dreams". Business Insider.
  5. ^ Fehrenbacher, Katie. "Tesla investor Steve Jurvetson drives off in the first Model S". Gigaom.
  6. ^ a b Robinson, Bill (29 August 2012). "TechScape: Steve Jurvetson … Not Your Garden Variety Venture Capitalist". Huffington Post.
  7. ^ "#69 Steve Jurvetson". Forbes.
  8. ^ "The Midas List: Tech's Top Investors 2013". Forbes. 5 May 2013.
  9. ^ "Stephen Jurvetson on Forbes Lists #59 The Midas List (2014)". Forbes. 29 March 2015.
  10. ^ "Stephen Jurvetson on Forbes Lists #97 The Midas List (2016)". Forbes. 11 March 2016.
  11. ^ a b "Seat Of Power: Tesla And SpaceX Investor Steve Jurvetson". Forbes. 23 March 2016.
  12. ^ [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
  13. ^ "Intel acquires deep learning startup Nervana for more than $350 million". August 9, 2016.
  14. ^ DraperTV (28 January 2015). "SpaceX and Why they are Daring to Think Big - Investor Steve Jurvetson". Archived from the original on 2021-12-12 – via YouTube.
  15. ^ Lindsey, Clark (2012-09-11). "Steve Jurvetson visits the SpaceX Grasshopper". NewSpace Watch. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  16. ^ Kokalitcheva, Kia (19 April 2019). "Steve Jurvetson among Tesla board members to step down". Axios. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  17. ^ a b Schleifer, Theodore (2017-11-13). "Steve Jurvetson is out at his own venture capital firm after allegations of sexual harassment". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
  18. ^ Tesla Investor Relations; not listed on Board Members as of February 2021.
  19. ^ "Jürvetson-seenior pöördus Eestisse pärast 60 aastat - Arhiiv - Postimees: Värsked uudised Eestist ja välismaalt". 22 July 2004.
  20. ^ "Steve Jurvetson, business partner become first non-Europeans to receive Estonian e-residency card". 11 December 2014.
  21. ^ Salkevera, Alex. "A pitch meeting with Steve Jurvetson reveals how legendary VC operates". AOL. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  22. ^ Bill_Robinson (2012-08-29). "TechScape: Steve Jurvetson ... Not Your Garden Variety Venture Capitalist". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
  23. ^ "1999 TR35 Winners: Steve Jurvetson, 32". MIT Tech Review. 1999.
  24. ^ Snider, David; Chris Howard (2010). Money Makers: Inside the New World of Finance and Business. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 214. ISBN 978-0230614017.
  25. ^ Zakrzewski, Cat (November 15, 2017). "Steve Jurvetson Fires Back at DFJ After His Exit". The Wall Street Journal. p. 1.
  26. ^ "Steve Jurvetson, a Renowned Silicon Valley Investor, Joins TMC's Board of Directors as Vice Chairman and Special Advisor to the CEO". Yahoo Finance. 2024-04-10. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  27. ^ a b Takahashi, Dean (December 18, 2008). "Steve Jurvetson on focusing on cleantech during the economic storm". VentureBeat. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  28. ^ Chen, Caroline (19 October 2015). "Early Theranos Investor Stands by Blood Testing Startup". Bloomberg.com.
  29. ^ "Remarks by the President at Global Entrepreneurship Summit and Conversation with Mark Zuckerberg and Entrepreneurs". The White House Office of the Press Secretary. 25 June 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  30. ^ Schleifer, Theodore. "Storied venture firm DFJ is investigating founder Steve Jurvetson for sexual harassment". Recode. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  31. ^ Dwoskin, Elizabeth; Paquette, Danielle. "Silicon Valley firm severs ties with co-founder Steve Jurvetson over allegations of sexual misconduct". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  32. ^ Miller, Claire Cain; Benner, Katie; Kantor, Jodi (2017-11-13). "Steve Jurvetson Quits Venture Capital Firm Amid Investigation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  33. ^ "Tesla, SpaceX Director Steve Jurvetson Leaves VC Firm Amid Sex Harassment Allegations". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-01-25.
  34. ^ Schubarth, Cromwell. "The Funded: Steve Jurvetson raises $200M for new venture fund". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  35. ^ "Confirmed: Six months after leaving DFJ, Steve Jurvetson is starting new venture firm". 6 April 2018.
  36. ^ "Steve Jurvetson and Maryanna Saenko on their new fund, SPACs and the great tech exodus". TechCrunch. 12 January 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  37. ^ "Talking with Future Ventures about its new fund, AI hype and Siri sucking (still)". TechCrunch. 12 April 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
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