Bitcoin bull Tim Draper, founder of seed capital venture company Draper Associates, details which of his choices over the years has had the greatest impact on society and delivered the highest monetary value.
The billionaire investor has backed a long list of companies that have become household names, choosing some of the fastest rising stars in a range of industries, including Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase and Robinhood.
In a new interview on TheCapitalNet TV, Draper says:
“Robinhood [US-based financial services] is probably the best choice for money. I think it's like a thousand times over money. And the total value for investors was probably Baidu [Chinese Internet giant]. It was probably the highest total value for investors. "
However, Draper says that a big game changer was the startup Hotmail which debuted in 1996 as one of the first free webmail services.
"The one I keep thinking about is Hotmail, and he was an Indian founder ... It spread to 11 million users in 18 months, and 100,000 users in India in three weeks at a time I don't think not that there were 100,000 computers in India.
It was a transformative business. Hotmail has allowed us all to communicate for free worldwide. Then I supported Skype, and Skype made it possible for us to see and hear each other for free. These two things, I think, have probably had the greatest global impact of all the investments I have made to date. "
Draper says that the internet bubble that burst in the late 90s caused a wave of angry investors. The only way to deal with the fallout was to "cope with the music" and tackle declining returns head-on.
Add Draper,
"It really paid off in the long run."
Draper says Bitcoin remains one of his most exciting prospects.
In Virtual Blockchain Week 2020, Draper said he maintained his prediction that BTC would reach $ 250,000 by the first quarter of 2023. He believes a big catalyst will be the adoption of BTC by retailers .
"All of a sudden, retailers will say, 'Do you mean I don't have to pay 2.5% to 4% to the banks every time someone swipes a credit card?' Why don't I accept Bitcoin ? '…
This is exactly how Visa and MasterCard have taken market share from American Express, who have charged less. You would think it doesn't make a big difference. That’s done. ”
The legendary investor, who has about 600 portfolio companies and 600 others in the Draper Venture network, says he has a global outlook and is always looking for big dynamic markets, new technology and great people. But the landscape of entrepreneurs has radically changed with a tendency towards a very high concentration of power.
"The other thing we notice is that there are less winners, bigger ones, when when I started, everyone was doing pretty well, and if I had a big winner , it was like a huge family fund. Now there could be more losers and more focus in one or two of the big winners. But these big winners have a bigger world, a bigger environment to look for, and they're getting much, much bigger than they were in the 90s. ”
Draper says he has a window into the future as he meets eight to nine entrepreneurs every day who give him a taste of new opportunities and ideas.
"I'm not sure I could make half of what they m ' have given."
He predicts greater consolidation in the venture capital world with more companies closing in the next cycle. Ultimately, Draper expects transformative technology to flatten, streamline, and optimize the VC industry in the same way that Uber challenged and impacted taxi drivers.
"I think there will be other models that could work better."
