Steve Jurvetson

Stephen T. Jurvetson (born March 1, 1967) is an American 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 and Tesla,[4] among others. He later co-founded the firm Future Ventures with Maryanna Saenko, who worked with him at DFJ.[5][6]

Steve Jurvetson
Jurvetson in 2014
Born
Stephen T. Jurvetson

(1967-03-01) March 1, 1967
Arizona, U.S.
Alma materStanford University
OccupationFounder and Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Co-founder Future Ventures[1]
Spouse(s)

Early life and education

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.[7] Steve Jurvetson was the first non-European to become an e-resident of Estonia.[8]

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[9] 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[10] 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 TR35 in 1999 for "recognize young entrepreneurs who can deliver", including making the first investment in Hotmail.[12]

Career
Steve Jurvetson with the first production Tesla Model S

As a consultant with Bain & Company, Jurvetson developed executive marketing, sales, engineering and business strategies for a wide range of companies in the software, networking, and semiconductor industries.[13] He first joined DFJ after his second year of business school, and became a partner after proving his talent on several investments.[14]

At DFJ, Jurvetson was involved in lucrative investments with Hotmail, Interwoven, Kana, Tradex, and Cyras.[15] Cyras in particular was acquired for 8 billion USD.[15] Less favorably, DFJ and Jurvetson were an early financial backer of Elizabeth Holmes and her disgraced blood-testing firm Theranos.[16]

Jurvetson was named to Forbes' "Midas List" of Tech's Top Investors in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016.[13][17][18][19][20][11] He was a board member of Synthetic Genomics, Planet Labs, Nervana Systems (acquired by Intel),[21] Flux, D-Wave, SpaceX,[5][22] and Tesla.[23]

Also in 2016, President Barack Obama appointed Jurvetson as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.[24]

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 rumors of sexual harassment.[25] 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."[26] 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.[27]

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.[28][29]

Jurvetson has been a member of the Tesla board of directors since 2006 to the present, although he was expected not to seek reappointment at the 2020 board meeting, he is still listed as of February 2021.[4][26][30]

See also

References
  1. "Team".
  2. Winkler, Rolfe. "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. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  4. Kokalitcheva, Kia. "Steve Jurvetson among Tesla board members to step down". Axios. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  5. Bort, Julie (2012-09-14). "Here's Why Investor Steve Jurvetson Saved Elon Musk's Space Dreams". Business Insider.
  6. Fehrenbacher, Katie. "Tesla investor Steve Jurvetson drives off in the first Model S". Gigaom.
  7. "Jürvetson-seenior pöördus Eestisse pärast 60 aastat - Arhiiv - Postimees: Värsked uudised Eestist ja välismaalt".
  8. "Steve Jurvetson, business partner become first non-Europeans to receive Estonian e-residency card".
  9. Salkevera, Alex. "A pitch meeting with Steve Jurvetson reveals how legendary VC operates". AOL. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  10. Bill_Robinson (2012-08-29). "TechScape: Steve Jurvetson ... Not Your Garden Variety Venture Capitalist". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
  11. "Seat Of Power: Tesla And SpaceX Investor Steve Jurvetson". Forbes. 23 March 2016.
  12. "1999 TR35 Winners: Steve Jurvetson, 32". MIT Tech Review. 1999.
  13. Robinson, Bill. "TechScape: Steve Jurvetson … Not Your Garden Variety Venture Capitalist". Huffington Post.
  14. Snider, David; Chris Howard (2010). Money Makers: Inside the New World of Finance and Business. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 214. ISBN 978-0230614017.
  15. Takahashi, Dean (December 18, 2008). "Steve Jurvetson on focusing on cleantech during the economic storm". VentureBeat. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  16. Chen, Caroline. "Early Theranos Investor Stands by Blood Testing Startup".
  17. "#69 Steve Jurvetson". Forbes.
  18. "The Midas List: Tech's Top Investors 2013". Forbes. 5 May 2013.
  19. "Stephen Jurvetson on Forbes Lists #59 The Midas List (2014)". Forbes. 29 March 2015.
  20. "Stephen Jurvetson on Forbes Lists #97 The Midas List (2016)". Forbes. 11 March 2016.
  21. https://venturebeat.com/2016/08/09/intel-acquires-deep-learning-startup-nervana/
  22. DraperTV (28 January 2015). "SpaceX and Why they are Daring to Think Big - Investor Steve Jurvetson" – via YouTube.
  23. Lindsey, Clark (2012-09-11). "Steve Jurvetson visits the SpaceX Grasshopper". NewSpace Watch. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  24. "Remarks by the President at Global Entrepreneurship Summit and Conversation with Mark Zuckerberg and Entrepreneurs". The White House Office of the Press Secretary. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  25. Schleifer, Theodore. "Storied venture firm DFJ is investigating founder Steve Jurvetson for sexual harassment". Recode. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  26. 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.
  27. "Tesla, SpaceX Director Steve Jurvetson Leaves VC Firm Amid Sex Harassment Allegations". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-01-25.
  28. Schubarth, Cromwell. "The Funded: Steve Jurvetson raises $200M for new venture fund". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  29. Confirmed: Six months after leaving DFJ, Steve Jurvetson is starting new venture firm
  30. "Steve Jurvetson | Board of Directors | Tesla, Inc". ir.teslamotors.com. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
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