The Best One Yet Sep 25, 2026 47m · 33m saved
With Tim Draper, Founder of Draper Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), an early investor in Tesla, SpaceX, Skype, Coinbase and Robinhood
Tim Draper was the first investor to say yes to Robinhood after its founders had heard 25 no's. His condition was that the two founders take no salary until they held a broker-dealer license.
One of the hosts suggested investors decide on a founder in the first few seconds. Draper said he has trained himself not to, looks for the controversial deal other investors avoid, and he now aims at every industry run by an oligopoly that he said has grown "a little fat and lazy."
"So I'm going to be going after every industry that starts with the word big."
Tim Draper, founder of Draper Associates, on The Best One Yet, spoke at the show's live taping in San Francisco as the investor who backed Tesla, SpaceX and Cruise Automation, bought his first Bitcoin through CoinLab and lost it in the Mt. Gox collapse. In the interview he also gave the one question he asks every founder and a case for markets over socialism.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 47 minutes of audio, 14 minutes of reading.
Here are the 13 lessons that matter.
Key Takeaways
He asks every founder "why are you doing this" and backs the ones whose answer "bursts out of their chest"
He looks for controversial companies, because a mainstream idea draws 5,000 competitors
Three failed Falcon 1 launches did not shake his SpaceX bet
A self-driving car that swerved into oncoming traffic persuaded him to invest in Cruise, because he saw a software problem
Bitcoin fell only about 15% when $400 million was stolen at Mt. Gox, which told him people needed it
He expects either runaway inflation or bank failures to push people into Bitcoin
Robinhood's founders got his money on condition they paid themselves nothing until they had a broker-dealer license
His next targets are industries run by oligopolies: pharma, accounting, banking, government, oil and education
Public investors can follow venture capital into the few startups that succeed, he said
Meet the Drapers now gets about 1,000 applications for every 4 slots, which makes it a deal-flow source
His firm's AI screens about 250,000 companies and returns five a week for him to review
1. A 52-Minute Cold Plunge
The hosts opened by citing his Guinness record: 52 startup pitches heard during a cold plunge. Draper said the water was 40 degrees and that he had his Draper University students come through three at a time.
He heard 52 pitches in 52 minutes in 40-degree water
"40 degrees, 52 minutes, 52 pitches." — Tim Draper
Afterward he sat in his car with the heater on for about half an hour because he could not move his hands, and could not button his suit for a business meeting.
Advice from Richard Edelman led to his own TV show
He said he once asked Richard Edelman, whom he called the best public-relations man in the world, for general advice. The answer was "Be your own media company," and it was one of the inspirations for Meet the Drapers, his reality show for founders. One of the hosts said the ninth season's finale drew 1.8 million viewers. Draper said a podcast he tried had failed.
"I don't know how you guys do it. It was brutal. No one came." — Tim Draper
