Timothy C. Draper is the Founder and Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. As an early stage venture capitalist, Mr. Draper has backed Parametric Technology, Preview Travel, PLX Technology, JetFax, Four11, Digidesign, CellNet Data Systems and 40 other companies from inception. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has worked as a Marketing Engineer for Hewlett-Packard, and was Assistant to the President of Apollo Computer. He worked in high technology corporate finance at Alex. Brown & Sons before founding Draper Associates (now Draper Fisher Jurvetson).

Mr. Draper currently serves on the boards of AVEO, Chroma Graphics, GoTo.com, Homestead, I-Cube, iShip, Photonic Power, PLX, RISE, Troika Networks, Tumbleweed Software, and Upside Media, as well as satellite venture capital funds Wasatch Ventures and Polaris Fund. His original suggestion to use "viral marketing" in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and Four11. As an advocate for entrepreneurs, he has been published in The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Examiner, San Jose Mercury News , Upside, The Red Herring, The Hoover Gazette, and the Congressional Record.

Mr. Draper is also the creator of Tim Draper's BizWorld, a course used to train young entrepreneurs. Along with his interest in developing young entrepreneurs, Mr. Draper has a strong commitment to the public schools and was appointed to the State Board of Education last April. See Education quotes. Mr. Draper launched a cyber-initiative on school choice for the California Primary Election in 2000 on November 11, 1998. Please click here for a summary of articles on LocalChoice2000.