Welcome
If you are here, it’s because you too are constantly imagining the future, consumed by turning your vision into reality. You are our kind of people. Come on in and get to know us.

Selecting the right investor is one of the most important decisions a founder will make during the entrepreneurial journey. It’s not all about the money. Capital is fungible, so choosing an investor is a decision about the people you want on your team. Alignment is essential. Just like we want to learn about you, we are inviting you to learn about us. 

Who we are
We are company builders. We are entrepreneurs, operators, technologists, and investors who partner with visionary founders and help them build iconic companies. We have scaled businesses and have faced the inevitable land mines that can obstruct the path to success. We are team players always.

We love big, bold ideas that can grow into epic companies. We are fearless and will invest in situations and sectors where others shy away, before they are obvious to others. We back founders who demonstrate the desire and will to go the distance. For them, we roll up our sleeves and commit to help in every way possible.

We are growth investors, focused on partnering for the scaling journey. We have impact by being an engaged partner, sharing our experience, offering our counsel, and providing access to our network – but we do not micromanage or stand on a soapbox. Our success is not defined by our own accomplishments but by the company we keep. Once we are in, we are all in, with the only scorecard being our shared success.

Our roots run deep
DFJ has been backing extraordinary entrepreneurs for nearly four decades. Our roots go back to William Henry Draper Jr., who co-founded the first Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Draper, Gaither, and Andersen, in 1959. Since then, three generations of Drapers have been instrumental in creating the venture capital industry we know today. From this heritage emerged DFJ, led by Tim Draper and John Fisher, with a reputation for being innovative, forward looking and fearless, embracing change and bold new ideas. The new millennium brought change to the venture capital landscape as a gap emerged between the risk-taking posture of early-stage investing and the more conservative posture of the public markets. This set the table for innovation in the venture capital ecosystem. Enter DFJ Growth.

In 2005, seeing opportunity where others saw challenges, DFJ Growth was formed by John Fisher, Barry Schuler, Randy Glein, and Mark Bailey (retired) to explore new approaches. We reasoned young tech companies could scale more efficiently if they stayed private longer, avoiding the short-term motivations of the public markets. We believed more scale and maturity would be required to reach an IPO, thus creating a gap between early-stage venture capital and the public markets. DFJ Growth was conceived to fill this emerging funding gap, combining capital with scaling and company building experience of the DFJ Growth founders. Within a decade, this new venture growth category exploded in size and significance, and DFJ Growth emerged as a prominent backer of many disruptive leaders, including Coinbase, SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, and Unity. Our strategy remains the same today … select visionary founders with game-changing technologies that are enabling the rise of very large markets and a new generation of disruptive leaders.

It helps to have a Sherpa
Scaling companies is hard. We like to think of ourselves as guides on this journey, Sherpas who have travelled the path many times and faced the inevitable forks in the road and unknown peril at every turn. We are a small team of successful entrepreneurs, operators, and investors with 200+ years of collective experience exclusively focused on company building and bringing new technologies to market. We are expert navigators, at your side, seeking to leverage our knowledge and know-how to make the journey smoother, faster, and more direct.

Silicon Valley state of mind, everywhere
DFJ Growth is based in Silicon Valley, the home of a powerful ecosystem that has spawned so many visionary entrepreneurs, transformative innovations, and iconic tech companies. Silicon Valley has an ethos that supports taking big risks, accepting failure as a learning experience, and pursuing disruptive innovation as a path toward betterment. It is a state of mind, but it is in no way exclusive to the San Francisco Bay region. We go anywhere to partner with the world’s greatest innovators. When an extraordinary entrepreneur emerges in some distant place, you will find us there ready to help light the path for their journey.

Our kind of people
We are often asked, "What do you look for in an entrepreneur?" The answer is simple: a burning ember poised to erupt. Someone with a bold idea, a solution to a problem, a better approach. They refuse to accept the status quo. Conventional wisdom be damned. They are creators and visionaries. They are leaders. Building their idea into a blockbuster company is their very air. They cannot imagine a future without it. There is no other calling for them, they are compelled to see it through. These are our kind of people. 

Genuine entrepreneurs see the future before others do and make it happen. We identify with them because we are cut from the same cloth. If you and your team identify with the words we've crafted here, we'd welcome the chance to add our fuel to your fire.