Venture Capitalist Tim Draper Offers His Outlook for the Economy & Tech Sector
Friday, March 28, 2008PAUL KANGAS: California's Silicon Valley is known for being innovative. At a recent Valley conference on that topic, we talked with venture capitalist Tim Draper. Our interview was done by Paul Rogers, reporter at PBS affiliate KTEH and The San Jose Mercury News. It was also produced by KTEH.
Rogers began by asking draper what sectors he finds exciting.
TIMOTHY DRAPER, FOUNDER, DRAPER FISHER JURVESON: We are really excited about things whenever an entrepreneur comes to us and says we have something that could absolutely convert an industry. We can change an industry completely. And this industry has been a little lazy, and now it's time to shake them up.
I think the media industry is really starting to feel that. I think the oil industry is actually getting fat and lazy, and I think there are some great opportunities there in clean tech. I think that there are a number of other industries that look like they are ripe for the picking, and entrepreneurs are very clever, and they will come up with great solutions to change the way those industries think and do things.
PAUL ROGERS, REPORTER, KTEH, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: Now you have had a lot of success over the last 20 years helping bankroll companies like Hotmail and Skype. And when people talk about the economy these days, there is a lot of talk about recession and housing problems and a slowing economy.
How much does that affect your outlook going ahead? Is that going to slow the kind of venture capital investment that creates a lot of these great companies?
DRAPER: Well, fortunately, our firm is global now, and we are focused on entrepreneurs wherever they are. And so that turns out to make it so that any recession in one area can be dampened by some growth in another area.
And so we are still very actively investing. We think it is a great time to be investing. The global markets are opening up, and so our markets for entrepreneurs are also opening up. And we think it is going to be great.
ROGERS: Now you mentioned clean tech. There is a lot of talk in the press about clean tech. Is it a bubble, or is there real long-term growth opportunity there as you see it?
DRAPER: Well, there is real long-term growth opportunity, and what is considered clean tech today, solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, are all big industries waiting to happen. But currently all of them together add up to less than 1 percent of all of our energy use. So right now, we are still 90 percent hydrocarbon and 9 or 10 percent nuclear.
ROGERS: You mentioned media. Talk a little bit about that. I know your firm is an investor in Glam, which is a women's Web site. What are some other places you see media going in the next five or 10 years?
DRAPER: Well, media has been hit by a typhoon. The typhoon came in, totally shook up the media monopolies. And all of that typhoon spread the media to the winds, where those media monopolies used to have a one-to-many penetration where one camera would reach everyone, now those cameras are so cheap that it can be many to many, and that is going to be an enormous change.
ROGERS: Let me ask you about China. You have a big presence in China, I know you travel to China lot. Where do you see China going in the next 10 years vis-a-vis its relationship with the American economy? Should we worry about China? Should it be something we are excited about? What is your take?
DRAPER: I think we should be excited about China. I think a growing China is very good for the Silicon Valley, good for America. I think it is fantastic that that economy has grown so fast for so long. The Chinese people are living much, much better than they did 15 or 20 years ago.
We are very excited about what China has become and what it could be. And that growth I expect to continue for many years to come. And there will be extraordinary innovations coming out of China that are going to benefit everyone on the planet.
