Steve Jurvetson
Steve Jurvetson is an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He is a founding partner of the venture capital firm DFJ (Draper Fisher Jurvetson) and has been a board director of many technology companies, including Hotmail, Interwoven, and Kana.
He also served on the board of directors of Tesla Motors and was an early investor in the company. Jurvetson has been recognized for his work in the technology industry and has been named to the Forbes Midas List of top venture capitalists multiple times.
As a consultant with Bain & Company, Jurvetson developed marketing, sales, engineering, and business strategies for a wide range of companies in the software, networking, and semiconductor industries. He first joined DFJ after his second year of business school and became a partner after proving his talent on several investments.
At DFJ, Jurvetson was involved in lucrative investments with Hotmail, Interwoven, Kana, Tradex, and Cyras. Cyras, in particular, was acquired for 8 billion USD. Less favorably, DFJ and Jurvetson were early financial backers of Elizabeth Holmes and her disgraced blood-testing firm Theranos. Also, in 2016, President Barack Obama appointed Jurvetson as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.
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 allegations of sexual harassment. While there were allegations of inappropriate behavior, DFJ did not receive an official complaint of harassment or misconduct. While the findings of the investigation were not made public, anonymous sources alleged that the investigation "uncovered behaviors by Jurvetson that were unacceptably related to a negative tone toward women entrepreneurs."
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. Recode reported that Jurvetson was placed on a leave of absence and then later voted out of the company. A source familiar with the situation told Recode that the dismissal was triggered by DFJ learning that Jurvetson lied about what it considered "serious allegations."
Jurvetson co-founded 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. Jurvetson was a member of the Tesla board of directors from 2006 to December 2020.
