3 letters - DFJ. The phenomenal venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley that provides venture and growth capital to extraordinary entrepreneurs who are changing the world. The letters DFJ, are taken from the founders’ last names - Timothy Draper, John Fisher and Steve Jurveston.
The DFJ Ultimate Club is an exclusive club for any DFJ-backed company that achieves a valuation of $1 Billion or more. Since their founding, 23 companies have achieved this status.
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DFJ Ultimate Club / Image Credit: DFJ.com/portfolio[/caption]
It is no mean feat for any entrepreneur to build a company with a $1 Billion+ valuation. Equally, finding these 'unicorns' is no easy challenge itself for any angel investor or venture capitalist.
So how do they (DFJ) do it? How do they spot the entrepreneurs and founders with the greatest potential? How do they nurture them to success? On the 15th of May Heidi Roizen, Operating Partner at DFJ, will share her insights into these questions and many more, in an intimate fireside chat at the Edinburgh University Business School. The event will be in collaboration with Entrepreneurial Scotland and Informatics ventures.
ABOUT HEIDI ROIZEN
Heidi Roizen is Operating Partner at DFJ. She has spent her life immersed in the Silicon Valley ecosystem as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, educator and member of the boards of directors of private and public companies, trade associations and nonprofit institutions
A SELECTION OF COMPANIES IN THE DFJ ULTIMATE CLUB
Twitter is a global social networking platform that allows its users to send and read 140-character messages known as “tweets”. It enables registered users to read and post their tweets through the web, short message service (SMS), and mobile applications.
DFJ participated in their $400 Million Series G round in August 2011 (Source: Crunchbase). Twitter went public in November 2013.
Tumblr, a microblogging platform and social networking website, enables users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.
DFJ participated in their $85 Million Series E round in September 2011 (Source: Crunchbase). Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo in June 2013 for $1.1 billion.
Founded in 2006, SolarCity is a full-service solar provider for homeowners, businesses and government organizations. It provides solar power system design, financing, installation, energy efficiency and monitoring services.
DFJ participated in their $21.5 Million Private Equity round in July 2010 (Source: Crunchbase).
Tesla Motors designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, such as the Tesla Roadster, the first fully electric sports car.
DFJ participated in their $50 Million Series F round in May 2009 (Source: Crunchbase). Tesla went public in June 2010.
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chats over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system.
DFJ participated in their $18.8 Million Series B round in March 2004 (Source: Crunchbase). Skype was first acquired by eBay for $2.6 Billion in September 2005. In May 2011 Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 Billion.
Founded in 2005, Box has emerged as the leading cloud content management solution for enterprises. Box makes it easy for people to access and share their content from anywhere with any connected device, from PCs to tablets to smartphones.
DFJ participated in multiple rounds, including $1.5 Million Seed round in October 2006, $6 Million Series A (January 2008), $7.1 Million Series B (October 2009), $15 Million Series C (April 2010), $48 Million Series D (February 2011), $81 Million Series D (October 2011), $125 Million Series E(July 2012), $25 Million Series E (January 2013), $100 Million Series F (December 2013) (Source: Crunchbase). Box went public in January 2015.
Baidu offers many services, including a Chinese language search engine for websites, audio files, and images. Baidu offers 57 search and community services including Baidu Baike, an online collaboratively built encyclopedia, and a searchable keyword-based discussion forum.
DFJ participated in their $10 Million Series B round in September 2000 and their $100 Million Series C round in June 2004 (Source: Crunchbase). Baidu went public in August 2005.
Yammer is an enterprise social network established to foster team collaboration, empower employees, and drive business transformation. It enables employees to collaborate in real time across departments, geographies, and business applications. It also helps them create groups to collaborate on projects and share and edit documents.
DFJ participated in their $85 Million Series E round in February 2012 (Source: Crunchbase). Yammer was acquired by Microsoft for $1.2 Billion in June 2012