Genevieve LeMarchal: 00:05 It's Genevieve LeMarchal. I am so excited to have you guys here today to join me for this conversation with Tim Draper. The interesting thing about my conversation with Tim today is this actually a very personal conversation. We didn't talk that much about business. We didn't talk that much about bitcoin. We didn't talk that much about venture capital. Talked a little bit, but not a lot. We talked mostly about family, about growing up, about values and about legacy. I recently became a mother and was very excited to be able to share some of these stories and experiences and hear about Tim's growing up. So Tim has a lot of notoriety. I almost don't even need to introduce him. He is a very, very well known venture capitalist and a from a multigenerational family of VCs. He and I am excited to share our conversation with him today with you guys. So let's dive in. Let's talk about. So your upbringing. You know, I did a little bit of my homework. You pounded the pavement selling oysters and. Tim Draper: 01:13 The troubling oyster show. Genevieve LeMarchal: 01:15 I sold rubber bands as a child. So you know, a penny each or a bag for a dollar. So throwing yourself in. I think I also read some story about your mother dropping you off at the base of Mount Shasta or something along those lines. Tim Draper: 01:29 She dropped your way home at the base of Mount Rainier. Genevieve LeMarchal: 01:33 Mount Rainier. Tim Draper: 01:33 And you had to find at 14 with another friend. And we had 60 pound backpacks with just sleeping bags and freeze dried food for a week. And we had to, we had to find our way to this location. We had to hike 66 miles around to this other location. And my friend and I, we were just, I, we were so lucky we made it. But I've never been in better shape. I remember going and playing football after that and I couldn't believe how strong I was or how weak everybody else was because I had done that. So I highly recommend strapping 60 pounds to your back and, and your kids. Genevieve LeMarchal: 02:29 Backs and jumping them off on the mountain. Yeah, well, so I mean we have. Tim Draper: 02:34 Survival training at Draper University, the school I created for entrepreneurs. And, and we take them up to wherever and do do crazy things with Navy Seals and special forces and Army Rangers and Marines and whoever. And, and I, three of my kids, I said hey, you gotta join Draper University. You gotta go, go through it. One of them did. Our, our youngest did. But the other three said, dad, I've been through survival training. I'm your kid. Genevieve LeMarchal: 03:13 That's funny. I can kind of empathize my family. My grandfather was in the military also, and so I was raised by a Navy fighter pilot. And, you know, he didn't go easy on us. And, you know, he was the type of guy who would pitch a tent in the rain and we were going to sleep in it and we were going to have a nice time. Oh, yeah, it was always fun. Yeah. Tim Draper: 03:33 Well, we, we do sort of have, I mean, some strange things that we did, I did with the kids. We had something called death ball. We had a swimming pool and a basketball hoop, and there were no rules. The goal was just to get the ball into the hoop and. And it's amazing how inventive everybody gets when you don't have a lot of rules. When you don't set up any rules. Yeah, you had to wear goggles so nobody got poked in the eye. But it was. We eventually loved it so much we created death ball tournaments. We had, you know, my daughter brought all these kids from ucla water polo team, and death ball became this huge thing. But it was a thing for me. I was just thinking, you, you know, I want my kids to survive. I want them to be able to live through whatever it is. And a little bit of toughness is not a bad thing. I, you know, I know everybody's walks on eggshells now and the woke culture and all that stuff seems to make sense to some people, not to me. Genevieve LeMarchal: 04:57 I have a question for you then about that. So I was speaking with an athlete. Tim Draper: 05:01 I think people need a tough skin to survive. Genevieve LeMarchal: 05:04 I would agree. Tim Draper: 05:05 They gotta understand what's out there and they gotta feel it. They can't be. It can't be hidden from them and that. And I think it's important to be, to, you know, raise your children to realize it's not all going to be easy. Yeah, you're going to go through all sorts of fits and start. Look at what you're going through. Having a baby, trying to raise a fund, doing one. Yes, whatever. That can't be easy. Genevieve LeMarchal: 05:38 No. Tim Draper: 05:39 But clearly you're driven to do it and clearly you're tough enough to keep it going. If, if you want to raise a kid to get along and go along, fine. But we're trying to raise kids who, who become heroes, who become extraordinary, who, who drive new avenues, who, you know, pioneer a world that's better than the one we've got. And I think to do that, they've gotta. They've got to know that things can get tough. And when they get tough, it's not that bad. In fact, as my father used to say, well, it's going to make a great story. You know, when we were, didn't have any hotel reservation and in Mexico, he took us all to Rosarito beach and just said, you're gonna sleep on the beach? And then Eddie said, but it's gonna make a great story. Genevieve LeMarchal: 06:44 Yeah. Tim Draper: 06:44 And so I think that that attitude, like, go out, live your life, enjoy the freedom that you have in this country, enjoy the, the world that you have, take it all in and then see what you can do to improve it. I think those things are, are what can really help drive a family and also drive a community and a state and a country. Genevieve LeMarchal: 07:14 I like that value of contribution. That's very important to me, and that was something that was instilled in me growing up. But so one question I have for you is on this topic, a lot of people who I've met have come from upbringings that were difficult. I've spoken with several people who have become athletes or CEOs or business people, and they grew up in, you know, not great conditions and they overcame this adversity. So you're talking about things aren't always easy and children need to learn that. And, you know, some of the detriments of this woke culture we're living in today, which I, I have to agree with you on much of that, but, you know, I'm just gonna say it straight. You didn't have for yourself or your children some of the difficulties that some of these, you know, other people may have had growing up. So how, how would you, if someone brought that up to you and said you grew up in privilege, your family never actually had the, the risk of failure, true failure, you know, being on the street or whatever that might be, yet, you know, you still were able to create these values in your children and these values created in you from your parents, even though you didn't actually have that imminent risk of like, you know, ultimate failure hanging over you? Tim Draper: 08:35 Well, I don't know. Money comes and goes. Genevieve LeMarchal: 08:39 Yeah. Tim Draper: 08:40 When my dad ran for Congress, things weren't going very well. It wasn't always, you know, cherry blossoms. Genevieve LeMarchal: 08:49 Yeah. Tim Draper: 08:49 I think you, you underestimate the challenges that people have, no matter where they come from. And by, by thinking, oh, you know, they're, you know, oh, they're eating caviar and living the dream. It's. I, I think you, you know, I, I remember I, they called me flood pants or something because I, I wore the same pair of white jeans for three years. I, I, you know, that sort of thing. That's, that's what kids are supposed to sort of tease you so that you get that teasing so that you kind of take it in and you go, ah, this is important. This is not important. There are, you know, there are always going to be challenges. There are always going to be times when you are, you know, and when you, I mean, gosh, I, I've got a ton of money now. It creates all sorts of opportunities and problems because of all the people I'm involved with and all the battles and the excitement and the danger and the fun that I, I get to encounter. And I feel like it's really, you know, when you have a lot of money, then you have more responsibility. It's like Spider Man. With great power comes great responsibility. And then when it's gone, you have, you have survival instincts and you have to kind of get back down to it. It isn't a one state to another state thing. That isn't the way it works. There are days where you are impoverished and there are days when you're rich and then there are days when you are taking on the world and doing something very unpopular. And then there are days when all of a sudden you're swimming with a current and you're wondering what, what's going to go wrong. Genevieve LeMarchal: 10:59 Yeah, I felt that. So about resilience then. So this industry, venture capital, a lot of people don't know this about venture capital, but it's, it's extremely difficult. It is one of the hardest businesses I've ever been in. And I've been in some. Tim Draper: 11:14 You don't know if my dad said that he joined venture capital because he thought it would be easy. Genevieve LeMarchal: 11:19 Yeah, I think a lot of people, I used to think it was too. I'm like, oh, VCs, they just like have a checkbook in their purse and they skip around and write checks to cool ideas, you know? No, no. And you know, I don't. I always say the hardest thing you can do is be an entrepreneur and start something completely from scratch. And innovative technology, it's. On the scale of hard things, that's a 10. But being a VC, especially starting a VC firm, that's probably like a 7 or an 8 in terms of hard things to do. But you don't know. You don't get any feedback on whether or not you're good
