andy tang

Partner @drapervc @draperdragon Deal @oklo @colossal @polymarket @iceye @otter_ai @ledger @venusaerospace @cardano @scoutai_ @xanaduai @rigetti @radiantnuclear

[andy tang @Andytang]

@America250 love it, completely bipartisan organization, celebrating the nation's 250th birthday!

[America250 @America250]

Get ready for the 4th, here’s a schedule of today’s livestream events.

https://t.co/tg2Hx2SQfd

[andy tang @Andytang]

I wrote more about these amazing students and their missions here on LinkedIn - if anyone is interested! https://t.co/gygqFDgdC3

[andy tang @Andytang]

250 years ago, a bunch of audacious founders dreamed up an untested operating model and scaled it into the most powerful nation on earth. To celebrate, we ran America's Startup Challenge with @America250 and brought the top 10 teams to Silicon Valley for the finals. I was blown away — students building everything from biodegradable seaweed-based fire suppressant to precision cancer therapies. Entrepreneurs like this are why I'm optimistic about America. Their drive and vision are what make this country what it is.
Excited to keep working with them at @draper_u ! Here's to 250+ more years 🇺🇸

[Rosie Rios @RosieRios]

How do you get all 350 million Americans involved in celebrating the country's 250th birthday?

That's a question I get asked often, and one I dug into this week on @NYSE's Inside the ICE House podcast. 🇺🇸

Listen to the full episode below.

[andy tang @Andytang]

@RosieRios @NYSE Thank you for telling all of our immigrant and American story !

[Tim Draper @TimDraper]

It is fun to think about which AI company wins. Will it be @OpenAI? @AnthropicAI? @Grok?

Just be aware that the big winners at the start of the internet were AOL, Yahoo, and Netscape, yet none of them ended up winning.

You don't know who rises from the ashes until they've risen.

What I 𝘥𝘰 know is that AI is near the "hype dot of the i" on the Draper iS curve.

Whether it is a relative top or not, according to the Draper iS-curve, AI will eventually be bigger than any of us have imagined.

Bitcoin is in the post i nobody cares territory, when people are hard at work making it mainstream. Bitcoin also will grow far higher than most people imagine.

My full interview with @Crunchbase is linked below. We discussed digital twins, regulation, what I look for in founders now versus 10 years ago, and why quantum computing will hack banks long before it touches bitcoin.

👇

[andy tang @Andytang]

8/ TL;DR: Fed and AI infra are the headlines. Leverage is the one that moves fast and catches people off guard.

[andy tang @Andytang]

Macro observations that startup founders, VCs and LPs should be aware of across global markets and tech news so far this week 👇

[andy tang @Andytang]

7/ This one worries me most. If leverage unwinds fast, everyone gets spooked at once - and that fear doesn't stay in public markets. It hits late-stage raises and IPOs hardest, which means a narrower exit window for every fund counting on one.

[ARK Invest @ARKInvest]

.@DraperVC is investing in an artificial womb company. @Andytang explains the simple rule he uses to know when an unconventional idea is ready for a startup bet on the latest FYI.

[Maxime Bucaille @maxime_bucaille]

DA8 just closed for $300M

Our 12th year since relaunching the brand and spinning out of DFJ

The strategy hasn't changed

Back exceptional founders early, ones willing to push the envelope with technology in industries that are badly serving their customers

Welcome to our new LPs and founders joining the journey

[andy tang @Andytang]

Icon @TimDraper started his venture career 41 years ago, and I joined for the adventure for the last 19 of those years.

What I've learned is some startups work out faster than others :) but I always make sure I learn something from each founder, and hopefully make myself a better partner to the next one. But I am grateful to have worked along some of the best like @jakedewitte @caorilne @callmevlad @BaijuBhatt @Goopt @adavda @shayne_coplan @BenLamm @_cweedbrook @rmodrzewski @AliceXinliZhang @MoufeedKaddoura @BenDoh @sduggleby @aduggleby @williewockets @adcock_colby @collinotis @GABLTNYC @vbarsan @LaFrogman and so many more!

And of course thank you to the incredible @DraperVC team and to our LPs, without whom none of this would be possible.

And with that, a big welcome to our LPs and founders who will be joining us on the next chapter of our journey with DA8!

[Tim Draper @TimDraper]

I am so proud to announce the launch of DA8, another $300M we are putting to work into disruptive early-stage founders!

41 years in, and I love the job more every day.

We relaunched @DraperVC 12 years ago. Since day one, we have continued to back founders who are willing to sound crazy. The ones who look at a broken industry, that hasn't been innovated on in 20+ years, and say, "I'm going to fix that, no matter what it takes."

Over the history of Draper, we have been the first VC in companies like @Tesla, @SpaceX, Hotmail, @Twitch, @Skype, @Baidu_Inc., Bitcoin, @Coinbase, @Robinhood, @Oklo, @Polymarket, @XanaduAI, @iceye_global, @Colossal, and the list goes on.

I remember the first time I met every one of those entrepreneurs, and the hundreds more we have funded over the years. At Draper, we look forward to funding more entrepreneurs who build unicorns and trinocorns (trillion dollar companies).

What I've learned after four decades is simple. The greatest founders are those who feel that they have to do what they are doing. It was pre-ordained.

Getting to help them and fund them early is the privilege of my work.

To our new Limited Partners: we appreciate you for working with us on this important mission. We know it is only the boldest LP that sees the investment world as we do.

To the founders coming to pitch us for DA8: we cannot wait to see the future you create.

And to anyone building something the world isn't ready for yet, keep going. We are looking for you.

Here's to DA8.