Billy Draper

Investing $100K-$300K into pre-seed companies @ Path Ventures. Always taking burger recommendations.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

Happy Friday! I'm thrilled to announce the launch of my seed fund, Path Ventures (https://t.co/wktF7Wd6gB). I'll be investing between $150k-$300k in early-stage companies that are delighting and empowering their customers. If you're building one of those, reach out!

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

Any of this sound familiar?

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

In the early 2000s, Salesforce was pioneering the subscription software business.

Critics complained it unsafe to move company data to external web servers, it was too expensive over time relative to paying upfront for a CD-Rom, and it wouldn't be able to manage complex tasks.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

Blumhouse continues its masterclass in disciplined cost control, equity alignment, and proper incentive structures.

@jason_blum keep running it up - seems like they're not even trying to catch you at this point.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

In hot times, decacorns are often just horses with costumes.

There were ~37 net new decacorns in 2021. If you had invested $1 evenly into all of them, you'd have ~$0.88 on the dollar today. And if you did most but missed Databricks/Revolut/Reddit, woof.

Be careful out there!

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

Jean-Michel, ex-Shopify CTO, joining Spellbook. Pretty rad. Beyond bullish.

[Jean-Michel Lemieux @jmwind]

Very stoked about my next adventure. I’ve joined Spellbook, but not as CTO.

I’m joining as an Executive IC. It probably means different things to different people. It means I'm here to build and be hands on in every part of the company.

I've invested and been advising and getting to know @scottastevenson and the team for more than a year. At some point it became obvious the most useful thing I could do was stop talking about ideas and go work with the team.

With AI making code cheap to copy, what's going to be hard to copy is the shape of a company. How a team learns, decides, and ships. That's what I want to work on. It's what I've spent the last three decades learning to do.

Why Spellbook? The world has entered into one of the largest investment cycles in decades. Trillions of dollars are being deployed into energy, AI, manufacturing, transportation and the modernization of critical global systems. Despite this, progress still moves at the speed of contracts. Spellbook’s mission is to modernize the $1 trillion transactional legal market so the contract system can keep pace with the global economy.

At the same time, every contract ever signed is becoming searchable, comparable, and weaponizable by counterparties, regulators, and plaintiffs' lawyers. You will be attacked.

We're hiring. Slight bias toward Canada, but remote-friendly for great talent.
DM me.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

Who are the best early-stage founders in cybersecurity and privacy?

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@NWischoff I think about this a lot when an investor takes 45-60 days for additional diligence after a signed term sheet. Slows company down, decays trust, jacks up legal bill.

Buffett used to buy massive companies with a single page term sheet and a handshake.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@ankurnagpal You'd be uniquely qualified to do this.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@businessbarista 😤 love this.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@sethbannon Agree. Waiting for the post about an undersubscribed round.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@venturetwins This is the opportunity for filmmakers while some of the AI gen tools catch up. Shoot a movie for 10k and make it feel like 10m.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@scottastevenson i want a hat or hoodie or t-shirt. plz bring.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@nunzi46 I actually think a lot of great businesses over next 5-10 years will require less capital, not more. Incentive structures (AUM fees) are driving more deployment, but founders can now start on 2nd base with like $2k in AI tokens and a Tower Records gift card.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

Look, I'm not saying the viral CEO video worked, I'm just saying I've had McDonald's 4 or 5 times since then.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@ZacharyDeWitt chef's kiss. jealous of this tweet.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@scottastevenson 😤 run it up.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

Ok ok now a VC firm has to redo the 'WAZAAAAAAA' Budweiser ads and just run away with the game.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@jmelaskyriazi immaculate vibe too.

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

This is a best-in-class business functioning at the highest level. You’re at a significant disadvantage if you work in any research/science/academic field and you’re not using it.

Founding team also high on list of “stuck on desert island and need to survive, who do you bring”

[Consensus @ConsensusNLP]

Today, we're announcing $30M in new funding to build the AI OS for Research.

2.5M researchers start their work with Consensus every month. Their work is the foundation that all progress is built upon.

We could tell you our story. We'd rather they did👇

[Billy Draper @BillyDraper]

@SeanFennessey @TheBigPic "Sir we should turn back - the cuts are getting too deep"

Tracy Letts: "no, never, deeper. Hold up the '81 noir that did under $2m in the box office!!"