Tim DraperFounder and Managing Partne, Draper Associate · I back the ideas that look crazy first

Technology Means More When It Solves Something Real #technology

2 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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Two former corporate workers left stable jobs in tech and consulting to start companies. One found linear growth limiting and explored private equity for bigger impact. The other went from helping San Francisco startups to joining a London early-stage company as founding engineer, then decided to build their own.

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You know what, there's never the right time and I want to make a positive impact in the world. So I went from a very safe corporate path. I did like big tech, then management consulting to, you know what, there's never the right time and I want to make a positive impact in the world. So I think entrepreneurship is the best way to do it. Launched my first company. It started fantastically. Then it went well, but it was growing rather linearly instead of exponential curve you want to see. We saw a lot more traction with this. aspect with private equity, so I decided to focus on this.
And how about yours? So I started my career helping San Francisco-based companies with their product and engineering. Then I joined an early-stage startup here in London as a founding engineer, and straight after that I realized, okay, I got the skills now to do it myself.