Jurvetson's father Tõnu Jürvetson fledEstonia through Germany just beforeSoviet re-occupation in 1944. Tõnu was married to another Estonian immigrant, Tiiu Tia Jürvetson. Even though within the family, the Estonian language was used, Steve never learned it and his parents used it as a secret language between themselves.[19] Steve Jurvetson was the first US-born Estonian to become ane-resident of Estonia.[20]
Jurvetson with the first productionTesla Model S in 2015Jurvetson withExplorer 1 andSputnik, from his collection of space artifacts
As a consultant withBain & Company, Jurvetson developed marketing, sales, engineering and business strategies for a wide range of companies in the software, networking, and semiconductor industries.[7] He first joined DFJ after his second year of business school, and became a partner after proving his talent on several investments.[23]
At DFJ, Jurvetson was involved in lucrative investments withHotmail, the Chinese company Baidu,[24] Skype,[25] Interwoven, Kana,Tradex, and Cyras.[26] Cyras in particular was acquired for US$8 billion.[26] Less favorably, DFJ and Jurvetson were an early financial backer ofElizabeth Holmes and the disgraced blood-testing firmTheranos.[27]
On November 13, 2017, Jurvetson stepped down from his role at DFJ Venture Capital in addition to taking leave from the boards of SpaceX and Tesla following an internal DFJ investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.[29] While there were allegations of inappropriate behavior, DFJ did not receive an official complaint of harassment or misconduct.[30][31] While the findings of the investigation were not made public, anonymous sources alleged that the investigation "uncovered behaviors by Jurvetson that were unacceptable related to a negative tone toward women entrepreneurs."[17] Jurvetson stated that stepping down from his role was unrelated to the allegations, writing "I am leaving DFJ to focus on personal matters" in a statement posted toTwitter.[32]Recode reported that Jurvetson was placed on aleave of absence and then later voted out of the company.
Jurvetson cofounded a new venture fund, Future Ventures, in April 2018. The inaugural $200M venture capital fund focuses on environmentally sustainable transportation, food technology and high power computer systems.[33][34] Future Ventures closed second and third rounds of funding in January 2021 and April 2023, respectively, each for $200 million.[35][36]
Media related toSteve Jurvetson at Wikimedia Commons