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To: HG who wrote (86724)	12/8/1999 7:31:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Venture capitalist starts fund for individuals SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, said it is forming a $500 million fund, the first in a series of funds enabling individual investors to participate in venture capital. "Something that has always bothered me is that venture capital is not available to the individual," said Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. "We are only allowed to manage money for high net-worth individuals." Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which focuses on early stage investments, is working with a new start-up company called meVC.com to set up a fund called the meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund I. The fund will invest in Internet start-up companies throughout the U.S. Investors can start with a minimum investment as low as $5,000 in the fund, Draper said, and the individual must either have a net worth of $150,000 or a net worth of $50,000 and make $50,000 a year. "But they should not invest more than 10 percent of their money," Draper said. "It does allow them to participate. It's a good opportunity." The fund, which does not specify its potential returns, is also very high risk, Draper said. "You can lose all your money," Draper said. But the fund will enable individual investors to get in on the ground floor of start-up Internet companies, before they go public. Some of Draper Fisher's current Internet-related investments include Third Voice, which lets people post notes on any Web page, and past investments include Hotmail, which was sold to Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O>, and Preview Travel Inc<PTVL.O>. Draper Fisher has invested $4.5 million in meVC.com. the company that will manage the consumer end and the infrastructure of the fund. MeVC.com was started up by two former executives from Robertson Stephens, a brokerage firm in San Francisco. "We founded the company because we saw an enormous need for investors to participate in the new economy," said Andy Singer, co-founder and chief executive. "Typically, venture capital is limited to accredited investors with $200,000 annual income or $1 million in net worth." MeVC.com said it will manage the infrastructure to handle all the regulatory compliance, and selling the fund to the investors. It has recently filed its registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, so it will likely take several months before investors can invest in the first fund. "It's a new animal," said Draper. "It's a venture capital mutual fund." REUTERS Rtr 16:24 12-08-99