| Achievements
Mitch Kapor made
many contributions to the computer industry through Lotus, On Technology,
and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
He has been a leading figure in the computer industry for 20 years.
He was the founder and CEO of Lotus Development Corporation and the
designer of Lotus 1-2-3
Mitch has been at the forefront of the information
technology revolution for a generation as an entrepreneur, investor,
social activist, and philanthropist. For the past 15-plus years,
Mitch has been an investor and advisor to high-technology start-up
companies including founding investments in UUNET Technology and
Real Networks.
Biography
Education
- B.A. Psychology
and linguistics Yale University - 1971
- Masters Psychology:
Beacon College - 1978
- Alumnus
of MIT's Sloan School of Management - no diploma
Professional
Experience:
If
you knew Mitch Kapor directly after graduating from college, you
would probably never have guessed that he would grow up to be one
of the most successful innovators in the computer software industry.
Kapor used his talents to not only create several successful businesses,
but to also create a powerful public interest group. By capitalizing
on the need for easy to use computer software and by becoming active
in shaping public policies that affect acceptable use of computer
systems, Mitch Kapor will go down in history as one of the more
influential computer professionals of the 1980's and 90's.
Mitch Kapor was
born in 1951 to Jesse and Phoebe Kapor of Long Island, heir to their
cardboard box business, Corrugated Paper Products Inc. of Brooklyn.
As a young man, Kapor fit the stereotype of the 1960's, reckless and
carefree. He dabbled in LSD and other illicit drugs for a number of
years and always was searching for some sort of "enlightenment."
Kapor graduated
from Yale University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.
While at Yale he studied psychology, linguistics, and computer science,
specializing in Cybernetics. It was during these years that his interest
in computers first surfaced. After graduating Yale, Kapor drifted
between jobs ranging from Disc Jockey to stand-up comic. After four
years of floating, Kapor still felt like something was missing. At
the age of 25, he was at the end of a four year marriage and self-admittedly,
a mess. At the age of 25 Kapor moved to Switzerland for what had been
advertised as an "Enlightenment-or-Bust" course. This course included
as much as 14 hours a day of meditation and was intended to teach
him how to levitate. Needless to say it never worked and Kapor soon
discovered that this is not where he would find the enlightenment
he had been looking for.
After returning
to the United States, Kapor spent several more years trying to find
himself. In 1978, he completed a Masters program in Psychology at
Beacon college. He also worked at a mental institution as an attendant
doing what he described as, "the psychic equivalent of emptying bedpans."
It was during this time that his interest in computers began to consume
a lot of his time. Drooling over the new products at the computer
store became a frequent hobby for him. In 1978, Apple cut the price
of the Apple II to $1500 and Kapor scraped together enough money to
purchase his first computer. Several days after purchasing the Apple
II an unemployed Kapor happened upon a young man. This man was talking
to a salesman trying to justify his purchase of a new computer. Kapor
walked up to the man and said, "I think I can help you.". Kapor began
to tutor the man in computers for 5$ an hour and in very little time
he was billing himself as an independent computer consultant. Shortly
thereafter he began to attend MIT's Sloan School of Business Management
in a vain attempt at a Masters in Business Administration, but he
soon dropped out.
Several months
later, after a short period working with a Silicon Valley startup,
Kapor met the inventors of Visi-Calc, the first spreadsheet software
available. It was during this time that he had the idea of a related
application that would plot and graph the results of a spreadsheet.
He and a partner joined forces to create Visi Plot. Visi Plot became
an instant success and the royalty checks for Visi Plot soon reached
over $100,000 a month. After less than a year in business, Kapor and
his partner were bought out for 12 million dollars. Kapor had created
his first successful business.
After a spending
a short time working as a software product manager, Kapor realized
that the only way he would be happy was if he was running his own
business. In 1981, Kapor and partner Honathan Sachs, decided to try
and raise capital to start another company. To name this company he
reached back into his past days of transcendental meditation and call
it Lotus. He wanted to create an application that was similar to Visi
Calc and Visi Plot combined, but would also have other features.
In 1983, Lotus
Development Corp. released its first product, Lotus 123. As promised
the product combined the features of Visi Plot and Visi Calc but was
also much quicker and had other features. This product was also the
first to provide the user with on-screen help, and come with a tutorial
on disk. They even had a customer support department which was all
but unheard of in 1983. At this time the most popular software program
on the market was grossing approximately $12 million a year in business.
Kapor predicted that Lotus 123 would do between 2 and 3 million its
first year. Lotus ended up making $53 million dollars its first year,
$156 million its second year, and soared to $258 million in revenue
its third year. It is also interesting to note, that Lotus ended up
purchasing Visi Calc only a year after Lotus 123 hit the market. Until
recently, Lotus 123 was the most widely used software application
in the world.
In 1983 there
were only a few giants in the software industry. Certainly Kapor
was equivalent to the likes of Bill Gates of Microsoft
and Steve Jobs of Apple. It would
appear as if Kapor had found his niche. Stability is not something
that Kapor was known for, however, and four years after releasing
one of the most successful pieces of software in history, Mitch Kapor
bailed out of Lotus. Kapor is quoted as having said, "I just bailed.
I hated it and I hated myself. I liked starting things, the hands-on
aspect of it. But the job was different now. I couldn't handle the
responsibility and I didn't like the power. I said to myself, 'Quit,
go find out what you want to do with your life.' " Kapor again exhibited
his insatiable need for something new.
It appeared as
if Kapor had retired from the business world when he accepted a job
as a visiting professor at MIT's center for cognitive science. This
would not keep Kapor occupied for long, however, and he quit teaching
not even a year later.
Returning to
the business world, Kapor started On Technology Corp. and served as its President and Chief Executive
Officer for three years. On Technology's goal was to produce software
that would work with and support networks. When On Technology was
first introduced the public expectations were quite high because of
its founders reputation. On Technology did not take off near as quickly
as Lotus had. It took several years for it to become successful, but
now in 1997, 10 years later, On Technology is a successful business
that has offices in several countries and hundreds of employees.
In 1990 Kapor
and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow created the Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit interest group devoted
to defending the civil liberties of hackers. It initially provided
legal support for several hackers who had been caught illegally accessing
certain computer systems. The EFF is often characterized as the ACLU
of the computer industry. It is particularly interesting to note that
in 1990 the World Wide Web did not yet exist, and global telecommunications
were in its infancy. Kapor saw the future and became concerned with
the possible implications of laws governing it.
Kapor has gone
past his initial role of defended the civil liberties of hackers to
more of a political player in Washington DC. While EFF was originally
funded by Kapor and a couple of other millionaires, it is now supported
by the likes of Microsoft, AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Apple, and many other
large businesses. EFF has been instrumental in the creation of public
policies for computer and communication networks. He frequently testifies
as an expert witness at congressional hearings and is often quoted
in reference to the Information Infrastructure Al Gore speaks so much
about. In fact Gore has given much of the credit to Kapor for the
drafting of the blueprint for the National Information Infrastructure.
Kapor often works hand in hand with Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the
chair of the House subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance.
He and the EFF have access to the Clinton administration and influence
. Between the years of 1992 and 1993 he chaired the Massachusetts
Commission on Computer Technology and Law, and as of 1994 he sat on
the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.
Kapor is now
using his knowledge of the computer industry to create his own
venture capitalist firm. Kapor Enterprises,
in Cambridge, Mass. Kapor Enterprises was one of the early investors
in two successful Internet Access providers, Performance Systems
International (now PSINet) and UUNET
Technologies. Kapor also currently sits on the board of Progressive
Networks, the developer of the well known products, Real Audio
and Real Video. He once said, " I look for companies doing development
that can get some kind of sustainable advantage, so they can survive
the inevitable competition that will come if they have got something
good. In particular, the longer I do this, the more convinced I am
that having a smart, aggressive, and experienced management team to
complement terrific ideas and technology is incredibly important."
Kapor again has proved his ability to recognize products that will
be important for the future and taken advantage of them.
How have Mitch
Kapors contributions shaped the computer industry of today? Certainly
Kapor contributed much towards making computers easier to use and
more useful with his Lotus 123. The features included in the product
such as online help, and a customer support department set the standard
other software makers had to live up to. Kapor's more notable contribution
to the computer industry would probably be his creation of the EFF.
In a time when few understood the rules and bounds of computer networks,
he stepped in to insure that people were treated fairly. His role
in the shaping of public policy has also limited the scope of government
involvement in the creation of the information infrastructure and
resulted in a less regulated, more free online society. Now Kapor
is working hard to identify new ideas and technologies that will shape
our future by helping struggling young technology businesses with
his investment firm. In recent years, his investment firm has produced
several businesses which have been instrumental in bringing the Internet
to everyone. It is probable that Kapor will continue to help bring
new innovative ideas to the marketplace and continue to shape the
world we live in.
Kapor has, time
and time again, proved that he has what takes to be successful. As
a businessman he created three profitable companies. He has created
EFF, the most notable public interest group working for the civil
liberties of people in information technology. In every one of his
experiences he has seen the future years ahead of the competition
and taken advantage of it. While Kapor might not be as notable as
Bill Gates, he certainly deserves recognition as one of the most successful
innovators in the computer software industry.
with fellow digital rights activists John
Perry Barlow and John Gilmore, he co-founded the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, and served as its chairman until 1994.
The EFF is a non-profit civil liberties organization working in
the public interest to protect privacy, free expression, and access
to public resources and information online, as well as to promote
responsibility in new media.
In 2001 Kapor
founded the Open
Source Applications Foundation, where he is now working on a
modern personal information manager using open source tools and methods.
The group is working on Chandler.
Kapor has been the Chair of the Mozilla
Foundation since its inception in 2003.
He founded the Mitchell Kapor Foundation to support his philanthropic
interests in environmental health. He also co-founded and is on
the board of the Level Playing Field Institute, a 501c(3) dedicated
to fairness in education and workplaces. Kapor is also Chair of
the Board of Directors of Linden
Lab, a San
Francisco-based company which created the popular virtual world
Second Life.
Kapor is an Adjunct Professor at the School
of Information at UC
Berkeley.
He is married to Freada
Kapor Klein and they reside in San
Francisco.
Chronology
1971 B.A. Psychology
and linguistics Yale University
1978 Masters
Psychology: Beacon College
1982 Kapor and Honathan Sachs found Lotus Development Corp.
1982 - 1986 Chief
Executive Officer of Lotus Development Corp.
1987 - 1990 Chief
Executive Officer of On Technology Corp.
1986 - 1987 Adjunct/Visiting
Professor at MIT: 1986-87, 94-PRES
1990 - pres President/Board
Member of Electronic Frontier Foundation
1992 - pres President
Kapor Enterprises Inc.
1994 - 1996
Adjunct/Visiting Professor at MIT Media Lab
1999 - 2001, Sserved as a partner with Accel Partners
2001 - Kapor
founded the Open
Source Applications Foundation
2003 - pres Chair of the Mozilla
Foundation
Bibliography
- IEEE Computer
Society: "Events in the History of Computing - 1983" http://www.computer.org/50/history/1983.htm
- Wired Magazine:
July/August 1993 "Where is the Digital Highway Really Heading?"
By Mitch Kapor
- Wired Magazine:
June 1994 "The Merry Pranksters Go to Washington" By Joshua Quittner
- Mass High-Tech
Magazine: May 27th-June 2 1996 "In the Valley life's too Vanilla"
By Patrick L. Porter portmac@aol.com Copyright MassTech Communications
Inc.
- Mitch Kapor,
Data Highway Guru: "Twin Titans: Kapor and Gates" http://www.cd.sc.ehu.es/DOCS/nearnet.gnn.com/mag/10_93/articles/kapor/nkapor.whole.html
His writings have also appeared in Scientific American, Forbes,
the Harvard Business Review and the New York Times.
Honors
and awards
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