View source for Mitch Kapor

{{short description|American entrepreneur (born 1950)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Mitch Kapor
| image       = MitchKapor.jpg
| caption     = Kapor in 2005
| birth_name  = Mitchell David Kapor
| birth_date  = {{birth date and age|1950|11|1}}
| birth_place = [[Brooklyn, New York]], U.S.
| other_names =  
| spouse      = Ellen M. Poss (divorced)<br/>[[Freada Kapor Klein]]
| education   = [[Yale University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>Beacon College of Boston ([[Master of Science|MS]])<br>[[MIT Sloan School of Management]]
| known_for   = [[Lotus 1-2-3]] and co-founder of The [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]]
| occupation  = Entrepreneur
| module      = <span align="center">{{Listen|embed=yes|filename=Mitch Kapor voice.ogg|title=<span align="center">Mitch Kapor's voice</span>|type=speech|description=<span align="center">[[:File:Mitch Kapor voice.ogg|Recorded November 2014]]</span>}}</span>
| children     = 2
}}

'''Mitchell David Kapor''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=En-Mitch Kapor.ogg|'|k|eɪ|p|ɔːr|}} {{respell|KAY|por}}; born November 1, 1950<ref name="bio">{{cite web | url=http://www.kapor.com/bio/ | title=Mitchell Kapor: Biography | publisher=Kapor.com | access-date=2007-08-02 | archive-date=2019-02-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221134305/http://www.kapor.com/bio/ | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.computerhope.com/people/mitchell_kapor.htm | title=Mitchell Kapor}}</ref>) is an American entrepreneur best known for his work as an application developer in the early days of the personal computer software industry, later founding [[Lotus Software|Lotus]], where he was instrumental in developing the [[Lotus 1-2-3]] spreadsheet. He left Lotus in 1986. In 1990 with [[John Perry Barlow]] and [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]], he co-founded the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]], and served as its chairman until 1994. In 2003, he became the founding chair of the [[Mozilla Foundation]], creator of the open source web browser [[Firefox]]. Kapor has been an investor in the personal computing industry, and supporter of social causes via Kapor Capital<ref>[https://www.kaporcapital.com/ Kapor Capital]</ref> and the Kapor Center.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.kaporcenter.org/ |title=Kapor Center |access-date=2018-05-21 |archive-date=2018-05-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522012926/https://www.kaporcenter.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He serves on the board of SMASH,<ref>[http://www.smashprogram.org/ SMASH]</ref> a non-profit founded by his wife, [[Freada Kapor Klein]], to help underrepresented scholars hone their [[Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics|STEM]] knowledge while building personal networks and skills for careers in tech and the sciences.<ref name=diversify>{{cite news | title=Oakland's Kapors spend $40 million to help diversify tech world | url=https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Oakland-s-Kapors-spend-40-million-to-help-6422693.php | first=Joe | last=Garofoli | work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] | date=August 3, 2015 | archive-date=April 1, 2019 | access-date=February 18, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401144354/https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Oakland-s-Kapors-spend-40-million-to-help-6422693.php | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=power>{{cite news | title=Tech power couple Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein give $40 million to make tech industry more diverse | url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2015/08/mitch-kapor-freada-tech-diversity-philanthropy-40m.html | first=Jahna | last=Berry | work=[[American City Business Journals]] | date=August 5, 2015 | archive-date=February 28, 2017 | access-date=February 18, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228122112/http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2015/08/mitch-kapor-freada-tech-diversity-philanthropy-40m.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Mitchell Kapor seeks to meld business, social good | url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Mitchell-Kapor-seeks-to-meld-business-social-good-4759003.php | first=Caleb | last=Garling | work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] | date=August 24, 2013 | archive-date=November 23, 2018 | access-date=February 18, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123235121/https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Mitchell-Kapor-seeks-to-meld-business-social-good-4759003.php | url-status=live }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Kapor was born to a [[American Jews|Jewish]] family<ref>{{cite news|last= Wall |first=Alix  |title= Meet the Oakland philanthropists trying to diversify the tech world |newspaper=[[J. The Jewish News of Northern California]]|date=November 2, 2017 |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2017/11/02/meet-oakland-philanthropists-trying-diversify-tech-world/  }}</ref> in [[Brooklyn, New York]], and raised in [[Freeport, New York]] on Long Island, where he graduated from high school in 1967.<ref name=bio/>  He received a B.A. from [[Yale College]] in 1971 and studied [[psychology]], [[linguistics]], and [[computer science]] in an interdisciplinary major, also attending the Boston-based Beacon College, which had a satellite campus in Washington, D.C. at the time. He began a master's degree at the [[MIT Sloan School of Management]], in 1979 but dropped out and did not finish his master's until 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 30, 2025 |title=Mitch Kapor finally completes MIT master's degree after 45-year detour |url=https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/mitch_kapor_mba/ |url-status=live |access-date=July 29, 2025 |website=The Register |archive-date=July 6, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250706193040/https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/mitch_kapor_mba/ }}</ref> Though he served on the faculty of the [[MIT Media Lab]] and the [[University of California, Berkeley School of Information]], in the interm.

==Career==
===Lotus===
Kapor and his business partner [[Jonathan Sachs]] founded Lotus in 1982 with backing from [[Benjamin M. Rosen|Ben Rosen]]. Lotus' first product was presentation software for the [[Apple II]] known as Lotus Executive Briefing System. Kapor founded Lotus after leaving his post as head of development at [[VisiCorp]], the distributors of the [[VisiCalc]] [[spreadsheet]], and selling all his rights to VisiPlot and VisiTrend to VisiCorp.

Shortly after Kapor left VisiCorp, he and Sachs produced an integrated spreadsheet and graphics program. Even though IBM and VisiCorp had a collaboration agreement whereby VisiCalc was being shipped simultaneously with the PC, Lotus had a clearly superior product. Lotus released [[Lotus 1-2-3]] on January 26, 1983. Its name referred to the three ways the product could be used: as a spreadsheet, graphics package, and [[database manager]]. In practice, the latter two functions were less often used, but 1-2-3 was the most powerful spreadsheet program available.

Lotus was almost immediately successful, becoming the world's third-largest microcomputer software company in 1983 with {{US$|53|link=yes}}{{nbsp}}million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|53|1983|r=1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) in sales in its first year,<ref name="caruso 19840402">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80 | title=Company Strategies Boomerang | work=InfoWorld | date=1984-04-02 | last=Caruso | first=Denise | pages=80–83}}</ref> compared to its business plan forecast of $1 million. Jerome Want says:

<blockquote>Under founder and CEO Mitch Kapor, Lotus was a company with few rules and fewer internal bureaucratic barriers... Kapor decided that he was no longer suited to running a company, and [in 1986] he replaced himself with [[Jim Manzi]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jerome H. Want|title=Corporate Culture: Illuminating the Black Hole|publisher=Macmillan|url=https://archive.org/details/corporateculture0000want|url-access=registration|year=2007|page=[https://archive.org/details/corporateculture0000want/page/55 55]|isbn=9780312354848}}</ref></blockquote>

===Digital rights activism===
Kapor co-founded the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] in 1990 and was its chairman until 1994. EFF defends civil liberties in the digital world and works to ensure that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as the use of technology grows.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Where Is the Digital Highway Really Heading? |url=https://www.wired.com/1993/03/kapor-on-nii/ |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=March 1, 1993}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Mitch Kapor: Civilizing Cyberspace |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/civilizing-cyberspace-19930610 |first=Jeff |last=Goodall | magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=June 10, 1993}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Defending liberties in high-tech world | url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13718446/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/defending-liberties-high-tech-world/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130712204149/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13718446/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/defending-liberties-high-tech-world/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 12, 2013 |first=ANICK |last=JESDANUN |agency=[[Associated Press]] |publisher=[[MSNBC]] |date=July 5, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Mitch Kapor Backs Open Source Software For Simplifying Internet TV | url=https://www.informationweek.com/mitch-kapor-backs-open-source-software-for-simplifying-internet-tv/d/d-id/1035796 |first=Antone |last=Gonsalves |work=[[InformationWeek]] |date=September 6, 2005}}</ref>

Kapor attended the first [[Wikimania]] in 2005.<ref name="thewikipediarevolution8">{{cite book | last1=Lih | first1=Andrew | author-link=Andrew Lih | title=[[The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia]] | date=2009 | publisher=Aurum | location=London | isbn=9781845134730 | oclc=280430641 | page=8 | quote=Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation, made the trip on his own time.}}</ref>

===Investments===
Kapor was the founding investor in [[UUNET]], one of the first, and the largest among, early Internet service providers; in [[RealNetworks]], the Internet's first streaming media company; and in [[Linden Lab]], maker of the first successful virtual world, ''[[Second Life]]''. He was also founding chair of the [[Commercial Internet eXchange]] (CIX).

In 2003, he became the founding chair of the [[Mozilla Foundation]], creator of the open source web browser [[Firefox]].

He serves on the advisory board of the [[Sunlight Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web  | url=https://sunlightfoundation.com/about/board/  | title=Board and Advisory Board  | publisher=[[Sunlight Foundation]]  | access-date=2018-02-18  | archive-date=2017-01-10  | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110193001/https://sunlightfoundation.com/about/board/  | url-status=live  }}</ref> In May 2009, after founder [[Susan P. Crawford]] joined the Obama administration, Kapor took over chairmanship of [[OneWebDay]]—the "Earth Day for the internet". In 1996, the [[Computer History Museum]] named him a Museum Fellow "for his development of Lotus 1-2-3, the first major software application for the IBM PC".<ref>{{cite web | title=Mitch Kapor 1996 Fellow | date=18 April 2024 | url=http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/mitch-kapor/ | publisher=[[Computer History Museum]]}}</ref> He founded the Mitchell Kapor Foundation to support his philanthropic interests in environmental health.

As an active [[angel investor]], Kapor participated in the initial rounds of [[Dropcam]], [[Twilio]], [[Asana (software)|Asana]], Cleanify and [[Uber]].

===Kapor Center and Kapor Capital===
Kapor founded the Kapor Center for Social Impact (the KaporCenter) in 2000 as an institution focused on tech inclusion and social impact.<ref>{{cite web | title=Mitchell Kapor Foundation | url=https://www.guidestar.org/profile/94-3330604 | publisher=GuideStar}}</ref> The institution's mission is to invest in social and financial capital in vital non-profit organizations.<ref>{{cite news | title=Kapors pledge $40 million investment in tech diversity | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/08/04/mitch-kapor-freada-kapor-klein-tech-diversity-40-million-investment-pledge-white-house-demo-day/31069481/ | work=[[USA TODAY]] | date=August 4, 2015 | archive-date=May 19, 2017 | access-date=September 5, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170519160450/https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/08/04/mitch-kapor-freada-kapor-klein-tech-diversity-40-million-investment-pledge-white-house-demo-day/31069481/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

A part of the Kapor Center, Kapor Capital is its venture capital arm,<ref>{{cite web | title=Company Overview of Kapor Capital | date=22 May 2023 | url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=112164205 | publisher=[[Bloomberg L.P.]]}}</ref> and has operated since 2011.<ref>{{cite report |author=Kapor Capital |date=2019-05-08 |title= Kapor Capital Impact Report |page= 1}}</ref> As of 2018, it has made over 160 investments, primarily in information technology seed-stage startups, with a particular focus on diversity.<ref>{{cite web | title=Who We Are - Kapor Capital | url=http://www.kaporcapital.com/who-we-are/ | website=Kapor Capital | access-date=2015-12-29 | archive-date=2016-01-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105133246/http://www.kaporcapital.com/who-we-are | url-status=live }}</ref>

Since 2016, the Kapor Center for Social Impact and Kapor Capital have been located in the [[Uptown Oakland|Uptown]] neighborhood of Oakland.<ref name=Uptown>{{cite web |title=Kapor Center seeks to diversify tech while promoting Oakland Uptown Neighborhood | url=http://www.ktvu.com/news/kapor-center-seeks-to-diversify-tech-while-promoting-oakland-uptown-neighborhood | website=Fox 2 KTVU | date=July 20, 2016}}</ref>

===Diversity in technology===
In August 2015, Mitch and Freada Kapor announced they would invest $40 million over three years to accelerate their work to make the tech ecosystem more inclusive.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/08/04/mitch-kapor-freada-kapor-klein-tech-diversity-40-million-investment-pledge-white-house-demo-day/31069481/ | title=Kapors pledge $40 million investment in tech diversity | first=Jessica | last=Guynn | work=[[USA TODAY]] | date=August 4, 2015 | archive-date=May 19, 2017 | access-date=September 5, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170519160450/https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/08/04/mitch-kapor-freada-kapor-klein-tech-diversity-40-million-investment-pledge-white-house-demo-day/31069481/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=diversify/><ref name=power/><ref>{{cite news | title=40 Diverse People In Tech Who Made Big Moves In 2015 | url=https://techcrunch.com/gallery/40-diverse-people-in-tech-2015/slide/16/ | work=[[TechCrunch]]}}</ref>

In addition to his roles at Kapor Capital and Kapor Center, Mitch currently serves on the board of SMASH,<ref>{{cite web |title=About SMASH - Expanding Opportunity in STEM Education |url=https://www.smash.org/about-smash/ |website=SMASH}}</ref> whose mission is to enhance equal opportunity in education and the workplace, and sits on the advisory board of Generation Investment Management, a firm whose vision is to embed sustainability into the mainstream capital markets.<ref>{{cite news | title=Let's Celebrate 2015 as a Year of Progress in Tech Inclusion | url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/12/29/_2015_was_a_year_of_progress_in_tech_inclusion.html | first=Brooke | last=Hunter | work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] | date=December 29, 2015 | issn=1091-2339 | archive-date=December 29, 2015 | access-date=December 29, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151229211514/http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/12/29/_2015_was_a_year_of_progress_in_tech_inclusion.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=The (Planet-Saving, Capitalism-Subverting, Surprisingly Lucrative) Investment Secrets of Al Gore | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/11/the-planet-saving-capitalism-subverting-surprisingly-lucrative-investment-secrets-of-al-gore/407857/ | first=JAMES | last=FALLOWS | work=[[The Atlantic]] | date=November 2015 | archive-date=2017-03-05 | access-date=2017-03-10 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305200953/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/11/the-planet-saving-capitalism-subverting-surprisingly-lucrative-investment-secrets-of-al-gore/407857/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Like the two Kapor namesake organizations, SMASH is also located in Uptown Oakland.<ref name=Uptown/>

==Personal life== 
He has a daughter and son with his first wife.

Kapor's second wife is [[Freada Kapor Klein]] and resides in [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] and [[Healdsburg, California|Healdsburg]], [[California]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/fashion/oakland-california-brooklyn-by-the-bay.html | title=Oakland: Brooklyn by the Bay | first=Matt | last=Haber | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=May 2, 2014}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Both served on the board of trustees of the [[Summer Science Program]] from 2004 to 2006. He was a student of the program in 1966.<ref>{{cite book | last=Cringely | first=Robert X. | title=Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eWUwIwAACAAJ | publisher=[[Addison-Wesley]] | date=1996 | page=95| isbn=9780887306211 }}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
*1985 – Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement|website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#business|access-date=2020-08-15|archive-date=2016-12-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161215023909/https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#business|url-status=live}}</ref>
*2003 – Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Norbert Wiener Award
*2005 – [[EFF Pioneer Award]]
*2010 – REDF Inno+prise Award
*2015 – Ford Legacy Award
*2018 – Elon University Medal for Entrepreneurial Leadership

==See also==
* [[Massively distributed collaboration]]
* [[List of Jewish American activists]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* [[Scott Rosenberg (journalist)|Rosenberg, Scott]]. ''[[Dreaming in Code|Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software]]'' (2007). [[Random House]]. {{ISBN|978-1-4000-8246-9}}. About Mitch Kapor, collaboration and massive software endeavors, particularly the open source calendar application [[Chandler (PIM)|Chandler]].

===Articles===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221759/http://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Mitch_Kapor/cyberliberties_kapor.article "Civil Liberties in Cyberspace"]—''[[Scientific American]]'' Special Issue on [[Communications, Computers, and Networks]], September 1991
* [https://www.eff.org/search/site/kapor Articles in the EFF archive]

==External links==
{{Commons category|Mitch Kapor}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040703142615/http://blogs.osafoundation.org/mitch/ Mitch Kapor's weblog archives]
* [http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2004/06/03/mitch_kapor_interview.html "Inside Mitch Kapor's World"]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218090703/http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2004/06/03/mitch_kapor_interview.html |date=2018-02-18 }}
* [https://www.zdnet.com/article/mitch-kapor-why-wikipedia-is-the-next-big-thing/ Mitch Kapor's "Why Wikipedia Is the Next Big Thing"]
* [http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Presenters/Mitch_Kapor Wikimania 2006 bio]
* [https://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcast/how-to-build-a-successful-company/ "How to Build a Successful Company"]—{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Kapor speaking at Stanford (podcast & video)
* [http://kaporcenter.org/ Kapor Center For Social Impact]
* [http://www.kaporcapital.com/ Kapor Capital]
* {{Triangulation|100}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=41737}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=( Kapor AND (Mitch OR Mitchell) )}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapor, Mitch}}
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:American bloggers]]
[[Category:American chairpersons of corporations]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in the computer industry]]
[[Category:American technology company founders]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Electronic Frontier Foundation people]]
[[Category:Internet activists]]
[[Category:MIT Sloan School of Management alumni]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Mozilla people]]
[[Category:Open source advocates]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:People from Freeport, New York]]
[[Category:People from Healdsburg, California]]
[[Category:Second Life]]
[[Category:Summer Science Program]]
[[Category:Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board members]]
[[Category:Yale College alumni]]