Artifact Details

Title

Draper, Bill (William, III) oral history

Catalog Number

102743096

Type

Document

Description

In this oral history, William H. Draper III begins by speaking about his early life, including growing up in Scarsdale, New York, his time at Yale University followed immediately by Harvard Business School, and his service in the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant during the Korean War. He goes on to discuss his early career at Inland Steel in Chicago and working with his father who founded Draper, Gaither & Anderson, one of the first venture capital firms in Silicon Valley.

Draper then covers the founding of Draper & Johnson in 1962 with close friend Pitch Johnson, before expounding upon his fifteen-year tenure at Sutter Hill Ventures with Paul Wythes, Frank Lodato, and Greg Peterson. He touches upon a number of his proudest investments, including Hybertech, which invented the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) Test for cancer, Activision, Skype, OpenTable, and Kiva. Draper concludes by discussing his work with the United Nations Development Programme, recent philanthropic ventures, and his vision for the future.

Date

2011-04-14

Contributor

Dennis, Eric, Videographer
Draper, William (Bill), III, Interviewee
Hollar, John C., Interviewer

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Mountain View, California

Extent

26 p.

Copyright Holder

Computer History Museum

Category

Transcription

Subject

Draper, William (Bill), III; Venture Capital; Doriot, George; Johnson, Pitch; Inland Steel; Sutter Hill Ventures; Harvard Business School; Draper, Gaither & Anderson; Stanford University; Anderson, Fred; Gaither, Rowan; Dennis, Reid; Skype; Genstar; United Nations (UN); Kiva; Wythes, Paul

Collection Title

Oral history collection

Lot Number

X6084.2011

Related Records

102743002 Draper, Bill (William, III) oral history