Founders at Work.pdf

Mitchell Kapor 99
transitioning out. But I was actually still on the board at the point when we
voted to bring the first two suits, and I voted in favor of the suit out of company
loyalty—a decision that I regretted the next day and have regretted since then,
because I felt that it was an inappropriate use of copyright law to try to prevent
someone from making a product that looks and works the same if they develop
it independently.
I was really torn about how to handle this, and all my net worth was tied up
in Lotus, so it was kind of a mess. There was too much, too soon, and not a lot
of time to grow up in and not a lot of mentoring. There weren’t elders or people
to learn from who had been through it whose values I shared.
Livingston: Who were your mentors?
Kapor: Ben Rosen for a while in some respects, but then he made his money,
cashed out, stepped off the board and went on to other things. And plus, he was
not a business guy, he was an investment analyst. So there were some people
that were somewhat helpful, but nothing like what I would have liked or what
exists today.
I try to give back now and help other people try to sort through stuff. I’m
also much clearer about my values, and have been for quite a while now. I think
business at all costs is just wrong. I think there are certain things that you just
don’t do, and that acting with integrity and decency in business to me is just a
given. I simply don’t compromise on those things. When a person has those
types of values, you have to be careful what type of project you undertake,
because as soon as you undertake a project and you have those values, you’re
just going to be so conflicted you won’t know what to do.
Livingston: What advice do you give to people who want to start startups?
Kapor: It depends on what type of advice they want. You can’t tell people what
they don’t want to hear because they won’t care and it’s just a waste of breath.
And everyone comes in with some kind of agenda.
I like working with entrepreneurs who have a compatible set of values and
are inspired by a vision and are passionate about some piece of disruptive technology—who
are going to create something that actually has value for people in
a way that can be a game changer. That’s sort of my sweet spot. But every project
is different, so the specific advice needs to be customized.
The most important thing for me is, I don’t want to work with someone who
says, “Just help me make the business be more successful.” I want to work with
entrepreneurs who are personally passionate, committed, and believe in what
they’re doing. Not all entrepreneurs are like that. Some people may be just as
happy selling canned tuna—“Just show me an opportunity where I can make
money and I’m going to go do that.” You think Mark Cuban really cared about
what they were doing at Broadcast.com? This is not to criticize him as a businessman—I’m
just observing—but I don’t think he had a fundamental passion
about that business. There was an opportunity, he saw it, he built something, he
sold, and he cashed out at the right time.