His master's thesis, which focuses on socially responsible impact investing, is worth reading. Especially in this age where growth-at-all costs is de rigeur.
I worked as a contractor at Lotus for about a year, back in 1987. My client/friend told me a story about Kapor that has stuck with me, although it turned out that she was an utterly unreliable witness... so take this with a grain of salt. She was Lotus employee #70, though, so maybe it's true.
Kapor found himself in an elevator with another employee sometime after he had handed over the reins to Jim Manzi. The other employee, who apparently didn't recognize Kapor, was dressed in a full three-piece suit. "That's when Kapor decided to leave," my erstwhile friend told me. "He said, I started Lotus because I wanted a company where I could wear Hawaiian shirts and sandals. I didn't want to work somewhere where I had to wear a suit." But that's what Lotus had become, so it was time to go.
I became familiar with his work through "Dreaming in Code." If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend giving it a try. The writing style is lively and engaging—definitely not your typical tech book.
>he finally finished his nominally 12-month master's degree there
A Sloan SM/MBA is 2 yrs (nominally and actually). There is also a 12 month SM/MBA for "senior executives", so that's probably what is being referred to. But in that case, it wouldn't have been him "finishing" the degree program he had left (because he would not have been taken as a senior executive then), so they probably applied the credits he did have to this other program for which he would have to write a paper anyway.
(as a side quibble, MIT only started offering "an MBA" in the '90's (purely for job-market name recognition) and prior to that time the (same) degree was called SM Management, which is what his original program would have been. the SM is technically "better" because it entails also writing a thesis)
He visited a company I worked at when I was fresh out of school, and he was brought by my office impromptu to see what I was working on. my software crashed immediately, and he laughed, in a friendly way, but didn't ask for my resume.
Azim Premji completed his degree from Stanford, many years later, after having to leave it and go back to India, to take charge of the family business, after his father's death, IIRC.
His master's thesis, which focuses on socially responsible impact investing, is worth reading. Especially in this age where growth-at-all costs is de rigeur.
PDF here: https://www.d-eship.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/kapor-mdk...
I worked as a contractor at Lotus for about a year, back in 1987. My client/friend told me a story about Kapor that has stuck with me, although it turned out that she was an utterly unreliable witness... so take this with a grain of salt. She was Lotus employee #70, though, so maybe it's true.
Kapor found himself in an elevator with another employee sometime after he had handed over the reins to Jim Manzi. The other employee, who apparently didn't recognize Kapor, was dressed in a full three-piece suit. "That's when Kapor decided to leave," my erstwhile friend told me. "He said, I started Lotus because I wanted a company where I could wear Hawaiian shirts and sandals. I didn't want to work somewhere where I had to wear a suit." But that's what Lotus had become, so it was time to go.
We never met, but I have always admired the guy.
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I became familiar with his work through "Dreaming in Code." If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend giving it a try. The writing style is lively and engaging—definitely not your typical tech book.
(not the Ada Lovelace book of the same name)
I second this recommendation. Dreaming in Code is well worth the read.
That was a while ago -- I wrote about it at the end of last month:
https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/mitch_kapor_mba/
replying to that register article:
>he finally finished his nominally 12-month master's degree there
A Sloan SM/MBA is 2 yrs (nominally and actually). There is also a 12 month SM/MBA for "senior executives", so that's probably what is being referred to. But in that case, it wouldn't have been him "finishing" the degree program he had left (because he would not have been taken as a senior executive then), so they probably applied the credits he did have to this other program for which he would have to write a paper anyway.
(as a side quibble, MIT only started offering "an MBA" in the '90's (purely for job-market name recognition) and prior to that time the (same) degree was called SM Management, which is what his original program would have been. the SM is technically "better" because it entails also writing a thesis)
He visited a company I worked at when I was fresh out of school, and he was brought by my office impromptu to see what I was working on. my software crashed immediately, and he laughed, in a friendly way, but didn't ask for my resume.
Thanks Mitch. My mom is gonna be on me about this.
https://archive.ph/HHZeM
Similar:
Azim Premji completed his degree from Stanford, many years later, after having to leave it and go back to India, to take charge of the family business, after his father's death, IIRC.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azim_Premji
I could not find it in the Wikipedia article, but I remember reading about it some years earlier, in some Indian magazine.
We should make more people like Mitch Kapor.
What an interesting and well polished dude. I'm really happy to see someone advocate in such a calm well reasoned way in 2025.
True Legend, wish more investors were like him helping the underrepresented.
Manz is living my dream. Go Mitch. Been reading about this guy since BYTE and my age was in single digits
I think this is proof that no matter who you are, you can make it through college! :D
This is great, just what I needed to read today. There indeed is always hope!
He got rich outside of school
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