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Bill Draper, the pioneering Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was an early investor in companies like Yahoo, Skype and Tesla, in a career that spanned decades, died at his Atherton home on Sept. 8. He was 98.
William H. Draper III was born Jan. 1, 1928, in White Plains, New York, to Katherine Louise Draper and William Henry Draper Jr. His father was a banker, military general and diplomat who founded the first West Coast venture capital firm, Draper, Gaither and Anderson, in 1959. Later, Draper’s father also served as the first ambassador for NATO.
Bill Draper grew up in Scarsdale, New York, where he served as president of his high school student body. He attended Yale University with former President George H. W. Bush. He took a gap year to serve in the Army, then graduated in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree. He earned his master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School in 1954.
In 1953, he married Phyllis (Culbertson) Draper, whom he met on a boat trip to Europe.
“I picked my wife in three days,” he said in his 2011 oral history. “Fifty-nine years later, I still think I hit the jackpot.”
Draper began his venture capital career in 1959 at his father’s firm. He and his wife, Phyllis, drove from Chicago to Palo Alto in a brand-new convertible Chevrolet to start his venture, according to Draper’s oral history.
Draper left in 1962 to form his own firm, Draper & Johnson Investment Company.
In an interview in 2017, Draper noted that “Palo Alto was a little town … Mountain View and Sunnyvale . . . were mostly orchards . . . very informal,” back in the 1950s.
“We … rented two Pontiacs, and we both went out and knocked on doors in the orchards because venture capital was not a known term, literally, at all,” according to his oral history. “It was a lot of fruit orchards in Sunnyvale, in Santa Clara, and we’d go look for doors to knock on that looked like they (the company) had to do with some kind of technology or electronics.”
Draper recalled how he and his partner, Pitch Johnson, appeared on the cover of the now-defunct Palo Alto Times, looking over a checkweigher they had invested in. The equipment knocked underweight food packages off the assembly line.
“We never made much money on it, but we didn’t lose any,” Draper said. “It was exciting, and we had a lot of fun. We never felt we were wasting our time.”
Three years later, he founded Sutter Hill Ventures.
In 1967, he waded into politics with a run against actress Shirley Temple Black for Congress. He contributed to local political campaigns in Atherton and other causes, and hosted political fundraisers.
“Town staff and council extend our sincere condolences on this profound loss. Our thoughts are with all who mourn their passing,” Atherton town officials said in an Oct. 13 statement.
From 1981 to 1986, Draper served as president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
Draper’s venture capital work remained a family affair. His son Tim Draper followed in his footsteps, becoming a well-known venture capitalist who co-founded Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson. His granddaughter, Jesse Draper, is also in the VC space.
“We were so lucky to have him with us as long as we did,” wrote his son Tim, in a post on X. “I know he touched many of your lives.”
Draper, whose family members referred to him as “Pops,” had breakfast with his grandson Adam at Buck’s restaurant in Woodside twice a month over the last nine years.
“To some he was larger than life, to others a best friend,” wrote Adam in a Sept. 24 Substack post. “He was constantly dressed in a suit looking like James Bond, which contrasted wonderfully with my T-shirt and orange pants situation during our breakfasts.”
In 2011, Draper authored “The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership Between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs,” which included firsthand stories of the successes of California-based companies he invested in such as Skype, the Apollo Computer, Hotmail and OpenTable.
“Drive, determination, leadership qualities, intelligence and vision paired with unyielding integrity were the traits Bill Draper looked for in every founder he backed — and the very qualities he exemplified throughout his historic career,” according to a statement from the National Venture Capital Association. “He believed deeply in humility and founder partnership, often reminding peers that the entrepreneurs sweating long hours are the true heroes carrying progress forward.”
In 2013, the San Mateo Historical Association honored Draper and his peers for their groundbreaking work in venture capital.
Outside of venture capital, Draper pursued philanthropic interests for many decades. He founded what would later become the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. It has made over 280 early-stage investments in information technology in India and the U.S. over the last 30 years. He headed the United Nations Development Program from 1986 to 1993, where he oversaw almost 10,000 international aid projects. In 2018, he helped found The Mission Within, a therapy program that provides supervised psychedelic therapy to veterans.
Draper is preceded in death by his wife of almost 65 years, Phyllis. He is survived by his three children, Polly, Tim and Rebecca; his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
