Bill Draper, the investor who bet on tech before Silicon Valley had a name, dies at 98
Bill Draper has died
Bill Draper began funding start-ups in the early 1960s, driving a rented Pontiac through the apricot orchards of the Santa Clara Valley when few entrepreneurs had even heard the term "venture capital." As a founder or managing director of Sutter Hill Ventures and Draper Richards, he backed Activision, Skype, OpenTable and a pioneering maker of pacemakers. Colleagues called him Dr. Yes because he loved to say "We're in!" before due diligence. He died at 98.
He loved to say, 'We're in!' to a deal at an initial meeting before we could do the due diligence.
- JSR_FDED
Man that was as a different ethos back then…”Draper realized that his ‘learning curve was flattened out’ in venture capital and detoured into public service”. Subsequently he funded 280 non profits.
The A16z team of today is probably deeply confused reading this article.
- 2ahg6a
Maybe the site would be more cheerful if there were a separate section for AI, obituaries and diseases.
- bookofjoe
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/technology/william-draper...