Bill Draper on "The Startup Game"

March 16, 2011

Inside “The Startup Game”

Legendary venture capitalist Bill Draper talks to SandHill.com about the values that have endured throughout his 40-plus years of investing in technology companies.

By Maryann Jones Thompson, SandHill.com

Few books are endorsed by Eric Schmidt, President George H.W. Bush, Marc Benioff, John Doerr and Christopher Buckley. But few authors have impacted the world of private investment and public service like William Draper III.

As one of the first venture capitalists to back the Silicon Valley, Draper was a founding investor in Hotmail, Skype, OpenTable, Apollo Computer, Quantum, Qume, Activision, LSI Logic and many other startups over the past 40 years. During the 1980s and 1990s, Draper took a break to focus on international relations, serving as Chairman of the U.S. Export-Import Bank and Administrator and CEO of the United Nations Development Program.

Draper's new book, The Startup Game, explores the unique relationship between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and how it has evolved through the decades. SandHill.com spoke with Draper about the enduring value of a handshake, the software company he wished he would have backed, the new power of technology investments, and the importance of good, old-fashioned luck.

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