Mitch Kapor, the Lotus Legend and EFF Co-Founder, Earns MIT Degree 45 Years After Leaving School

Mitch Kapor left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s business school in 1979 and soon became a co-founder of the groundbreaking spreadsheet company Lotus. He later co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and served as the chair of the Mozilla Foundation. Only this year did Kapor finally complete his education.

The 74-year-old billionaire and venture capitalist at Kapor Capital received his master’s degree in May during a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Cambridge, close to where he established Lotus. Previously, Kapor had defended a 77-page thesis.

The decision to pursue his degree after 45 years came about when an old friend, Professor Bill Aulet, invited him to give a guest lecture at MIT’s business school in 2024. He playfully remarked, “There’s just one problem, Mitch, I see that you didn’t graduate from MIT.”

Kapor graduated from Yale University in 1971 and spent nearly a decade exploring various paths, working as a disc jockey, a transcendental meditation instructor, and a mental health consultant. In the 1980s, he was captivated by the capabilities of the new Apple II personal computer. He began developing programs to tackle statistical problems and analyze data, which caught the attention of Boston software entrepreneurs Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Together, they created VisiCalc, one of the first spreadsheet programs. The developers introduced Kapor to their software publisher in California, Personal Software.

Midway through his 12-month master’s program, the publisher offered him approximately $20,000 to adapt his statistical programs for VisiCalc. To complete the project, he took a leave of absence from MIT but ultimately decided to leave the university for good in order to accept a permanent position at Personal.

In reflecting on his decision in comparison to other renowned tech founders who dropped out, such as Bill Gates, Kapor expressed that he felt a strong pull from the startup world. “It was simply irresistible. I felt as though I couldn’t afford to miss out on this opportunity, or else the window would close…,” he shared.

When Aulet joked about his old friend’s unfinished degree in 2024, Kapor realized he still wanted to obtain it. “I don’t know what spurred me on, but it initiated a conversation with MIT about completing my studies,” he remarked. By the time Kapor delivered his lecture in March, Aulet discovered that he was only a few courses shy of graduation. MIT doesn’t offer honorary degrees, but the administration allows students to make up for missed classes through independent study and a thesis. Kapor decided to write a paper on the origins and evolution of his investment strategy. “It’s timely, it’s very relevant, and I have something to say,” he stated.

Ultimately, it was this work that paved the way for him to earn his degree nearly half a century later.