Mitchell Kapor is a pioneer of the personal computing revolution. He is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the “killer application” which made the personal computer ubiquitous in the business world in the 1980s. In 1982, Mitch took lotus public, and in 1990 he co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation (The EFF is a non-profit civil liberties organization working in the public interest to protect privacy, free expression, and access to public resources and information online)   Mr. Kapor was first chair of the Mozilla Foundation, maker of the open source web browser Firefox, and continues to serve on its board. He is the founding investor and first chair of Linden Research, the creator of the virtual world Second Life. Currently. He is a trustee of the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, a private foundation works to ensure fairness and equity, particularly for low-income communities of colour. Mitch and his wife Freada Kapor Klein launched Kapor Capital to prove that investing in gap-closing start-ups—companies whose services or products close opportunity gaps for both communities of colour and low-income communities—is good business – they detail the stories of some of these remarkable businesses in their new book, Closing the Equity Gap. In this interview, I speak to Mitch Kapor about the inequality created by venture capital and how Kapor Capital has proven that economic and social impact can occur together – benefiting the investor, and society.

Thought Economics

Andy Last has spent 20 years advising some of the world’s biggest businesses on social issues. In his new book, Business on a Mission, he explores the link between social mission, purpose, sustainability, and performance. Andy shows that purpose and profit are not incompatible, and that understanding, responding to, and actioning the values of a business can drive returns alongside attracting and retaining talent. In this interview, I speak with Andy Last, author of Business on a Mission, on the importance of social mission for businesses, how to articulate and measure your mission, and how social mission can drive real profits and performance.

Thought Economics

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