I met Mr Draper once. I was staying at the SFO hyatt, or maybe the Mariott, and had a couple hours to kill after breakfast and noticed there was some sort of conference going on, so I crashed it. I walked into a talk room and sat in the front row and introduced myself to my neighbors. On one side was Steven Levy (author of many books in the industry) and the other was Bill Draper. I don't really remember the conversation, nor even the topic of the conference - it was a brief conversation in the 5 or 10 minutes before the talk started. At the time I didn't really know who he was but I was a little star-struck by Mr Levy, and it was Levy who told me I should be more impressed by being next to Draper. Mr Draper thought that was funny and the three of us chatted a bit more about whatever. I found it interesting that Mr. Draper was a surprisingly relatable guy (particularly given what I know about him know) and that he was very insightful of technology for someone who was in his 70 or 80s at the time.
RIP Mr. Draper. I didn't know it when we talked, but you helped make my career possible - thanks!
I got to meet Bill briefly while taking part in his grandson Adam’s Boost VC accelerator in the early bitcoin days.
Bill would attend both events in support of Tim and Adam. I had a great experience with both the Drapers as a founder.
One time, while living with my cofounder in the hotel Tim was restoring in downtown San Mateo, I broke the hotel elevator.
The laundry was on the basement level and ~everyone used this brick to prop open the door so could dash to the laundry move it to the dryer and dash back without loosing the car.
Well, the brick was not well propped and somehow the door pushed it to a point where it could close but also somehow carry it up the shaft.
Watching the door close it was just like, uh oh.
Up goes the elevator idk a few stories and then the sound of a brick tumbling down the shaft hitting who knows what.
Ya, the elevator stopped working immediately. I owned up to it the next day, writing Tim and offering to pay for what probably would have consumed all of our accelerator funds of damage I had caused.
He thanked me for my honesty and said not to worry about it.
Tim (and Adam) went on to invest in not one but two of my ventures.
Anyway, I realize this is about Bill but I think a person can be reflected in not only themselves but those that they raise and wanted to share this.
Oh and Bill, at least back then, did not think much of Bitcoin. :)
Also clearly, what's the expectation that we hear that Kiva or Room to Read is baked by DRK? Have you heard of these? Which non profits have you heard of?
Consider this:
"19% of all global Audacious Project awardees started out as DRK-funded entities and 10% of all Skoll Award for Social Innovation winners come from the DRK portfolio"
Does this help? Do you know who's Audacious or Skoll? And if, not perhaps can we reason when it's appropriate to challenge anything based on close to zero information about the subject?
His father is particularly intriguing with respect to wartime / postwar history, Good bet there’s probably more content there buried in the archives worth coming out.
I do wish that "Silicon Valley" would have been elsewhere less useful, though. As mentioned, before it became the tech hub, the Santa Clara valley was extremely productive agricultural land that is now paved over.
Out west, water rights are based in common law, sometimes formalized by legislation. And common law is based on how miners and prospectors resolved water conflicts while panning for gold.
While there may be no sane system, the legacy of "first come, first serve" and ",use it or lose it" is particularly insane.
A trip to Palm Springs is an eye-opener. You see so many sidewalks being watered at all hours of the day, and the water just flowing right into the drains. Such a shame in a desert area.
Water in California IS plentiful! But 85% of the water that is used is used by agriculture, leaving people and businesses to fight over the rest. Also, water "saved" in homes actually does not save any water, because it then gets used on a farm. Each gallon Californians reduce in homes produces one additional almond, but it gets used either way.
What's worse is that California is effectively exporting 40% of the water in the form of agricultural products. That is, half the food produced is exported. California sells their water, much like oil, to the rest of the world. And half of the exports are foreign exports (rather than to another state).
Did you know California exports a very large amount of rice to Asia? There are rice paddies surrounding Sacramento.
Davis has ride paddies… and ubiquitous grass fires every summer. The water problem in California likely wont be fixed, I suspect that once the aquifers give up it will allow the bigger interests to claim too big to fail and sponge up the lions share due to emergency conditions.
I met Mr Draper once. I was staying at the SFO hyatt, or maybe the Mariott, and had a couple hours to kill after breakfast and noticed there was some sort of conference going on, so I crashed it. I walked into a talk room and sat in the front row and introduced myself to my neighbors. On one side was Steven Levy (author of many books in the industry) and the other was Bill Draper. I don't really remember the conversation, nor even the topic of the conference - it was a brief conversation in the 5 or 10 minutes before the talk started. At the time I didn't really know who he was but I was a little star-struck by Mr Levy, and it was Levy who told me I should be more impressed by being next to Draper. Mr Draper thought that was funny and the three of us chatted a bit more about whatever. I found it interesting that Mr. Draper was a surprisingly relatable guy (particularly given what I know about him know) and that he was very insightful of technology for someone who was in his 70 or 80s at the time.
RIP Mr. Draper. I didn't know it when we talked, but you helped make my career possible - thanks!
I got to meet Bill briefly while taking part in his grandson Adam’s Boost VC accelerator in the early bitcoin days.
Bill would attend both events in support of Tim and Adam. I had a great experience with both the Drapers as a founder.
One time, while living with my cofounder in the hotel Tim was restoring in downtown San Mateo, I broke the hotel elevator.
The laundry was on the basement level and ~everyone used this brick to prop open the door so could dash to the laundry move it to the dryer and dash back without loosing the car.
Well, the brick was not well propped and somehow the door pushed it to a point where it could close but also somehow carry it up the shaft.
Watching the door close it was just like, uh oh.
Up goes the elevator idk a few stories and then the sound of a brick tumbling down the shaft hitting who knows what.
Ya, the elevator stopped working immediately. I owned up to it the next day, writing Tim and offering to pay for what probably would have consumed all of our accelerator funds of damage I had caused.
He thanked me for my honesty and said not to worry about it.
Tim (and Adam) went on to invest in not one but two of my ventures.
Anyway, I realize this is about Bill but I think a person can be reflected in not only themselves but those that they raise and wanted to share this.
Oh and Bill, at least back then, did not think much of Bitcoin. :)
> Oh and Bill, at least back then, did not think much of Bitcoin.
Smart man!
Third generation of Drapers doing this, which is its own kind of rare.
From observing next generation drapers, Bill have done really well wrt raising good people.
RIP Bill Draper. I never got to know you, but your legacy certainly lives on.
[flagged]
Have we heard of any of those nonprofits? Have any of them made a dent in anything? Why are people so mesmerized by nonprofits?
Who's "we"?
Also clearly, what's the expectation that we hear that Kiva or Room to Read is baked by DRK? Have you heard of these? Which non profits have you heard of?
Consider this: "19% of all global Audacious Project awardees started out as DRK-funded entities and 10% of all Skoll Award for Social Innovation winners come from the DRK portfolio"
Does this help? Do you know who's Audacious or Skoll? And if, not perhaps can we reason when it's appropriate to challenge anything based on close to zero information about the subject?
Odd no mention of DFJ as started by his son, the single most familiar association with the name Draper in tech (with apologies to Charles Stark D..)
His father is particularly intriguing with respect to wartime / postwar history, Good bet there’s probably more content there buried in the archives worth coming out.
I do wish that "Silicon Valley" would have been elsewhere less useful, though. As mentioned, before it became the tech hub, the Santa Clara valley was extremely productive agricultural land that is now paved over.
Sort of metaphorical, eh?
Too on-the-nose to make for good fiction.
We have lots of agricultural land; too much, actually. This is a side effect of the green revolution.
What we in California don’t have is sustainably plentiful water, or a sane system of water rights to apportion it.
In much of the US, water is a common good and there are no water rights.
There is no sane system of water rights which is why there are cotton fields in Arizona.
Out west, water rights are based in common law, sometimes formalized by legislation. And common law is based on how miners and prospectors resolved water conflicts while panning for gold.
While there may be no sane system, the legacy of "first come, first serve" and ",use it or lose it" is particularly insane.
In SoCal, yes, but things are (mostly) fine in the north and in the central valley.
More frustrating is all the water waste due to "use it or lose it" type policies around commercial and agricultural water allocations.
A trip to Palm Springs is an eye-opener. You see so many sidewalks being watered at all hours of the day, and the water just flowing right into the drains. Such a shame in a desert area.
Water in California IS plentiful! But 85% of the water that is used is used by agriculture, leaving people and businesses to fight over the rest. Also, water "saved" in homes actually does not save any water, because it then gets used on a farm. Each gallon Californians reduce in homes produces one additional almond, but it gets used either way.
What's worse is that California is effectively exporting 40% of the water in the form of agricultural products. That is, half the food produced is exported. California sells their water, much like oil, to the rest of the world. And half of the exports are foreign exports (rather than to another state).
Did you know California exports a very large amount of rice to Asia? There are rice paddies surrounding Sacramento.
Davis has ride paddies… and ubiquitous grass fires every summer. The water problem in California likely wont be fixed, I suspect that once the aquifers give up it will allow the bigger interests to claim too big to fail and sponge up the lions share due to emergency conditions.
> Davis has ride paddies
Is this a bike joke or a typo?
What a great read. RIP Bill!
Somewhat unrelated but both of Draper’s siblings, but not his own parents, lived to similar ages of ~97 and ~99
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Draper_Jr. (Personal life section)
https://archive.ph/YRgDY
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/technology/william-draper...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/technology/william-draper... an alternative URL for the post - a gift article URL
(passed away on Sept 8th, obituary from Sept 30th)