C A R N E G I E ME L L O N D E PA RTME N T O F ME C H A N I C A L E N G I N E E R I N G


disciplinary in life, as well as in business. The more you take on, Looking back, it’s a lesson I first learned at Carnegie Mellon.


”


philosophy, instead ofmerely learningmanagement theories.He really shapedmy idea of a successful entrepreneur andmademe believe that I could combinemy engineering perspective withmy interest in running a start-up business to bring innovation tomarket.”


Preparing for the Internet Revolution With his uniquemix of technology andmanagement skills,Kapoor was an attractive prospect for BellAtlantic (nowVerizon). In 1992, BellAtlantic recruited himinto its executive development program, based inWashington,D.C.There,Kapoor helped the company explore growth opportunities in the emerging areas of information services and interactive television.This two-year experience encouraged Kapoor to learnmore about running a technology- based business, and so he enrolled inHarvardUniversity’s highly competitiveM.B.A.program. Just as he had at CarnegieMellon,Kapoor quickly distinguished


himself atHarvard and founded the first Internet Club at the University.Fellowmembers included other Internet pioneers, such as eventual leaders at eBay and other companies. With the InternetAge dawning,Kapoor was in high demand


when he finished hisM.B.A. in 1996. Job offers came rolling in, and Kapoor accepted a position with Excite@Home,where he held various positions in onlinemedia and ran products and sales for the company’s e-commerce business until 1999.


Fishing for Start-Up Success While his position at Excite@Home combined his interests in technology andmanagement,Kapoor never forgot his dreamof becoming an entrepreneur. He and two friends fromHarvard Business School,Suneet


Wadhwa and ShripatiAcharya, teamed up with Indian Institute of Technology grad Bala Parthasarathy to hatch a unique idea: create an online repository where people around the world could store, organize, share, and print their photos.The venture was an entirely new idea,because digital cameras had not yet become amainstay among consumers.However,Kapoor and his teamwere able to raise $7.5million froma number of venture capital firms, and Snapfish was born in 1999. The early days of the fledgling company were difficult, asmost


consumers were still using conventional filmcameras.Snapfish weathered the well-known“Internet bubble burst”by paring its employees from120 to 20 and carefully conserving cash.As digital cameras gained in popularity,Snapfish took off—and eventually grew to become themost popular online photo commerce service around the world.


Kapoor as an undergraduate B.S.ME 1992


FromStudent to Entrepreneur— toMentor Having achieved the entrepreneurial success he had always pictured,Kapoor received an intriguing offer in 2005 fromMayfield Fund, the $2.8 billion venture capital firmthat had been one of Snapfish’s earliest investors.Based on his own success,Mayfield asked Kapoor to join the firmasManaging Director, a role that would allow himto invest in emerging technology companies, as well asmentor other entrepreneurs.


Before leaving Snapfish and joiningMayfield,Kapoor had one


piece of unfinished business.Remembering the“build it and sell it” philosophy he had learned at CarnegieMellon,Kapoor helped orches- trate the profitable sale of Snapfish toHewlett Packard inMarch 2005. Today,Kapoor hasmade themove fromentrepreneur to investor


tomentor,helping other young people build their own success stories. He leadsMayfield’s investment strategy in the online advertising, e-commerce, and consumer Internet/digitalmedia/mobile segments. Kapoor also writes a popular online blog,“TheVC inMe,”where he shares his perspective as an Internet pioneer and venture capitalist (www.vcinme.typepad.com). Kapoor has wonmany industry honors, including the SouthAsian


StudentAssociation 2005Award for Excellence in Business.He was also recently named a“Top 15Up and Coming Indian Executive”by IndiaToday.


Taking“Multi-Faceted” to the Extreme Like his professional life,Kapoor’s personal life has beenmarked by great success, as well as a touch of the unconventional.He shares a busy life with his wife Lydia and their three children, Jaya (8),Ari (6), and Deven (1).However,Kapoor also finds time to compete in triathlons, surf, and playmusic with his band—as well as provide hands-on support to Do Something, a nonprofit organization aimed at helping teenagers use the Internet to organize and do“good stuff” offline (www.dosomething.org).Do Something is the largest organization of its kind,now impacting over 750,000 teens. How does Kapoor find the time and energy to balance his


young family,his professional success, and his incredibly diverse personal interests? “I think it’s important to bemulti-disciplinary in life, as well as


in business,”Kapoor says.“Themore you take on, themore you can get accomplished.Looking back, it’s a lesson I first learned at CarnegieMellon.”•


C A R N E G I E M E C H I 11


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