![]() ![]() Doerr was a prominent Democratic fundraiser and pal of former Vice President Al Gore, whom Doerr made a Kleiner partner. ![]() He also was a prominent cheerleader for Silicon Valley in the age of the Internet.ĭoerr was so powerful, in fact, that he was able to pivot Kleiner’s entire thrust away from the Internet and toward his latest passion project: renewable energy companies he believed would be the next important wave of tech investing. Doerr scored a string of hits-Netscape, Amazon, and Google-becoming an active and forceful board member at the tech industry’s most exciting companies. A former Intel salesman, Doerr joined Kleiner in 1980 and over time became its de facto leader. The second problem appears to be superstar VC John Doerr’s fondness for renewable energy projects. “The firm’s ablest investor for two decades, though his name wasn’t on the letterhead, was John Doerr. Worse, a class system developed inside Kleiner, evident to the outside world as well, notably among entrepreneurs mulling accepting Kleiner’s money: Team Meeker was a top-tier operation while the venture unit was B-list at best.” Meeker, not the venture capital investing unit, was landing stakes in the era’s most promising companies, including Slack, DocuSign, Spotify, and Uber, breeding resentment over tension points as old as the investing business: Who gets the credit and, more important, who gets paid. Yet Meeker’s investment team outperformed the venture group overseen by longtime Kleiner leader John Doerr and a rotating ensemble of lesser-known investors who joined and left him over the years. ![]() Part of the problem seems to be a war going on inside the firm. ““Growth” investing, with its more developed companies, should be somewhat safer than “venture” investing and would also earn commensurately lower returns. Why did Kleiner fail to spot the potential of hot startups like Robinhood which repeatedly came knocking at its door? In addition, Kleiner Perkins has traditionally lumped cryptocurrency investments into the fintech sector, but the firm is beginning to think of it as its own category, Hamid says, adding that his team is particularly bullish on currency exchanges and collectible NFTs.Once the home of rockstar VCs such as Vinod Khosla this Fortune article contends that legendary VC firm, Kleiner Perkins, has lost its way and seeks to understand the roots of its malaise. For Case, who joined the firm in 2018, that’s digital health and consumer marketplaces, while Coyne, who joined in 2017, will focus on logistics and business process software that help antiquated industries. The pair of new partners will continue to focus on the specific verticals in which they’ve become experts, Hamid says. Longtime partner Ted Schlein remains at the firm, but is no longer an active investor in December, he launched Ballistic Ventures, a separate entity to invest exclusively in cybersecurity. Case, the daughter of former AOL chief Steve Case, becomes the only female investment partner at Kleiner Perkins. Case and Coyne are the latest additions to a team of six partners who call the shots at the firm, joining Hamid, Ilya Fushman, Wen Hsieh and Bucky Moore. Kleiner Perkins will continue to invest broadly across five technology categories: enterprise tech, consumer tech, deep tech, healthcare and fintech. ![]()
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