Good piece from the NYT on John Doerr and Kleiner Perkins…
In 1999, Mr. Doerr, on behalf of his firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, invested $12.5 million for a stake in Google that will probably be worth at least $3 billion – perhaps more – after Google sells stock to public investors this year. That is a gain of 240 times the original investment in five years and provides plenty of spare profit to offset the losses from other bets investors made in the same round of venture capital fund-raising.
“John Doerr throws big darts at distant targets,” said Jerry Kaplan, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose start-ups in the early 1990’s, Go Corporation and Onsale.com, were flops backed by Kleiner through Mr. Doerr. “Most miss, but when they hit, it’s spectacular.” [The New York Times]