John Doerr

Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Beyers

by Timothy Haight

If picking winners over time is the best indicator of a venture capitalist's worth, John Doerr is definitely a hot property. The investments he has led include Compaq, Intuit, Lotus, Sun, Symantec and Netscape. Perhaps we should outsource to Doerr the writing of next year's headlines, as long as he writes them this month.

Doerr is eminently quotable. What's today's greatest trend? "It feels like the Web will take over the world," he says. "Interactive TV won't happen. The Web will take its place. It's as big a surprise as when the PC was introduced."

Are there obstacles? "I don't see anything that stands between us and 100 million Americans getting high-bandwidth, full-motion video over the Web in their homes for a few tens of dollars a month," he says. "Give us a few years, and it will be done." Doerr's optimism is inspiring. "The Net will make the independent press even more potent. Suddenly, authors won't be tied to publishers. The choices may be overwhelming, but technology will help us there, too. The power is in the navigator."

Still, Doerr is circumspect about his rhetoric. "I've got to be enthusiastic. My job is to support the entrepreneurs. If you're not enthusiastic about the possibilities of creating another Sun or Cisco, you're not going to be very effective." Doerr is effective.

Most Important Trend: The Web

Most Disturbing Trend: HP's dispute over Fast Ethernet

NetPeeve: Not enough bandwidth

Non-Computer Reading: A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, by J. Paulos

September 15, 1995