>. I believe KP is just waiting for the right time again to take it public and sell out.
>Doerr must certainly be hoping that's true, given the heavy tech bets made by his firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
>Venture capital titan to meet with Congress members
BY PETER DELEVETT
Mercury News
Wanna power breakfast with venture capital titan John Doerr? You'll have to get up early: Doerr is speaking to a group of U.S. Congress members Sunday morning at 8 in San Francisco.
Doerr will be keynoting the New Democrat Network's fifth annual West Coast Retreat, which lets lawmakers kibbutz with Silicon Valley types.
``I view it as a rare opportunity to speak to congressional leaders,'' says Doerr, who was a major backer of former Vice President Al Gore in last year's presidential election.
About 20 Democrats, including Silicon Valley's Zoe Lofgren, Mike Honda and Anna Eshoo, will be on hand for the three-day event, which kicks off Friday at Genentech in South San Francisco. The pols will listen to techies debate biotech ethics, privacy legislation and the power crisis.
They'll also be looking to schmooze with prospective donors, says NDN President Simon Rosenberg, who expects the weekend to raise half a million dollars for congressional races. Admission to the weekend's events costs a cool $1,000 a head.
Doerr, who is co-chairing the event on behalf of lobbying group Technology Network, will hold forth on the future of the tech industry.
``One of my messages is that the New Economy hasn't gone away and isn't going away, despite the burst of the Internet bubble,'' he says.
Doerr argues that the Internet is still in its adolescence, and jokes that ``maybe we've got a case of acne now.''
He also bemoans investors and consumers who've lost faith in the Net. ``Nine months ago, the view was stupid-high; right now it's stupid-low,'' he says.
Doerr must certainly be hoping that's true, given the heavy tech bets made by his firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Despite his own lowered profile these days, Doerr says he's ``working as hard as ever'' on both VC deals and policy issues. And he gives a hint about the next big political campaign he may wade into: Gov. Gray Davis' re-election bid next year.
``I'm backing Gray Davis,'' Doerr says, adding that he's working closely with Davis staffers to tackle the energy mess. Pundits have predicted that issue could scuttle the guv's political future, to which Doerr says: ``Let's remember this got screwed up by a unanimous vote of the legislature.'' |
