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Isn't this what led Kleiner Perkins down the wrong path and tarnished John Doerr's reputation? He made a killing investing in tech stocks in the 90's and 2000s

by jkuria 6y ago

Isn't this what led Kleiner Perkins down the wrong path and tarnished John Doerr's reputation? He made a killing investing in tech stocks in the 90's and 2000s then decided he wanted to do good for the world and leave a legacy for his kids, and got into climate, clean tech and other 'feel good' stuff. The results were not pretty! I believe it is best to use one's wealth and earnings to invest in climate stuff outside of a formal fund, with no expectation of outsize returns.

thesausageking 6y ago
The $1B question is whether or not this cycle of climate tech is different. There's some good reasons to believe it is. Climate change is much more dire and we're starting to actively feel the effects. Consumers and governments are more aware of it and actively want solutions, which means there is real market demand for electric cars, clean energy generation, etc. This all means that, unlike cleantech 1.0, there are real business models for these startups.
- CamelCaseName 6y ago
  While that is ideal, another strategy is to implement government subsidies (or taxes) to privatize the social costs of pollution. Regrettably, Al Gore's loss in 2000 saw environmental policy fall by the wayside and we are slowly picking up the pieces. Carbon credits is a good example of this, but it illustrates the pitfalls clearly: if not everyone is subject to the same environmental regulations, those who are will lose their competitive edge.
asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
Maybe. Lots of people lost money in the dot com bust but over the next decade even more was made by the shareholders of various internet companies.
somethoughts 6y ago
While true in the financial sense - it somewhat depends on if success can only be a binary measurement and the only measure that matters is return to LPs. [1] If the alternative reality is allowed to be entertained, it is very much possible to say KP was instrumental in laying the groundwork for a clean tech VC ecosystem - jumpstarting VC activity amongst other VCs and supplying a ton of critical social cred to clean teach entrepreneurs/engineers that they were legit and not just tree-hugging pie-in-the-sky dreamers. Herd mentality and FOMO among other competing VCs following suit likely significantly multiplied the amount of clean tech VC dollars that KP directly allocated and led to many of the successful clean tech companies today. Also there's a ton of fundamental clean tech R&D that was learned in the areas of energy demand management, solar and battery tech knowledge at the KP funded startups. It was also much more visible what failed so subsequent startups could avoid those hazards. And as engineers at the failed startups dispersed, they could then be picked up by future successful players. And even though it lost, there's also a ton of social cred in KP putting in a bid for Tesla's Series C. It set a lower bound on Tesla stake for Vantage Point and gave Elon that much more capital at a crucial stage. [2] [1] https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/weathering-the-storm-kleiner-perkins-and-the-tragedy-of-clean-tech-venture-capital/ https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/weathering... [2] https://pando.com/2012/07/17/who-made-the-bigger-mistake-in-the-botched-series-c-for-tesla-elon-musk-or-john-doerr/ https://pando.com/2012/07/17/who-made-the-bigger-mistake-in-...

by jkuria 6y ago

thesausageking 6y ago

The $1B question is whether or not this cycle of climate tech is different. There's some good reasons to believe it is. Climate change is much more dire and we're starting to actively feel the effects. Consumers and governments are more aware of it and actively want solutions, which means there is real market demand for electric cars, clean energy generation, etc. This all means that, unlike cleantech 1.0, there are real business models for these startups.

CamelCaseName 6y ago
While that is ideal, another strategy is to implement government subsidies (or taxes) to privatize the social costs of pollution. Regrettably, Al Gore's loss in 2000 saw environmental policy fall by the wayside and we are slowly picking up the pieces. Carbon credits is a good example of this, but it illustrates the pitfalls clearly: if not everyone is subject to the same environmental regulations, those who are will lose their competitive edge.

asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago

Maybe. Lots of people lost money in the dot com bust but over the next decade even more was made by the shareholders of various internet companies.

somethoughts 6y ago

While true in the financial sense - it somewhat depends on if success can only be a binary measurement and the only measure that matters is return to LPs. [1] If the alternative reality is allowed to be entertained, it is very much possible to say KP was instrumental in laying the groundwork for a clean tech VC ecosystem - jumpstarting VC activity amongst other VCs and supplying a ton of critical social cred to clean teach entrepreneurs/engineers that they were legit and not just tree-hugging pie-in-the-sky dreamers. Herd mentality and FOMO among other competing VCs following suit likely significantly multiplied the amount of clean tech VC dollars that KP directly allocated and led to many of the successful clean tech companies today. Also there's a ton of fundamental clean tech R&D that was learned in the areas of energy demand management, solar and battery tech knowledge at the KP funded startups. It was also much more visible what failed so subsequent startups could avoid those hazards. And as engineers at the failed startups dispersed, they could then be picked up by future successful players. And even though it lost, there's also a ton of social cred in KP putting in a bid for Tesla's Series C. It set a lower bound on Tesla stake for Vantage Point and gave Elon that much more capital at a crucial stage. [2] [1] https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/weathering-the-storm-kleiner-perkins-and-the-tragedy-of-clean-tech-venture-capital/ https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/weathering... [2] https://pando.com/2012/07/17/who-made-the-bigger-mistake-in-the-botched-series-c-for-tesla-elon-musk-or-john-doerr/ https://pando.com/2012/07/17/who-made-the-bigger-mistake-in-...