At GSB monthly speaker serial, the Silicon Valley legend John Doerr of KPCB gave a talk about View from the Top. People asked “from the top of what?” He joked: obviously from the top of Sand Hill Road. I have heard John Doerr talk before, it’s always interesting to hear him again. John started by saying what makes a great venture – he emphased on the “greatness.” Here is his matrix:
- A+ leadership and passionate founders
- Committment to technology excellence
- Large, rapidly growing and unserved markets
- Team of talents
As a visionary who funded Netscape, Yahoo, Google, and many other great companies in the Silicon Valley, people naturally asked what he sees as the industrial and technology trends. Here is what on his list:
- Wi-Fi, wireless, handweb
- Entreprise secuirtya nd search
- Consumer content, services and search
- Open source
- Energy innovations
- Evidence-based EMR
- Personalized medicine
- Social entrepreneurship
I am particularly impressed that John Doerr, as a traditional venture capitalist, gave special attention to social entrepreneurship. The room was quiet when he talked about problem of global poverty and what we can do to solve the problem. I hope his talk inspired more young people devoting their lives to social entrepreneurship.
In the end, John Doerr recommended a list of books to read: 1) Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure; 2) The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living; 3) Inside Intuit: How the Makers of Quicken Beat Microsoft and Revolutionized an Entire Industry; 4) Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration.
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