If John Doerr has his way, greentech will be Silicon Valley's new new thing—and taxpayers will foot the bill.
The final chord from “Where the Streets Have No Name” was still humming through the sold-out Oakland Arena when Bono stepped toward the edge of the circular stage. As portentous minor chords seeped out of an electronic keyboard, the rock star began a sermon about America’s historic might, moon shots, civil rights struggles, and the need to fight extreme poverty in Africa—right now. “Take out your cell phones,” he shouted. With a roar, thousands of fans happily obeyed, whipping out Treos and Razrs and pointing their screens at the U2 frontman, bathing him in an ethereal blue light. Giant-screen TVs instructed the crowd to text-message the word unite and join Bono’s antipoverty campaign, One. Then Bono said a strange thing: “I want to thank … John Doerr!”
Probably only a few U2 fans would know that the 55-year-old man Bono was giving a shout-out to is the most powerful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. If there has been a big technology initial public offering in the past 20 years, chances are Doerr and his firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, were behind it.
See full Article.
Posts
