Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » John Doerr

Kleiner Perkins Being Sued By Ellen Pao

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:17:31 +0000

Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers is one of the most prominent venture capital companies in Silicon Valley. The company is being sued by Ellen Pao, an investment partner at the company. The complaint has been filed on May 10th at the San Francisco Superior Court. Pao said that she has been sexually harassed by Ajit Nazre, a former KPCB partner that left the company late last year.

Pao said that she and other female employees at the company were often left out of meetings by the male partners at the firm. She also claims that she has been unfairly passed over for promotions because of her gender and her response to Nazre’s advances. John Doerr, Ray Lane, Bing Gordon, Ted Schlein, Chi-Hua Chien are partners that are being named in the lawsuit.

DreamBox Learning Raises $11 Million From Reed Hastings, John Doerr, Deborah Quazzo, and GSV Capital

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:52:34 +0000

DreamBox Learning is an e-learning company for students that has raised $11 million in a new round of funding. netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, Deborah Quazzo, and GSV Capital Corp. is participating in this round of funding. DreamBox has raised a total of $18 million in funding.

DreamBox Learning launched in 2008 and has over 500 math lessons, puzzles, games, etc. These lessons have been designed for children that are between kindergarten and 5th grade.

DreamBox assesses the mathematical abilities of students and provides them with hints if they cannot figure out the answer. DreamBox provides teachers with assessment tools so that they can track the progress of children.

“DreamBox Learning has cracked the code on improving early educational outcomes for every child – regardless of zip code,” stated Doerr in a release. “Their robust math curriculum and adaptive learning technology is a game-changer, transforming education across the country.”

About 500,000 elementary students have logged in to DreamBox since fall 2010 from all 50 states. About 11 million lessons have been viewed altogether. DreamBox will be using the funds to expand their curriculum and for future product development.

[TechCrunch]

Startup Erly Combines Hulu Cred with Kleiner Perkins Funding

Riley Kennysmith — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:22:26 +0000

Kleiner Perkins partners Chi-Hua Chien and John Doerr are backing fellow-Kleiner Perkins partner Eric Feng’s new startup Erly. Feng, the founding CTO of Hulu, is starting Erly with two other former Hulu-ers. AllThingsD reports that the company’s purpose is being kept a mystery right now, but the tagline has been revealed: “your life, simply interesting.”

Larry Page and Sergey Brin Wanted To Hire Steve Jobs Back In 2000 As CEO

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:28:08 +0000

Back in 2000, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to hire Apple CEO Steve Jobs as their company CEO. Around then, Google’s investors said that their company needed some adult supervision through with an experienced CEO. John Doerr arranged interviews between Page and Brin with Andy Grove (Intel) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com). “…they would only consider one person: Steve Jobs,” wrote Wired senior writer Steven Levy. Jobs was too busy running Apple at the time and was gearing up to launch the first iPod. Eventually Doerr convinced the two to hire Novell CEO Eric Schmidt. [CultOfMac]

Photo Of Silicon Valley Tech Titans and President Obama

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:10:06 +0000

The White House has uploaded some images on Flickr of President Barack Obama’s meeting with the tech titans of Silicon Valley. This photo symbolizes how the meeting went. The meeting was about how these executives plan to support entrepreneurship, increase exports, and strengthen the economy. The executives in this picture includes:

-John Doerr, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
-Carol Bartz, president and CEO, Yahoo!
-John Chambers, CEO and chairman, Cisco Systems
-Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter
-Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO, Oracle
-Reed Hastings, CEO, NetFlix
-John Hennessy, president, Stanford University
-Steve Jobs, chairman and CEO, Apple
-Art Levinson, chairman and former CEO, Genentech
-Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO, Google
-Steve Westly, managing partner and founder, Westly Group
-Mark Zuckerberg, founder, president and CEO, Facebook

President Obama Meeting With Major Silicon Valley CEOs Today

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:51:26 +0000

President Barack Obama is making a trip to Silicon Valley today and is meeting with some major tech CEOs. The names of the executives that he is meeting was revealed by the L.A. Times. The meeting will be about supporting entrepreneurship, increasing exports, strengthening the economy, etc. Below is the list of people that he is meeting:

* John Doerr, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
* Carol Bartz, president and CEO, Yahoo!
* John Chambers, CEO and chairman, Cisco Systems
* Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter
* Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO, Oracle
* Reed Hastings, CEO, NetFlix
* John Hennessy, president, Stanford University
* Steve Jobs, chairman and CEO, Apple
* Art Levinson, chairman and former CEO, Genentech
* Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO, Google
* Steve Westly, managing partner and founder, Westly Group
* Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder, president and CEO, Facebook

Kleiner Perkins Rejected Zynga Twice Before Investing

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:11:00 +0000

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers almost missed out on investing in Zynga. It turns out that KPCB rejected investments in Zynga… twice. Now KP partner John Doerr said “Zynga is the largest, most rapidly growing, most profitable company, with the most happy customers that Kleiner’s ever invested in over it’s life.”

KPCB is known for making smart investments in tech companies. They plugged money into Google, Sun Microsystems, and Amazon.com before the companies had gone public.

The first time that Zynga CEO Mark Pincus pitched KPCB for an investment in January 2008, they did not get one. In the same year, KPCB turned down Pincus again on Zynga’s Series B.

“Silicon valley had stopped believing in games,” stated KP partner Bing Gordon. Gordon did not like KP’s refusal because he helped build Electronic Arts. Bing told his KPCB colleagues that if they did not put in money, he would put in some of his own personal money. This convinced the VC firm to put money in and it was one of the best decisions that they have ever made.

[BusinessInsider]

Kleiner Perkins Ups Apple Development Fund (iFund) To $200 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:30:13 +0000

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner John Doerr hosted an event today at the Sandhill Hotel in Menlo Park, California to announce their involvement with the Apple iPad. Kleiner Perkins announced that the venture capital’s iFund will go from $100 million to $200 million.

Kleiner Perkins first introduced the iFund in March 2008 in order to encourage start-ups to make iPhone apps. Some of the companies that received funding from the iFund include Booyah, Shazam, Pinger, and ngmoco.

The companies that have funding in the iFund have seem about a total of 100 million downloads according to Doerr. Those companies themselves are expected to make about $100 million in revenues this year. [TechCrunch]

V-Vehicle Raises $62.25 Million From Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:30:04 +0000

V-Vehicle is an automotive startup company based in San Diego, California. The vehicle company has raised $62.25 million and plans to raise an additional $4 million. The companies involved in the $62.25 million are Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. V-Vehicle will be building cars in the northeastern region of Louisiana.

V-Vehicle raised a previous round from T. Boone Pickens and has former Mazda design chief Tom Matano on their staff. V-Vehicle recently procured a facility that was owned by Guide Corporation. And Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was at the announcement ceremony of the plant opening. Jindal offered V-Vehicle $67 million as part ofa startup incentive package. Local governments provided an additional $15 million. V-Vehicle is aiming to raise about $50 million between equity and loans.

David Drummond, Google’s SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer is listed as one of the Board of Directors at V-Vehicle. Former Oracle executive and founding CEO of V-Vehicle Frank Varasano had invested $100 million of his own money into the company.

Kleiner Perkins partners John Doerr and Ray Lane also have board seats in V-Vehicle. James Davison, a trucking company leader is also listed as an investor.

In Louisiana, the company plans on developing a “green” car. Tesla should beware, they’re not the only ones in the electric car game.

[via Xconomy/alarm:clock]