Southwest Airlines has achieved unprecedented success by having only a "single class," which derives from its strategy of cheap, short-haul flights. This confirms the view of Jack Trout, revered by Morgan Stanley, that the key to success in this new era is no longer better people and better products; we need a better strategy. Similarly, KPCB succeeded because of its strategy and network of relationships.
Durr says, "We look for opportunities in businesses that will have a significant impact on the industry and change the world. Our strategy is to add an understanding of how the world is changing and how to adapt to it to the company's strategy." KPCB's strategy has resulted in the creation of numerous groundbreaking companies: Genentech (biotech industry), Compaq and Lotus (computer software), Sun Mircro (workstations), LSI Logic (semiconductors), Symantec and Macro Media/Adobe (software), Netscape (Internet leader), Amazon (Internet trading), @Home (broadband), Google (Internet search). In particular, he achieved at least two major breakthroughs in computer science: cache storage and Java. one of these, Java, has to this day caused Bill Gates to regard Durr as his greatest competitor.
His partner, Chi-Hsiung Chou, said of him, "What I admire most about Durr is his ability to consistently anticipate the future correctly. He is a strategist who can lead the way." Testimony of performance: KPCB, which he led for 30 years***, completed 475 investments, of which 167 companies successfully went public and another 166 companies realized mergers and acquisitions. Companies that have gone public after KPCB investments have totaled $90 billion in revenue and $375 billion in total market capitalization.
Some have analyzed why Wal-Mart called Costco, the world's first membership-based wholesale warehouse outlet, the only company to be in awe of, and why Costco's founder, James Singer, was successful. First, he searched for a strategic direction that offered high-end products at ultra-low discounted prices to a sophisticated urban population willing to buy more expensive value-added products and low-priced private-label products, while Wal-Mart was geared toward the broader mass population. Second, he is not influenced by Wall Street. He will not compromise the organization and strategy of the company for the sake of quarterly statements. Dole understands this.
Strategy is the difference. That's why Doerr says, "Be bold in greatness, be bold in solitude." If you want to take the most advantageous position, you must first research, understand and control that position, and be able to see industry trends for the next two or three years before anyone else. It has been said that a genius must be alone among his contemporaries. Especially in his diligent pursuit, but there is no one on the other side of the understanding and follow.
Man spends a small amount of time eating and most of the time digesting, and being alone is his way of digesting the world as he seeks to find "the smartest and most passionate entrepreneurs to make a qualitative change in this industry." Durr says, "When we go into an industry, we go through all the factors involved in that industry one by one, and we invest a lot of manpower and resources and do very in-depth research."
So in many areas, KPCB is one step ahead of others, and its involvement is like a "bomb" in the investment world, not only a visual shock, but also affect the mode of entry of investors. For example, the medical field, energy, environmental protection and other fields, in the words of Brooke Byers, a partner of KPCB: "We had acted as a vaudeville actor in a suit." Durr said, "What we've done and are doing as investors is - when we see an industry that's going to make a big difference but hasn't gotten off the ground yet, we step in."
Many people have questioned why Durr, who has made 47 trips to China, has been slow to enter the country until today. Many VCs have already entered China, but why is KPCB, an established fund, moving so slowly? What is the main reason for this? Is this the prudent and cautious style of an established fund? His answer is: "When to enter is not important, the important thing is to cooperate with what kind of people, how to enter is the most important." This may be one of his strategies that others can't understand. Because he wants to find people who fit KPCB's style and people who comprehend KPCB's strategy. Such a person needs to appear at the right point in time, and therefore requires patience and caution. He showed great courage in times of trouble, but was careful in good times. This is Doyle's style. In the book The Monk and the Riddle, it is said that the profit-oriented businessman is habitually delusional, while the preacher is full of zeal. The difference between the profit-oriented businessman and the missionary is more that the businessman is an opportunist, they are always concerned with profits and deals, they will run for short-term goals, which is unacceptable to the missionary because they are more strategic thinkers who are concerned with truly amazing ideas and are committed to reaching lasting partnerships. And they know that this innovative endeavor requires a long-term commitment, which they view as longer than a marathon, said Bill Campbell, chairman of Intuit, "John Doerr is known for his rigorous pursuit of key performance and established goals."
"If you accept a mission or an opportunity because you want to make money, I'm sorry, I think you're bound to fail. You should find your passion, find out where your mission is and take it on, even if no one is going to pay you anything for it. Because then you, and your team, will be filled with the drive to succeed." Durr said.
To get something done, he'll put in a lot of work, utilize a lot of relational resources, talk to experts in the industry, and reach out to a lot of companies that are in the industry. A good network is gold for venture capital, because it attracts entrepreneurs and helps investors choose projects better. But building a good network takes years to realize. It is said that in California, the passage of the New Energy Law was closely related to Dole and Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist. His partner says of him, "Dole is leading the way, and he will lead a team to do something."
In 1996, Doerr rallied the computer industry to resist California's Proposition 211. It was then that he co-founded TechNet, a political activist group dedicated to articulating the needs of high-tech companies to the state and federal governments. Dole's influence in the IT industry goes beyond money; he led the movement to make the high-tech agenda America's agenda. That's why he's been called "the hub between Silicon Valley and Washington."
Likewise, in the environmental arena, Dole has left no stone unturned: "Stepping forward to 2050, our planet will have about 400 cities with populations of more than 10 million. That means we will need to build the equivalent of eight Manhattans. If we can't do that, we humans will suffocate, we will flood, we will pollute and poison the planet. It's not just about making money. I think our obligation is much deeper." To that end, KPCB has set up a campaign for a green tech innovation network, a network that includes Brazil's S?o Paulo minister of the environment.
In February 2006, KPCB announced that it was giving at least $100 million of the company's $600 million venture capital fund to green tech. While everyone is currently focused on the environment, unbeknownst to them, Dole has already invested in at least five or more environmental companies. Alan Kay, a scientist at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, once said, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." Yet a good strategist must be at the forefront of the marketplace, overlooking the ebb and flow of business, grasping the flow of trends and being able to navigate it comfortably.
In more than two decades of investing, Doerr has always revitalized the industry and flaunted his personality. In the 1980s, during the personal computer revolution, he launched a series of investments around the microprocessor revolution, such as Compaq, Lotus, Sun; in the 1990s, Durr was the first to speculate on the market potential of the Internet, he said: "From 1980 to 1990, personal computers were the biggest thing. I was one of the few 'crazies' who thought that the Internet hadn't been over-hyped. I'm one of the few 'crazy people' who believe that the Internet has not been over-hyped and that we're really in the middle of a much bigger business opportunity than the PC. If the market for the PC is a hundred billion dollars, I think the business opportunity for the Internet will be three times that." So Durr was the first to invest in Netscape, thus kicking off the Internet revolution. In the .com era, Durr put all his energy into the Internet. The list of investments proved him right: @Home, AOL, Amazon, Excite, onsale, AdKnowledge, Macromedia, Marimba, Ascend, Shiva, Sun, Google ...... These companies brought tens of billions of dollars to KPCB tens of billions of dollars. Among them are Netscape, which returned 80 times its investment, Amazon, which returned 44 times, @Home, which returned 87 times, Excite, which returned 72 times, and Google, which returned 352 times, a record that no one has broken to date.
In early 1994, Netscape founder Jim Clark (Jim?) was filled with anxiety. Jim's friend Bill Foss suggested that he meet with Marc Andreessen, the inventor of the Mosaic browser for Unix. Shortly after their meeting, Jim offered to invest in Mosaic Communications if Marc and he could enlist the help of the research team at the University of Illinois that had designed the Mosaic browser prototype. They flew to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and interviewed the programmers, then faxed an offer to the front office and hired all five engineers, and Mosaic Communications was born. A few weeks later, Jim called Durr and asked Durr to meet with Marc, who was 22 years old at the time.
The Netscape team was dynamic, innovative, and willing to break the mold. Over the next 12 weeks, Doerr hired world-class senior executives at lightning speed, including four senior vice presidents (Jim Shaw, Mike Homer, Todd Rulon-Miller, and Rick Schell), countless board members, and a capable CEO, Jim Barksdale, who contributed to Netscape's growth in more ways than one. The contribution of this CEO to the development of Netscape cannot be overestimated. He's decisive but respected; he's open-minded and selfless; he's a tireless team leader and builder; he's ethical and courageous; he's funny, optimistic, and has the power to mobilize others to his strengths.
It's amazing to stop and think that hundreds of weeks ago the world didn't have a Web page, and Netscape's Navigator browser created an unprecedented market opportunity. Boldness is a particularly valuable trait when the odds are in your favor, and on August 9, 1995, Netscape went public, raising $140 million in its IPO and sending its stock price soaring from $28 to $74.75 per share, giving Netscape a market capitalization of $2.2 billion. This was the first IPO in the Internet world, and the first shot at Internet stocks shocked the world. The move triggered a five-year dot-com boom, and in mid-November 1998, Netscape, AOL, and Sun announced that AOL would acquire Netscape, whose market capitalization rose from $4 billion to $17 billion. The initial KPCB investment of $5 million became $400 million a few years later, an 80-fold return.
"We want to encourage entrepreneurs to take risks. When important risks can be managed, there are huge rewards to be had." Durr said. "I planted it, Apollos watered it, and it was God who made it grow. So there's nothing great about the planting, nothing great about the watering, only God who makes the growth happen." If there is no Page and Brin, of course, there will be no Google; Durr also said, "If there is no Schmidt and Campbell, we dare not imagine, what will Google be today?" Imagine if there was no Dole, Schmidt and Campbell would have had an explosive reaction with Google?
Page and Brin are two technological geniuses who are hard to tame, and it's hard to cede control of the company to outsiders, for these two rigid little guys. As a result, it wasn't easy to find a suitable CEO for Google. Durr is said to have recommended 75 CEO candidates for Google, all of whom were blocked one by one. Brin had unsuccessfully extended an olive branch to Schmidt before Durr found Eric Schmidt from his phone book. Schmidt, however, ultimately couldn't withstand Durr's fatigue bombing and ended up sitting in this Google boat. Durr then pushed for Bill Campbell to join, leading to the company's rapid growth.
Jeff Bezos has also pointed out that KPCB's biggest contribution to Amazon's development was not the money it invested, but that KPCB's biggest contribution was to help Amazon recruit good people at a faster rate.KPCB spent $8 million to buy a 15% stake in Amazon, an investment that turned into $60 million when it went public in 1997.
Jeff Bezos has also pointed out that the company's biggest contribution to the company's development was not the money it invested, but the biggest contribution KPCB made was in helping Amazon recruit good people at a faster rate. It is said that due to Amazon's healthy cash generation (consumers would pay within two days and sellers would pay within 15 days), Amazon barely utilized the $8 million KPCB invested at that time. Thus, real value-creating venture capital is not about how much money is provided.
The same is true of Healtheon, which was founded in 1996 by Jim Clark, Pavan Nigam, and KPCB partner David Schnell. The first business plan was eligibility and enrollment in health plans through the Web. Shortly after the company's founding, Duerr immediately began a search for a world-class CEO, and like Netscape, the business changed many times in response to market demand, and those changes ultimately changed the market. After months of recruiting, Mike Long, a world-class executive from Austin, Texas, agreed to come in and be Healtheon's CEO. at his first board meeting, Mike said, "Durr, I'm going to get a grip." Soon Mike was repositioning Healtheon's business to provide information services to a dozen or so huge market segments of diagnostic results, physicians and healthcare providers. He evaluated the company and its employees, completed an initial public offering in 1999, and closed more than a dozen joint ventures.In May 1999, Healtheon merged with Jeff Arnold's $9.8 billion-asset WebMD for half the capital, a move that created a stir in the health care community at the time. At the same time Healtheon/WebMD met a large and unmet need in an important market through advanced technology. It's hard to escape Durr's eye wherever good talent is concerned.
Talking about the first meeting with Durr, Zhou Zhixiong recalled: one night in August 2005, when Durr learned that Zhou in the United States, and called about Zhou the next morning to meet, coincidentally, Zhou just happened to be about to have breakfast with another fund partner, more coincidentally Durr also arranged the next day with his family to travel to Africa's plan, the morning will be going to the airport. Doyle wanted to meet Zhou in his office before he left. At that time, Zhou breakfast hotel from the KPCB office to drive at least 30 minutes, if according to Durr's schedule, Zhou rushed to Durr's office, their communication time is only 15 minutes at most, the road traffic jam is also very likely to see not. "It's a pity. We can't meet this time." Ten minutes later Dole's secretary called Chow, "OK, John Dole has booked a private room at the hotel where you had breakfast and he'll be waiting for you there." It was the only private room in the hotel. When Chow walked from the lobby to the private room after breakfast, Dole was already waiting for him in that private room. This was Durr's first meeting with Zhou, and it left a deep impression on Zhou: "In the United States, John Durr is a very influential and big-name figure, and it's really not simple for him to make such a move." Their first conversation was relaxed, and he left Zhou with his home phone, cell phone, office and secretary's phone numbers. He asked about Chau's wife, daughter and their names, which he remembered clearly by the time they met again the second time. The one-hour meeting set the stage for their subsequent collaboration.
Many of those who became his partners empathized: "When he wanted to poach a key player, he would do whatever it took, not only calling the person directly, but also building a rapport with their family. He'll buy a plane ticket and fly to your city as fast as he can so you can't refuse to meet him."
Todd Rulon Miller, a Netscape executive, knows this best. On a Saturday night, the then-IBM executive came home with his wife to hear a recording of a phone call Durr had left for him: "You can sell ice to the Eskimos, I've got to meet you. Clark and I will be on the next Tuesday night flight, arriving at 9:05 p.m. Meet us there." Soon Todd Miller became Netscape's vice president of sales.
As a result, his personal charisma has attracted the best and brightest, with KPCB partners including Raymond J. Lane, former president of Oracle; Bill Joy, founder and former technology director of Sun; Juliet Flint, a senior executive search firm; and John Flint, a senior executive search firm. Flint), an executive search firm, and John Denniston, former executive director of Salomon Smith Barney, an investment bank affiliated with Citibank.
That year, Duer helped Compaq hire the "idea king" Sparky Spark (Sparky Spark), who was one of the "twelve original shareholders" of the IBM Boca Raton computer team. Sparky joined, making Compaq's operating income is a spurt of growth in the establishment of the first year Compaq realized portable sales of 110 million U.S. dollars. Durr said, "KPCB is all about finding an essential and important technological innovation that must be able to fulfill a huge, and as yet untapped, market need." Durr is a man who loves to dig into technology. His understanding of technology and depth of involvement made technical genius Gates break out in a cold sweat. Back in the day, Durr was often found on the second floor of the Marguerite? Jacks Building, the second floor of the cradle and mecca of Stanford's computer science and technology innovation.
In 1980, while he was still at Intel, Stanford professor Forest Baskett visited Intel and introduced the "Sun: Stanford Network" project led by Andy Bechtolsheim. The program aims to develop a massively affordable, high-performance, and high-capacity computer. The project aimed to develop a mass-priced Xerox "Alto" workbench, which at the time was the envy of Xerox. Durant continued to follow the Sun project after joining KPCB.
The four Sun founders were all 27 years old at the time, and the fledgling group had no idea what they were doing or what they were about to overcome. "If we had known all the risks, we probably wouldn't have gone out of our way to break with the conventional thinking of computer technology development at the time." Durr recalls.
Yet Vinod Khosla, one of Sun's founders, impressed Durr with a seven-page business plan, whose text was exemplary: "The simplest and most straightforward business plan is always the best."
Sun adopted and promoted an "open system": a standardized network architecture, commercial microprocessors, and Berkeley's UNIX operating system. By contrast, Apollo Computer in Boston had an experienced and respected management team and more sophisticated equipment. But not long after the start, Sun's four founders, Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Bill Joy, beat rival Apollo to the punch and went on to become one of the world's greatest companies. "All four partners have always maintained a friendship, and Vinod Khosla is one of the most commercially talented partners I've ever met." Durr said.
A person who is constantly drilling into technology, a talented and energetic person never feels like he's found a home, he's always experimenting, exploring, chasing the next new concept.
Durr created a following, but he can't be duplicated.