Venture Blogging
November 27th, 2007Miss Puerto Rico claims she was “pepper sprayed” in an attempt to sabotage her; People magazine asks, how did you stop crying if all your belongings, including your clothes, were sprayed? It’s rather clear to me that she wasn’t pepper sprayed, or at least not to the extent she claims, but I don’t particularly give a damn whether or not she was sprayed by pepper, a skunk or nothing at all. Do you know, then, why I bring up such ultimately immaterial news?
Everybody lies about all sorts of things. People lie because much of the time, “we” don’t want to know the truth. I don’t lie all that much, and I don’t think I’ve ever lied here, but I’ve told a few fibs. Lied to my parents. I’ve never lied about a war or fiscal responsibility, but I’ve still got time to live, y’know? Really, the point I’m trying to get at is, hold yourself accountable and hold politicians accountable; don’t just hold the politicians in the other party accountable.
Let’s step away from the parable now and allow me to comment on the only news of the day that I really want to comment on: Al Gore wants to make-over the “clean energy” industry and provide further proof that capitalism does very good things. Let’s excerpt (from an article subtitled, “The recovering politician is teaming with a legendary venture capitalist and bigtime moneyman to make over the $6 trillion global energy business. A Fortune exclusive”):
It’s lunchtime on Sand Hill Road, and Al Gore wants answers. “How does the efficiency decline with latitude?” he asks. “What size community could be served by one plant? If a manufacturer like GE wanted to make smaller turbines, would the technology support a smaller scale?”
We’re sitting in the giant conference room at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where the partners hold their weekly meetings. After loading his plate with Chinese food from a buffet, Gore is firing detailed questions at the management team of Ausra, a Kleiner-backed company in Palo Alto whose technology uses mirrors the width of a flatbed truck that focus the sun’s energy to generate electricity.
Once Gore is satisfied — sunlight lags north of South Dakota, an Ausra plant can serve 120,000 homes, and yes, smaller turbines will work fine — he shifts from inquisitor to fixer. He was chatting with California Senator Barbara Boxer “on the way over,” he reports, and he isn’t optimistic that Congress will extend the tax credits Ausra has been relying on. On the upside, he offers on the spot to organize a summit highlighting the company’s solar thermal technology to educate lawmakers and other policymakers on its potential. He also thinks a powwow at General Electric (Charts, Fortune 500) would be beneficial, even though Ausra is a tiny customer.
“I know Immelt well,” he says, referring to GE’s CEO. “We ought to set up a meeting.”
Gore appears utterly comfortable with this drill, but in fact he’s engaging in some on-the-job training. The recovering politician, environmental activist, and Nobel laureate is adding another title to his résumé: venture capitalist. After “a conversation that’s gone on for a year and a half,” according to Gore, he has decided to join his old pal John Doerr as an active, hands-on partner at Kleiner Perkins, Silicon Valley’s preeminent venture firm. The move is more than another Colin Powell moment (the former Secretary of State signed on as a Kleiner “strategic limited partner” two years ago and has hardly been heard from since). Gore is joining the firm as Kleiner makes a risky move beyond information technology and health-care investing into the fast-growing and increasingly competitive arena of “clean technology.”
According to Doerr, by 2009 more than a third of Kleiner’s latest fund, which was raised in 2006 and totals $600 million, will be invested in technologies that aim to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. Already Kleiner has invested more than $270 million from various funds in 26 companies that make everything from microbes that scrub old oil wells to electric cars to noncorn ethanol. Twelve of Kleiner’s 22 partners now spend some or all of their time on green investments.
It’s good stuff. Probably means that Al isn’t running for President again, but that’s just the way it’s going to be and he doesn’t have to sit in the Oval Office to make change. He was there today, though. He had a private, thirty minute meeting with George W. Bush today after the Nobel Prize ceremony. Soon I’ll have an article up about that.