Flying Around With John Doerr
I was in my late 20s when I got a chance to fly across the country with legendary venture capitalist John Doerr of the famed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (just Kleiner Perkins now).
At the time, I was an Account Supervisor at the world’s largest independent PR firm, Edelman PR Worldwide. I had a small team of 9-10 PR professionals to manage as we serviced the public relations needs of a handful of B2B technology client accounts.
Over 20 years has passed since those days but I still remember my clients and how they treated me. I never experienced difficult clients. I don’t have those horror stories. They were all exceptionally kind and generous with their insights, time, and even jokes. Looking back, I’m not sure how they managed to take advice from a kid like me. Pretty scary to think about after all these years.
The small team I led had some PR superstars. Our clients were a mix of old and new school companies: Informix, i2 Technologies, Agilent Technologies (EPSG Group), and a brand new startup called eLance. Most people are more familiar with eLance’s current brand name … UpWork.
My boss was a Senior Vice President at Edelman who had recently left so the GM of Edelman’s Silicon Valley Office, Hollywood Harry, and the Deputy GM Luca elevated me to head the Agilent and eLance accounts in a dedicated manner. These two accounts alone brought in over $125k per month to our office. Companies spent a lot of money on PR agencies back in those years.
In 2000, only a year into its existence, eLance’s leaders and our team at Edelman decided that we needed to go on a major technology and business press tour. Only a couple years prior, Professor Thomas Malone of MIT had recently published an article in Harvard Business Review about the “Dawn of the E-Lance Economy.”
We wanted to garner and generate a massive amount of media coverage around eLance by leveraging this important article. By combining a product launch with a thought leadership wrapper, we knew we could make the coverage footprint expand out to mainstream business press.
So, we invited Professor Malone to join us on the press tour. John Doerr and Tom Malone would fly to New York City and Boston. And, eLance’s CEO would take care of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Matt Murphy, who is a big shot VC at Menlo Ventures now, was Doerr’s associate and assistant at the time. I remember him carrying a ton of stuff in multiple bags and wondering what it was all about.
I was the lone PR person who would accompany the three spokespeople - John, Tom, and CEO Eric. I was their “handler.” Doerr flew around in a private jet but we rode in the back of limousines together. We huddled every chance we got to refresh our messaging plans and strategize on how to handle various meetings with Business Week, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe, Bloomberg, Newsweek, Red Herring, and a couple dozen other big time outlets.
Recalling Four Things
I still remember four things about that trip with John Doerr over two decades ago.
First, he was frequently talking to some guy named Jeff Bezos. John was an early investor in Amazon and Bezos was constantly calling him. In a single afternoon, I think Bezos must’ve called John at least 3-4 times. I don’t recall the details but I remember John laughing out loudly each time before talking extensively about something. Bezos went on to become a pretty important figure in business - to say the least.
Second, I remember how weird it was to be in Doerr’s hotel room as the two of us prepared and went on a series of short press interviews over the phone. I was very intimidated by his presence. I was a nervous wreck. But, John instantly put me at ease by ordering food and giving me a pep talk in his famous booming voice. The weird part was that he ordered nearly everything on the menu.
I asked him half jokingly if he was hungry and John said that it was far smarter to order everything than to waste time choosing when time was running out. This is a man who does not waste time.
Third, I will never forget how well John treated me throughout the entire trip. Doerr was always respectful and regularly asking me for advice or soliciting my thoughts on a variety of things. He and I both knew he didn’t need my advice on anything. But, he believed that I deserved the opportunity to do my job. That was the impression I got throughout the trip.
He’s revered now but even back in 2000, Doerr was a legendary figure in the world of tech and VC. In fact, he was probably a lot higher profile back then than he is now.
I was just some random guy in his late 20s who looked like he was just out of college. And, I knew very little about anything. Sure, I was a voracious reader and worked 80-100 hours every week. But, what did I really know? Pretty much nothing compared to someone even half as experienced as Doerr. And, an industry giant was listening to me and treating me with such care and respect. It was amazing and something I haven’t forgotten.
Since this trip, I have met or worked with people who are less than 0.1% as capable, successful, powerful, and respected as John Doerr. And, I have witnessed a surprisingly high number of them treating myself or others like shit. This was the lesson I think Doerr taught me early on. It does not take a lot to give a young ambitious person the confidence needed to propel themselves into a worthwhile career. All you need to do is spend a moment of your time and treat them with genuine respect.
They don’t need to earn your respect. Just give them respect. They will prove over time that they deserved it - or not.
The last thing I remember is the insanely high energy Doerr possessed. He was never low energy but he definitely knew when to turn it ‘on.’ When the time came to speak or answer, John just lit up the room with the kind of genuine enthusiasm that I’ve since found in pretty much no one. No one could ever doubt his deep conviction.
He spoke like a guy who knew something no one else knew. Kinda like the kid who was springing a big surprise on others … so that everyone can belong to a special '“in the know” club. It was a magical method that I have not seen anyone else really master. When John spoke it felt like he was sharing with you - not talking to or at you.
Lasting Influence
John Doerr and I spent less than a week together on the road - over 20 years ago.
After the eLance press tour, I took an in-house PR job at a startup called Oblix (acquired by Oracle) which pioneered Web single-sign on. Along with Burton Group, Netegrity, and some other emerging product vendors, we coined the term Identity Management back in 2001. Oddly enough, the Oblix CEO was a longtime personal friend of John Doerr and Kleiner Perkins was a major investor in Oblix.
Doerr is now Chairman of Kleiner Perkins and supposedly less active on the investment front. eLance went through its share of startup ups and downs before transforming itself into UpWork, the premier marketplace for freelancers and jobs. Edelman is still around and considered one of the best PR firms around with 6,000 professionals globally and nearly $1 Billion in revenues.
I have never reached out to John since that memorable week.
Great people can shape young lives without even knowing it. How you treat tomorrow’s aspiring leaders is critically important. Treat them the way Doerr treated me over 20 years ago … with generosity, respect, candor and kindness.