I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Perkins for lunch. I spent over 2 hours with him and he was quite kind and soft spoken. He was featured on 60 Minutes this past Sunday and I expected him to overwhelm me with his ego, as he confessed as such on 60 Minutes. I was quite nervous meeting him but it ended up being 2 hours of great learning, insight and some laughs. He didn't display any ego and was quite gracious.
So who is Tom Perkins? He is the godfather of venture capitalism. Yeah, he essentially invented it. He is the Perkins of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. The man is probably worth a billion or two. He's 75yo and seems content on enjoying his yacht -- which is the largest privately owned yacht in the world -- and spending his money.
It started out slow in conversation. I noticed that I asked many more questions than he would ask me. There were some awkward moments of silence but towards the 2nd hour, he opened up more with some fascinating stories and strong opinions. And he is not short on opinions. If Tom Perkins was a gambler, he would've won the World Series of Poker several times over and robbed the casinos because most things he has touched in the business world has turned to gold. He quickly became rich off a start up that he created and sold, while still being employed full time at HP. He then turned a $250k investment in Genentech into one of the darlings of Wall Street today. Btw, Genentech is one of his proudest investments.
I learned a lot from Tom today. Thanks for lunch. Maybe someday I'll finally come up with an "idea" that your firm will invest in.
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