Details
Type
TextTitle
Perkins, Thomas J. oral historyContributor
| Dennis, Eric, Videographer |
| Hollar, John, Interviewer |
| Perkins, Thomas J., Interviewee |
Publisher
Computer History MuseumDate
2011-07-22Place of Publication
Mountain View, CaliforniaExtent
23 p.Copyright Holder
Computer History MuseumDescription
Thomas J. Perkins co-founded the legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB) with Eugene Kleiner in 1973 after a decade-long career at Hewlett-Packard. Together with his KPCB partners, Perkins led one of the most successful long-term venture investing strategies in the history of Silicon Valley. Two of the earliest venture investments that Perkins led—Tandem Computers and Genentech—went on to be game-changing developers of technology in the earliest days of system and high-performance computing.A number of oral histories of Perkins are available on the Internet, including a long interview done by the University of California at Berkeley. This three-hour oral history conducted in 2011 focuses on Perkins’ upbringing, education, mentors, early professional experience at Hewlett-Packard and transition to venture investing. It also covers his investment philosophy and a number of personal stories of entrepreneurs with whom he had particularly close business relationships.
