I am an ardent entrepreneur, mentor, teacher, writer and investor. I have been a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, a venerable Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm, since the early 2000s and before that was a "Virtual CEO", a role I serendipitously created in the mid 1990s. At KPCB I have been privileged to work with amazing people like Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers at Nest and John Amster and Geof Baker at RPX, two of our most significant successes, and a host of other wonderful entrepreneurs. As Virtual CEO I partnered with founders to help develop them as leaders and build their dream businesses. I was fortunate to work with Steve Perlman to create WebTV, Mike Ramsay to create TiVo, and Denis Whittle and Mari Kuraishi to create Global Giving, amongst others.
I also taught entrepreneurship at Stanford with Tom Byers, the founder of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. We taught together for almost a decade. My operational experience includes serving as CEO of Lucas Arts and Crystal Dynamics, CFO and VP of Operations at GO Corporation, and Co-Founder and Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Claris Corporation. Before that I was Senior Counsel at Apple Computer after a career in private practice focusing on technology law and litigation.
I serve or have served on the advisory boards of Roadtrip Nation, an amazing group of people who provide knowledge and inspiration for young people to achieve their potential, the University of California, Santa Barbara's Institute of Energy Efficiency, super charging research and development on ways to save energy, resources and the planet, and Orrick's Women's Leadership Board, working to empower women leaders in the law.
Phew.... But what I really loved is being a baker. I was a baker working my way through Brown University and later at various COOPs, also a janitor and boiler mechanic :) I helped manage the Community Development Program for the City of Providence under the infamous Mayor Buddy Cianci, taught economics at the evening program for Johnson and Wales University (a cooking school of all things), and was a go-for for a fun band of music promoters, the Banzini Brothers. I would literally put on a tie and jacket in the morning and go to work at City Hall, clock out at 5 PM, take off my tie and head down the street to teach at Johnson and Wales and then remove my jacket and step out to the clubs at 10 PM to revel in the music. It was my providence. I felt so guilty having that much fun that I then had myself committed to Harvard Law School. Not my heaven.
I grew up in Rochester, New York risking scurvy from the lack of sunlight. Found my way to Rhode Island for school and overstayed my welcome. Escaped to Boston and tried to be a lawyer. And finally traveled west to Silicon Valley after seeing a couple of hippies on the cover of a magazine being heralded for following their own drummers to upend the computer business. Today I live in the hills above Palo Alto where my dogs can laze in the field all day and I can look out across the Bay to the San Francisco skyline.
My wife, Debra Dunn is the clever one. She teaches in at the Design School at Stanford. Her passion is sustainable food production and small farmers. She is a founder of the Feed Collaborative. She sits on the boards of very cool organizations hell-bent on making the world better, like the Skoll Foundation, B Lab, and IDEO.org. She had a long career as an executive officer of Hewlett Packard Corporation in its hay day, running various businesses and managing the executive staff. She keeps me sane when she has time.
When I am not distracted with other things I love to ride my bike. Or bikes, I have more than a dozen. My home is blessed with some of the best road cycling anywhere. I have traveled all over the world on bikes - China, Viet Nam, Laos, Myanmar, Bhutan, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, etc. I love to travel and the bike is the best way I know of to truly experience a place and its people. I have also been riding motorbikes since before I had a license and still rely on them for my daily transportation, retreating to a car only when its raining. I dabble in cooking, sculpture, and a little harmonica. Recharging with good books, movies and music; and a perfect cup of tea.
Oh, and I have been practicing Zen Meditation since the mid 1990s. I sit everyday and try to leave myself behind, with various degrees of success.
OK, enough. If you got this far you probably need a hobby.
all the best
r
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