BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : SEPTEMBER 27, 1999 ISSUE
COVER STORY -- E.BIZ -- THE E.BIZ 25 L. John Doerr L. JOHN DOERR KLEINER PERKINS CAUFIELD & BYERS Position: General Partner Contribution: Backed blockbuster Net pioneers like Netscape, Amazon.com, and Excite. Knits startups together with the famed Kleiner keiretsu. Ambition: Leverage the keiretsu to create whole new industries on the Web--including health care. Venture capitalist L. John Doerr is a one-man Internet hit parade. Netscape (AOL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Healtheon (HLTH), drugstore.com (DSCM), @Home (ATHM), Excite--each received initial funding and early nurturing from Doerr. Sure, the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner has had his losers in the past. Remember pen computing? Nevertheless, ever since he took a chance on Netscape Communications Corp., Doerr has wielded the Midas touch. ''John Doerr is not only the best venture capitalist in the world, but he is also one of the top business leaders,'' says Cisco Systems (CSCO) CEO John T. Chambers. Doerr is also a master matchmaker. Who would have thought a bookstore had anything to teach a drugstore? Yet when drugstore.com's fledgling team needed some lessons in online retailing, Doerr arranged to have them mentored by a really big brother in the Kleiner keiretsu--Amazon.com Inc. And when then-@Home, the cable Internet access company, needed content as well as bandwidth, Doerr engineered its merger with Internet portal Excite. Where is Doerr applying his artistry next? His latest ideas whirl around handheld computers. Five years from now, he says, people will tap the Internet far more frequently from palmtop devices than from desktop computers. By investing in Handspring Inc., a startup handheld computer maker, Doerr believes he once again has positioned Kleiner Perkins at the forefront of a revolution. ''Much sooner than a PC on every kid's desk, we'll have a handheld in every kid's pocket,'' he says. If that comes to pass, once again, Doerr will be the man who has beaten the venture-capital pack to the Next Big Thing. By Janet Rae-Dupree _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The e.biz 25: Masters of the Web Universe COVER IMAGE: The e.biz 25 Commentary: The Great Equalizer? Not by a Long Shot TABLE: Who's Lagging in the Net Age [empire builders] Jeffrey P. Bezos AMAZON.COM INC. Stephen M. Case AMERICA ONLINE INC. Timothy A. Koogle YAHOO! INC. [the innovators] Louis H. Borders WEBVAN GROUP INC. Jay S. Walker PRICELINE.COM Margaret C. Whitman EBAY INC. Glen Meakem FREE MARKETS ONLINE INC. James H. Clark MYCFO INC. Christos M. Cotsakos E*TRADE GROUP INC. [bankrollers] Masayoshi Son SOFTBANK CORP., JAPAN Robert C. Kagle BENCHMARK CAPITAL Lawton W. Fitt GOLDMAN SACHS & CO. L. John Doerr KLEINER PERKINS CAUFIELD & BYERS   Bernard Arnault LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON   [the visionaries] Mary G. Meeker MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTER John Hagel III MCKINSEY & CO. William Joy SUN MICROSYSTEMS [the architects] Louis V. Gerstner Jr. IBM CORP. Pehong Chen BROADVISION INC. David C. Peterschmidt INKTOMI INC. Kevin J. O'Connor DOUBLECLICK Ellen M. Hancock EXODUS COMMUNICATIONS [the pace setters] David S. Pottruck CHARLES SCHWAB CORP. John T. Chambers CISCO SYSTEMS Michael S. Dell DELL COMPUTER INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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