EightBlack.

Perhaps there was a reason John Battelle put John Doerr last up on the agenda. Friday afternoon of a 3 day gig, after lunch, with the rain pouring down outside is no one’s idea of an ideal time slot.

I actually don’t think it would have mattered if John Doerr spoke at 2am. Most of us still would have shown up. In our geeky pajama’s and all.

Those in Silicon Valley revere him. His competitors respect him. And budding entrepreneurs only ever dream about being given the opportunity to pitch to him.

His Wikipedia entry describes him to a tee.

He’s probably the most unassuming billionaire you could meet.

“DISRUPTORS OF CHANGE”

I can’t help but think that Doerr has spent a weekend at Tom Peters Ranch in Vermont. They have similar styles. The theme to the last session of Web 2.0 was this notion of “a dramatic shift in thinking” was what was required to change the current landscape of the web. Google did it, Facebook is doing it and Twitter is just getting started. To name just a few.

For those who maybe haven’t heard of John Doerr - he is a key partner of probably the most famous Venture Capital outfit roaming the digital landscape today. He started there in 1980 - the firm, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers. His email address is actually on his bio page and the site is not your typical “McKinsey-ish” hyperbole.

He has backed Amazon, Google, Sun Microsystems, and the founders of Compaq, Macromedia and Symantec. He clearly has vision.

When asked about what worries him at Google today, his comment was “I worry about keeping the culture at Google”. A concern any astute investor would have given their explosive growth and hiring spree (just last quarter, Google added over 2100 new hires to their books).

But there’s something that worries him a great deal more than the culture at what many perceive is his greatest investment decision to date. While he stated that search is the “killer app”, it’s something we’ve heard before. He thinks todays web is boring, flat, a geeky space. Which it perhaps is.

The next evolution is “Discover”. He feels that the web needs to evolve into a multi-dimensional environment. None of this however seems to phase him. I’m convinced he was confident that the answers to the “web” issues could be found in the very room full of 1000 odd “edge of web” participants that sat before him. And maybe they could. Maybe the answers already have a solution.

But what he spoke passionately about and what has rocked him to the core is this. He’s worried about Global Warming and the environment.

I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Here’s the quintessential capitalist, a member of the most influential money shop in the US (and Silicon Valley) talking about permanent, irreparable damage to the planet within 20 years.

More importantly, I am absolutely positive he knows how to tackle the problems the environment faces. And his 15 year old daughter, Mary, insisted at a dinner party earlier this year, that he do just that. “Dad, your generation caused this mess, so it’s up to you to fix it”.

Here’s a video worth watching of John Doerr speaking at this years TED Conference.

Click To Play

He continued….”the only way we are going to get Wall Street and the capital markets to understand the global warming issues is if they understand that there is profit in it. If the solutions yield financial reward.”

He’s adamant that no amount of government intervention, government policy, lobbying, Greenpeace marches etc will provide long term positive change. What he is sure about is that change must come from “where the money is”. And I think he might be right.

“Innovation is the lifeblood of everything we do” according to Doerr. There’s a $6 trillion dollar market (the gas, electricity, oil) that’s stuck in the stone age and waiting for a revolution. It’s this revolution he wants Silicon Valley to help participate in. To be the disruptors of change.

The tech space is a better place with people like John Doerr in it. I for one, am grateful that I “met” him, along with 1000 other folks. He is not only a breath of fresh air, he is a truly remarkable human and one I urge you to follow.

(Image courtesy Web 2.0 official site)

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