Meg Whitman rumored to join Kleiner Perkins. Wait, what?

March 29, 2011 1:12 PM
Anthony Ha
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Updated with confirmation

Meg Whitman, the former eBay chief executive who lost her bid to become governor of California last fall, will be joining top-tier venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a part-time adviser, according to a report in Fortune.

The article cites “sources closer to [Whitman] and the venerable Silicon Valley firm.” Whitman wouldn’t comment on the story for fortune, and I’ve also emailed a Kleiner spokesperson for confirmation. (I’ll update if I hear back.)

On one level, the idea has a certain logic to it. Kleiner recently lured another non-VC to the firm, Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, and partner Bing Gordon said Kleiner is building up its staff for a coming tech boom. Whitman, whose campaign was built around her record at eBay, has been gradually returning to the tech world, having joined the boards of Zipcar and HP.

On the other hand, I’m mostly just scratching my head over the rumor. Fortune says Whitman’s job will include coaching startups, and despite her experience and celebrity, Whitman seems like a strange choice for that job. As far as I can tell, the closest thing she has to startup experience is her time at eBay, but even then she joined three years after the company was founded, when it already had 30 employees. That’s tiny compared to what the company’s size now, but it wasn’t exactly a super-early startup. She has also worked at large companies like Procter & Gamble and Hasbro. Now, Kleiner may want Whitman to guide companies as they mature and to introduce them to larger partners/acquirers, but it still feels a little off that her most relevant Web startup experience came more than a decade ago.

Whitman is an odd match for Kleiner in another way. Doerr is a prominent donor to the Democratic Party and has ties to President Barack Obama, having been appointed to Obama’s economic advisory commission and also hosting Obama’s recent dinner with tech industry leaders. Whitman, meanwhile, ran as a Republican and had the support of Obama’s 2008 opponent John McCain. Not that politics should affect Kleiner’s hiring decisions, but it just adds to my sense that it’s an odd move.

Update: A Kleiner spokesperson just sent me a message confirming the news. The press release includes the following statement from Kleiner partner Ted Schlein:

Meg helped build eBay into one of the leading players in online commerce. Her experience and strategic advice will be invaluable to entrepreneurs who are rapidly changing the way business is done.

  • http://twitter.com/pamelaames pamelaames

    their companies won't be startups forever. maybe late-stage coaching?

  • http://quipble.com/ Brian Q. Pham

    Anthony, just a couple opinions on some points you made.I think the fact that she scaled eBay from 30 to thousands is exactly what Kleiner wants from her. They haven't been afraid to make larger later stage investments and really the hidden treasure for VC firms is that one portfolio company that goes from 30–>thousands and returns the fund for the rest of the companies that only make it to 30 employees.Also, I hold people like John Doerr in an idealized light so this may or may not be true. But I would like to think he embraces the fact that she may hold different political views than he. I know I would–especially in an industry so dependent on novel ideas and thinking. Pushing buttons, provoking discussion and bringing a different perspective should be in her job description.

  • http://twitter.com/surfinbrotha Paul Richardson

    Gosh folks, this one is obvious. 1) She now has a foot in the establishment (i.e. california politics and maybe even a little national name recognition as well)2) K/P is opening offices or has opened offices on the east coast, For the east coast VC/Angel community she has plenty of experience as that is a nascent ecosystem.Political affiliations matter nothing in matters of the green (capital) so this makes more sense to me than maybe appears at first glance.But then, it's just me

  • PaloAltoWorldView

    So does this commentary mean that you are supposed to be a card-carrying communist (Obama supporter) in order to work for Kleiner? To me, Whitman joining Kleiner sounds like Glasnost or Perestroika. It's basically a delayed reaction to the 2010 Congressional results, when Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Marco Rubio joined the US Senate as the leading free-market advocates against the mushrooming socialist state.

  • http://www.venturebeat.com Anthony Ha

    We're talking about the election that Meg Whitman lost, right?

  • http://www.venturebeat.com Anthony Ha

    Also, you appear to have missed this sentence: “Not that politics should affect Kleiner’s hiring decisions, but it just adds to my sense that it’s an odd move.”

  • http://profiles.google.com/nelsonbostrom Nelson Bostrom

    Yes, but she scaled it a decade ago. How about bringing on someone that has been a consultant and scaled multiple companies in the last 4-5 years? How about someone that has been brought into to go from the 30-300 person mark?

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