(NY Post) - A billionaire venture capitalist who got rich by betting correctly on budding tech giants Amazon and Google said that one of his biggest regrets was declining to back Elon Musk’s electric car maker Tesla back in 2007.
John Doerr, the chairman of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins who amassed a fortune estimated by Forbes at $11.5 billion, told Bloomberg News on Tuesday that he had an opportunity to back the fledgling unicorn a decade-and-half ago — well before it became the most valuable auto manufacturer in the world.
The 71-year-old Doerr said that Musk, whose stake in Tesla has earned him the distinction of being the world’s wealthiest human, struck him at the time as “an ambitious, slightly crazy entrepreneur.”
But the idea of investing in a car company at the time was a turnoff because the odds were stacked against Tesla, according to Doerr.
“That’s probably the worst investment decision of all time,” he told Bloomberg News.
As of Tuesday, Tesla has a market capitalization of $933.92 billion — making it the most valuable automaker in the world.
Investing in Tesla at the time would have netted a handsome profit. Sergey Brin, Musk’s friend who co-founded Google, was an early investor in Tesla.
In 2008, he invested at least $500,000 while helping to raise $40 million. If he were to cash out his investment now, he would pocket at least $100 million, according to Business Insider.
Musk’s net worth is valued by Forbes at $263.6 billion.
Despite the poor decision, it’s unlikely anyone will feel sorry for Doerr, who managed to earn a handsome return on his investment in tech successes such as Twitter, Google, Slack, and Amazon.
Earlier this year, Doerr and his wife, Ann, cut a check for $1.1 billion as a gift to Stanford University, which will use the money to launch a school dedicated to combating climate change.
Doerr sits on Google’s board and served on boards that advised President Barack Obama about economic policy.
In 2000, Google co-founders Larry Page and Brin asked Doerr if he could arrange a meeting with Apple CEO Steve Jobs so that they could offer the iconic visionary the top executive role at the fledgling search engine.
Doerr instead suggested that the two men, who were in need of “adult supervision,” meet Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Novell.
Schmidt eventually was hired as CEO at Google, leading the company over the course of a decade during which it became the dominant search engine.
Kleiner Perkins currently manages assets totaling around $20 billion.
By Ariel Zilber
August 23, 2022
