The San Francisco trial pitting Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest and most venerable venture capital firms, against Ellen Pao, a former junior partner who claims that she faced sexual harassment and discrimination, has forced an institution that prefers to remain private into the public gaze. Among other things, it has raised questions about how well John Doerr, its de facto leader, knows his own firm.
“It’s a partnership. Nobody really runs a partnership. We make decisions together,” Mr Doerr told the court last week. This is not how some of Kleiner Perkins’ women executives perceive it. It was “becoming more of a cult of personality, and each personality had its own brand”, one told Stephen Hirschfield, a lawyer that the firm hired in 2011 to investigate Ms Pao’s allegations.
If Kleiner Perkins crumbles because it cannot make a smooth transition to the next generation of partner-leaders, male and female, it will be a terrible waste. Ms Pao entered the witness box this week and the case has shown what the top venture firms clustered around Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley need to worry about most.