John Doerr

I came to Silicon Valley in 1975 with no job and no place to live. I wanted to start a company with friends, just like my Dad (and hero) Lou Doerr. I tried to get an internship with a VC firm. And well, they all turned me down. One of them told me about Intel, a new chip company. So I cold called and landed a job there just as they invented the 8-bit microchip.

What matters most is their passion — their focus on serving a large, unmet market need with an outstanding team and disruptive innovation. Their commitment to technical excellence, and obsessing on customers (not competition). Their pursuit of reasonable financings, but unreasonable, audacious goals. Their sense of urgency. Their ambition, vision, confidence and humility in putting their team first. They must be missionaries, not mercenaries.

Sometimes I am asked, “Are you still investing?” The answer is, yes. Everyday, my partners and I are hustling to find, fund and accelerate the success of outstanding entrepreneurs — backed first by Kleiner Perkins or by my family funds.

43 years ago, Andy Grove shared the single most important lesson of my career with me. He said, “John, it almost doesn’t matter what you know…it’s execution that matters most.” Andy invented a powerful system to drive execution called Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs.

For years I’ve spread the gospel of Andy Grove with a short slide presentation about goals and OKRs to organizations large and small. Measure What Matters is my chance to now do the subject justice.

My hope is that people find OKRs useful (and fun!). The benefits of OKRs are profound. Honestly, we need clear and compelling goals now more than ever before. The right goals. For the right reasons.

My family matters the most. And I love working with social and policy entrepreneurs who are transforming healthcare, fighting the climate crisis, improving public education and combating global poverty.