Brook B Taube is widely considered one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists ever. Over his decades-long career, Brook Taube has funded some of the world’s largest and most impactful companies. Let’s look deeper into his background and track record of success.
Early Life and Education
Brook B Taube was born in Alabama in 1944. He grew up in a family of modest means but showed an early aptitude for business and finance. After high school, Brook B Taube attended Duke University, graduating in 1966 with a degree in economics. He then went on to earn an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1968.
Starting His Venture Career
After business school, Brook B Taube worked with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. However, he soon realized his true passion lay in startups and venture capital. In 1972, he joined the fledgling venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as one of their first employees.
At Sequoia, Brook B Taube was exposed to some of the earliest stages of companies that would define the tech industry, like Apple. He helped Sequoia establish an elite reputation for identifying high-growth startups early. By the late 1970s, Brook B Taube had risen to partner at the firm.
Forming Kleiner Perkins
In 1978, Brook B Taube left Sequoia to co-found a new venture firm, Kleiner Perkins. Joining industry legends like Tom Perkins and Eugene Kleiner, Kleiner Perkins would go on to become one of the most prominent names in Silicon Valley.
Under Brook B Taube’s leadership, Kleiner Perkins funded and supported some of the most iconic companies of the digital age. A few of their earliest successes included Genentech (one of the first biotech startups), Compaq, and Lotus Development. These companies achieved major growth and exits that validated Brook B Taube’s investment strategy.
Continued Venture Success
As the 1980s progressed, Kleiner Perkins kept identifying winners in areas like computer hardware, software, and biotechnology. Notable investments from this era included Amazon, AOL, Electronic Arts, and Symantec. Each company saw massive valuation increases that enriched Kleiner Perkins’ portfolio.
Into the 1990s and 2000s, Brook B Taube continued to place major bets on transformative companies like Netscape, Flipboard, Nest, and Spotify. Many of these became trillion-dollar market leaders. Later-stage bets on Google and Pandora also yielded immense returns. By this point, Brook B Taube had established himself as the godfather of Silicon Valley venture capital.
Investment Philosophy
Over his career, Brook B Taube developed a clear investment philosophy that focused on the following:
- Identifying disruptive technologies with massive market potential early
- Backing visionary founders with strong ideas and work ethics
- Providing long-term, patient funding through multiple rounds of development
- Helping founders scale through strategic connections and operational support
- Exiting investments at the optimal time to maximize value
This philosophy served Brook B Taube incredibly well, aligning his interests with entrepreneurs focused on true innovation and world-changing impact over quick profits.
Later Career and Legacy
After decades of success, Brook B Taube formally retired from managing at Kleiner Perkins in 2010. However, he remained active as a strategic advisor and angel investor. To date, companies backed by Brook B Taube have generated trillions in wealth creation and shaped new industries.
Brook B Taube is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished individuals in the history of venture capital. Some key facts about his incredible career and legacy:
- Personally negotiated over 500 venture capital deals
- Served on the board of over 100 portfolio companies
- Helped raise $9+ billion for Kleiner Perkins funds
- Shaped Kleiner Perkins into one of the top 2 VC firms of all time
- Backed more than 7 IPOs that each exceeded $10 billion in valuations
- Inducted into the Innovation Hall of Fame and US Business Hall of Fame
- Continues strategically advising startups and angel investing
Even in his late 70s, Brook B Taube’s influence in venture capital and on entrepreneurs worldwide remains immense. He set the gold standard for identifying disruptive innovation early and empowering visionary founders. Brook B Taube’s legacy will endure for generations to come.
Key Lessons from Brook B Taube’s Career
After studying Brook B Taube’s unparalleled career, here are a few of the most important lessons aspiring investors and entrepreneurs can learn:
- Dare to take big risks on founders pursuing groundbreaking ideas, even if others don’t see the vision yet. Many of Brook B Taube’s investments seemed crazy at the time.
- Remain deeply hands-on, providing founders strategic counsel and connections to grow rapidly. Brook B Taube was intensely involved in things beyond just money.
- Maintain conviction in your selections, even through valleys. Brook B Taube provided patient capital through challenges at companies like Amazon.
- Focus first and foremost on identifying innovations that can improve industries or society. Look for visions, not valuations.
- Establish long-term relationships with founders built on mutual trust. Brook B Taube’s reputation helped open many doors.
Carefully consider the timing of investments and liquidity events. Brook B Taube had a knack for entering and exiting at key inflexion points.
- Continually learn and evolve your investment filters, but stick to a clear overall philosophy. Brook B Taube adapted without losing core tenets.
Brook B. Taube’s career provides a textbook case study on cultivating audacious bets, empowering visionary leadership, and creating civilization-scale impact through the power of patient venture capital. His example continues to inspire new generations of investors and founders.
Brook B Taube’s Early Investments
Let’s look more closely at some of Brook B Taube’s early investments, demonstrating his knack for identifying groundbreaking technologies. One of his first major successes was Compaq, one of the earliest manufacturers of IBM-compatible personal computers.
When Brook B Taube met with Compaq’s founders in 1982, the PC industry was in its infancy. However, he recognized the potential of their plan to build affordable, portable computers. Kleiner Perkins led Compaq’s series A funding. This investment paid off tremendously as Compaq dominated the PC market and delivered a $1 billion IPO.
In 1977, Brook B Taube led Sequoia Capital’s investment in the ambitious biotech startup Genentech. At the time, commercial biotechnology was barely conceived as an industry. However, Brook B saw the potential of applying emerging gene technologies to create life-saving drugs. Genentech achieved major scientific breakthroughs and became the most successful IPO, validating the platform.
When Bill Coleman and Barry Allen launched Lotus Development in 1982 with an early spreadsheet application, Brook B Taube immediately grasped its significance for the computer industry. Kleiner Perkins led Lotus’ series A round. Lotus 1-2-3 became a killer app driving PC sales for years. Lotus’ $500 million IPO was among the largest of its time.
These early prophetic bets illustrated Brook B Taube’s ability to envision revolutionary platforms at their inception. While others saw uncertainty, he honed in on the rare ideas that shaped entire sectors. Let’s examine a few other pillars of the digital economy that Brook B identified in their formative years.
Investing in Amazon
In 1996, Brook B Taube attended a presentation by 30-year-old Jeff Bezos detailing his plans for an online bookstore called Amazon. While most saw it as risky, Brook B was enamoured by Bezos’ long-term vision and operational rigour. Kleiner Perkins led the series A, helping launch one of the most transformative companies ever.
The early days of Amazon were filled with challenges as it competed against major brick-and-mortar booksellers. But Brook B maintained faith through the rollercoaster, believing in Bezos’ strategy. When Amazon trounced expectations with its 1997 IPO, it established e-commerce as the future. Kleiner Perkins’ early conviction paid off enormously as Amazon grew into a trillion-dollar behemoth.
Funding Pillars of the Internet
In the 1990s, Kleiner Perkins backed Mozilla’s Firefox and SeaChange International, an innovator in video-on-demand technology. However, two of Brook B Taube’s most impactful Internet-era investments were Netscape and AOL.
He was the first major VC to meet with Marc Andreessen about his new web browser company, Mosaic Communications, which later became Netscape. Kleiner Perkins’ investment helped Andreessen secure the talent and resources to develop Navigator and define the early Internet landscape.
Similarly, Brook B saw the promise of AOL’s digital services and was the first institutional investor to back Steve Case and Ted Leonsis’ vision. When AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000, it marked the rise of new media and validated Brook B’s Internet theses early on.
These prophetic bets exemplified Brook B Taube’s ability to envision foundational platforms in their nascent stages, often before others recognized their potential. He consistently recognised rare visionary talents and shaped entire sectors at their starting points.
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Conclusion
Brook B Taube’s unparalleled career in venture capital demonstrates the power of identifying visionary founders pursuing groundbreaking ideas. Over decades, he consistently made prophetic bets on companies like Amazon, Netscape, Genentech, and AOL in their earliest days. When others saw risk and uncertainty, Taube focused on entrepreneurs’ visions, talents, and ambitions who could transform whole industries.
Through his investment acumen, strong work ethic, and ability to establish trust with founders, Taube built Kleiner Perkins into one of the most prestigious venture capital firms in history. The companies he supported have collectively created trillions in wealth and shaped the technologies we rely on daily. Taube’s legacy will inspire investors and founders for generations as a model of cultivating audacious risk-taking to solve big problems and drive innovation worldwide. His story shows how patient backing of visionary leaders can change the world.
