reSee.it Podcast Summary
In climate and energy, Doerr explains, the 2006–2007 bets combined climate investing with the iFund and the advent of the app store and cloud. Kleiner invested about a billion dollars across 70 climate-related companies; today those holdings are worth roughly three billion on an as-held basis. That early work helped seed climate 2.0—electric vehicles, batteries, wind, and solar—and set a foundation for ongoing innovation.
Asked about market timing, Doerr says you can be too early but never too late. He recaps Google's origin: 12 million dollars for 12 percent, based on PageRank and a vision of organizing all the world’s information. He recalls the tense partnership debate over the price and the model: ads in an open auction tied to relevance, a decision that forged one of the most consequential bets in venture history.
Today the climate problem is urgent and different from 2006. He outlines six objectives and 55 key results in Speed and Scale: electrify transportation, decarbonize the grid, fix food systems, protect nature, clean up industry, and remove stubborn carbon. The book argues OKRs bridge goals and execution, with stories from youth and Indigenous leaders to inspire action. Greta Thunberg’s movement turned climate into a top two voting issue in Europe.
He discusses governments as the biggest obstacle and the necessity of a global push for net zero by 2050, with 2030 milestones. Walmart’s supply-chain push to net zero by 2040 and Endphase’s rise illustrate how investor and corporate activism can drive progress ahead of governments. He emphasizes active listening, thoughtful board questions, and recruiting talent as core leadership skills, and notes climate investing should be strategic, not universal.