♪ emily: it is the iconic venture capital firm, kleiner perkins caufield & byers made its name investing in google and others, but many are wondering if the glory days for this company are over. then the firm was rocked by one of the most closely walked -- watched trials in history. the firm was sued for gender discrimination. today, john doerr and beth

seidenberg. it is great to have you here. you haven't been quiet for a long time, quiet through the trial. why are you here? john: nobody likes litigation. this trial was painful. but at the end of the day, the and theyd deliberation found decisively on the facts that this company did not discriminate or retaliate and that this woman's claims had no merit. there was another trial going on in public opinion and it out against the technology industry and we in the venture industry. we get back. emily: so you feel like you lost in the court of public opinion? i'm sorry it was so hard to go through this, but more than anything else, it is hard for minorities in the tech

industry. i have two daughters. getting through this world where everyone can participate is important. emily: you haven't been at this firm for many years, how did you feel when you are sued? john: the world she described was not what we stand for. emily: this has been going on for three years, what is it like behind the scenes? it has been hard, but we have been focused on business and results. she says that she was repeatedly to secluded from e-mails and asked for better hr policies to deal with issues and those requests fell on deaf ears. how do you answer that. ? has not been my spirits, but i know as a woman i have often been the only woman

on the leadership team, the only woman to this day, on many of my boards. so it is hard, which is why we are excited about some of the initiatives and things we are doing to try to improve the situation. mrs. sandberg said that she saw herself and missed powell. many of the behaviors raised in thattrial that happened in but withsteps, hindsight, they are real, this is from sue decker. this may not be discrimination according to the law, but small flights and have a real impact on someone. beth: there is no question, all of us women saw ourselves in this situation.

we are often the minority. emily: but do you understand how a lot of these things can be small things in isolation, but altogether they are a big deal. emily: yes i understand that, we hiddensess it in bias -- bias, so it is important to be aware of those and act on them, sinking to the best out of all of your people and make decisions. that this irony is firm has had women top partners for a long time. there are other firms who have none. is there a fundamental problem in the vc industry? emily: there that john: there is. pipeline thing? john: if you want to hire out and women, you go out and find them. .e look long and hard

it was a campaign. we hired mary because she is the best in the world at the job that she does, not because she is a woman. you haveis idea that to be a founder or ceo, is that closing the door on good candidates? john: yes. you were her mentor, how did you feel when you found out she was suing you? john: kellen was a good chief of -- i'm a but when i read the moment, from that very and you that these had no merit. emily: how aware were you of this situation, how aware where you that she was not happy? not get intod rather that passed. i wish her well. emily: she is now the ceo of

reddit, she is making bold moves. john: there is a difference in being an operator and an investor, i think that she can be a good ceo. but to be a successful investing partner is a different job. emily: have you talked to her? john: only briefly in the trial. emily: what did he say? john: i said hello and how is your family? she said ok. that is it. emily: how did he decide to settle? john: it just wasn't possible. emily: she is proceeding with an appeal, she is asking for money to walk away, not -- why not do that? john: it is not possible.

beth: we haven't tried. emily: how hard did you track? -- try. are not whatails matters. it is not possible at this time. emily: do you feel if you pay her $2.7 million it is an admission of guilt? john: i'm sorry that this happened to ellen and to us. , theis a civil case question is liability. the jury found that we are not liable after 5.5 weeks of testimony. emily, i'm sad that anyone has a bad experience at our firm. but we are moving forward and we know there is more we can do. emily: what is it like being a female partner and being a female venture capitalist? beth: this has been the best work environment of my career. that is because i'm surrounded

by great women and great partners. emily: other women have left kleiner, does this alarm you? over the history of the firm, more the and 30 junior partners have come to work for us and then moved on. emily: do you worry that this could be a difficult place for diverse candidates to succeed? john: i'm always interested for this firm to be the best place -- toople to work here work. emily: how do you talk to your daughters about this? john: i talked to them about it and they are very smart. emily: why not have hr? john: we have policies. beth: we have a consultant that comes in. emily: do you feel if you have a

made mistakes and how you run the firm? john: i don't run the firm, i have partners help me. i am one of six general partners. do we make mistakes, sure. we try to learn from them and not make the same mistakes again. emily: do you feel you have made mistakes in regard to ellen powell. ? john: she was a very good chief of, but not a very good investor. emily: you don't think she should have been made an investor? john: we gave her a shot. emily: do you think you made mistakes when it came to listening to her complaint? john: no. emily: best you feel that there were mistakes and how the firm was run? beth: no, we are really looking forward. emily: are you doing anything differently now? sure, because of what has

happened. we are doubling down on diversity and taking the firm through training. it myselfn through and we will take it to the portfolio companies where we serve on the board. we are publishing a report, see you can judge us by our results. beth: the third thing we are improving the pipeline. we have a fellows program that brings in students from universities around the country and we are focused on diversity there. emily: do you worry about how this affects your reputation and image? john: the results of the partnership are some of the best we have seen. emily, in the last month we haven't generated $4 billion in return, we had the most exits of any firm. nest. a huge winners like we are really doing well. ♪

emily: what do you see out there that could be the next google? ♪

emily: you guys made a shakeup a couple of years ago, two dozen junior partners, only five were promoted and 19 were fired. a partnership with six general partners and you guys are equals. how is this going and how strong is the partnership today? on allt is firing cylinders, better than i remember. john you haven't been there for 35 years, this firm was one that got in early. it seems you are making later stage investments, is that part of the strategy? john: it is a strategic thing. startups,ation to that is the bread and butter of our business, but companies stay

private longer than ever before and we believe that if you are smart, if you are careful about the choices you make, you can earn six times on your money on twitter, or others, while helping those great companies. there is a growing concerns about all of these unicorns, deities at the evaluations are getting ahead of startups and their ability to grow? john: we are in a rare time of normalcy. in the private market, there is pocket of valuations that are too high, and some too low. emily: no bubble, the sky is not falling. john: this is a boom, because of the effect that these devices have had. -- an entrepreneur can

create a new service and in a week have a billion people using it. emily: that is different. what is also different is the amount of capital flowing into silicon valley. trend, you make of that is it creating more competition for you? beth: it is incredibly competitive out there. we have to wake up every morning and compete to win and work with the best entrepreneurs. john: never a better time than now to create a company. emily: is a great for investors? john: if the markers -- markets were not growing, it would be bad for investors. but that is not the case. we are in the midst of opportunity. emily: so other firms have been a bit more about doomsday and the scenario going on, saying

that there are startups bringing cash, burn rates are too high. the cycle of success and failure goes on all the time. thingwe see the same here. if a company is at a too high of valuation and that they are raising too much money, that will not last. john: companies will fail, you can only lose one time your money. if you come up with a new product or service, that makes the world better. emily: john, you put that on google and amazon early, what do you see out there that could be the next google or amazon? john: there are three areas, one of them is a revolution in education. education is one of the largest part of our economy and it is well positioned for improvement. john: but -- emily: there have not been many

an education. john: but there will be. dash,f you look at door other devices, they are a remote control for the world. you can take friction out of all kinds of everyday activities. , and: that is interesting it were investor just tell me that he did not invest in those kinds of companies, because thinkshuber --because he uber will do that. john: we were thoughtful about that. but the third area is explosive, what happens with these devices and emerging markets -- in emerging markets. the next billion cell phone users will come from india and china. the idea that information is in this phone, that is an old idea. it belongs in the cloud, like a

cloud-based yellow pages. and i have backed entrepreneurs and they havelm over 1.5 billion phone numbers in the cloud. this is a good idea. kleiner made a bet on .leantech, that did not pan out to makedon't want mistakes, but most importantly, i do not want to repeat mistakes. areas and pioneer new explore changes. at of those that i'm it added about it augmented, not virtual, but augmented reality. some time later this year hopefully you will be a book to magic glasses. facebook has made bets on virtual reality, why do you say augmentin versus virtual reality?

john: facebook is a great company, but the idea that you will block out everything to get your experience of the world is one approach. the larger one is to see anything overlaid on the world that you are in. emily: i saw you wearing google debuted, it didn't really work out, but what can the next generation of google glass do to make a better? john: i cannot, on that. emily: what is it about wearing this thing all day long? john: it gets better and better. emily: do you have one? john: i do, it is a fun thing. look at the stuff at apple, this is the first company to $1 trillion in market cap. ♪

emily: of the four major

platforms, are they going to be the four major platforms 10 years from now? wisdom,nventional probably not. but these are for amazing companies with talented who have proven propositions to consumers, that i think are durable and will last more than a decade. the stuff at apple, probably the first company to a -- to $1 trillion. emily: what about an applecart? -- apple car? john: i talked to steve about that, he was incredibly focused. emily: at the time he said we are not ready? john: yes. emily: did he talk to him about tv? john: he said he thought he had cracked the code on apple tv? john: do you think --

emily: you think he did? john: yes. emily: what is happening? john: they are waiting on media. groups don't merge. we are poised talking to people we think are great. emily: what happened with thomas? did he really want to be ceo? john: partnerships don't have ceos. beth: we are looking for people all the time. john: he is brilliant, but -- emily: i've heard whispers that you are actively talking to other funds, not merging, but working closely with them. john: partnerships to join new partnerships. yo. beth: we are poised talking to

people. hopefully we will add another partner by the end of the year. have beenms difficult, what is the succession plan at kleiner? john: we have multiple generations of partners and we have been diverse and age, gender, and ethnicity. we are on our fourth generation transition and i am confident we will do it successfully. emily: how long do you plan to stay at the firm? john: i have no present plans to leave. emily: but this is your baby. john: that is not the reality, this is a partnership. emily: where do you see this firm in the next 10 years? top firm that is pioneering in risky films -- risky areas, like augmented reality. and we are backing the world's best entrepreneurs. emily: thank you both so much

for joining us. ♪

john: i'm john heilemann. mark: i'm mark helprin. with all due respect to alexander hamilton, this is the second time you have lost the duel. second time you have lost the 14 times the president of the united states has made a statement about a shooting. today, the news out of charleston was on tv screens across the country prompted elected officials, whether running for president or not, to respond with statements. at the white house today, president obama turn the conversation to an issue he has been unable to make progress on