Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Kleiner Partner Bill Joy Heads EEStor Relationship


According to a very well connected anonymous source, Bill Joy is the Kleiner Perkins partner who initiated the EEStor Inc. investment. Additionally, he is responsible for having recruited Mort Topfer to serve on the EEStor Board of Directors.

In the past, this has been a question relegated to rumor....(still will be for some. )But for me, I am highly confident it is the case based on a highly credible source who simply preferred not to be quoted. Joy co-founded Sun with recent EEStor commentator Vinod Khosla and a gaggle of other legendary nerds.

One of the challenges in seeking a comment from Kleiner Perkins on EEStor is trying to target the correct partner to talk about it. Knowing that Joy handled the EEStor investment at least makes that part of the puzzle easier to handle. To date, I've requested comments from Kleiner on most of EEStor's announcements and news items. But they have said that if an investment is not listed on their website, they do not comment on it. On another occasion, a spokesperson for Kleiner told me that they do not comment on investment companies if the company receiving the investment asks them to do so.

image source: wikimedia.org