Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Randy Komisar joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers as a partner in 2005. Several years prior, Komisar partnered with entrepreneurs creating businesses with leading edge technologies.
He was a co-founder of Claris Corporation, he served as CEO for LucasArts Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics, and he's acted as a "virtual CEO" for such companies as WebTV, Mirra, and GlobalGiving. He was a founding Director of TiVo where he remains current chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee. Earlier, Komisar served as CFO of GO Corporation and as Senior Counsel for Apple Computer, following a private practice in technology law.
Komisar holds a BA in Economics from Brown University and a JD from Harvard Law School. He is a Consulting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Stanford University and author of the best-selling book The Monk and the Riddle, as well as several articles on leadership and entrepreneurship. His most recent book with co-author John Mullins is Getting to Plan B.
Related Links: www.kpcb.com
Last Updated: Thu, Apr 8, 2010
Don't avoid taking a leap of faith, says partner at KPCB Randy Komisar, but be certain to correctly define it. What's key in successfully making the jump is that it prioritizes three questions you're forced to answer, providing extreme market and product focus. The result will either flatten your idea or make your business soar.
Komisar relates some of the advice that George Lucas, acclaimed director of the Star Wars series, gave him in order to create compelling and visionary ideas: It is difficult to paint on a blank canvas, but it is easier to do so when there are few dots already splashed on. The notion of innovating around inchoate concepts are applicable to the entrepreneurship business, Komisar notes. 
Randy Komisar, a partner with VC firm KPCB, opines on the most recent trends for investment as of Spring of 2010. He points out that the consumer internet is a difficult business to gauge, and gives that sector a yellow light. However, he gives a green light to green and sustainable ventures, noting that they have the potential to build a tremendous asset in legacy businesses. Komisar is also a fan of substantial and "unsexy" tools for consumers, such as patents and home equity protection applications, as they, too, are a large growth area currently attractive to the VC set.
Dunn believes that lack of transparency has led to a lack of competition in the non-profit world, which has witnessed an absence of business rigor. She is confident that there is an opportunity for radical transformation in the non-profit world.
Debra Dunn, former vice president of strategy and corporate operations at Hewlett Packard, and Randy Komisar, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, believe that leadership skills and the ability to handle change comfortably are the key characteristics that have been useful in their respective careers.
Komisar talks about two failures he has faced throughout his career and the lessons he learned from them. The first was a company called GO Corporation, which failed after four years due to bad technology and planning. The second occurred when Komisar left LucasArts Entertainment prematurely to join another company called Crystal Dynamics. He was unhappy about the move and had no passion for its products. 
According to Komisar, most entrepreneurship in the world is not mission-driven, but inspired by necessity. In many economies, entrepreneurship provides a surrogate notion of empowerment and democracy. He also explains what makes the entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley so unique. 
Komisar talks about what he looks forward to in his career and life. He advises others who are unsure about the future to find ways to optimize their situation, the people they work with, and the flow of available opportunities. He also notes that the notion of being in motion is an important aspect of who he is and what he enjoys doing. 
According to Komisar, globalization needs to be part of the tool set for every entrepreneur doing a start-up today. This doesn't mean immediately going global, but understanding the global market and having a plan for the future, he adds.
Komisar describes a great entrepreneur as someone that works hard and knows how to take advantage of new opportunities. These opportunities need not be created by the entrepreneur, he says, but by others and the market around them. It is also important to note that even great entrepreneurs fail for reasons beyond their control.
Komisar believes that the ability and commitment to building businesses rather than just investing in it is what makes successful venture capital firms.
Though Randy Komisar, KPCB partner and seasoned entrepreneur, proposes that most successful ventures do not find success in their initial business idea, he still maintains there is value in constructing a thoughtful initial plan. Any "Plan A" must flesh out your business' assumptions, challenges, and risk mitigation. Those critical first thoughts on paper help the entrepreneur to create a language with which to discuss their strategy and move forward.
According to Komisar, what distinguishes the Silicon Valley is not its successes, but the way in which it deals with failures. The Valley is about experimentation, innovation, and taking new risks. Only a small business that can deal with failure and still make money can exist in this environment. It is a model based on many, many failures and a few extraordinary successes.
The role of the Virtual CEO is peculiar to Komisar and his own strengths and weaknesses. It was created as a way to bring together his diverse experiences in some kind of a flexible role that includes helping to guide emerging leaders and nurture emerging companies.
Komisar explains that consultants are not in the position of obtaining the level of intimacy with a company that builds confidence in decision making. Strategy consulting exists because senior management wants their strategy to be accepted by a board of directors. Contrastingly, Komisar's role is to come up with bold ideas and steer the direction of the company.
To find companies to work with, Komisar engages in a sort of dating process. First, the company has to be referred to him by a trusted source. Second, he holds a meeting in order to get to know the person and find out what they are trying to do with the business. Komisar is only interested if the business is an interesting opportunity and the person is someone who has merit and can make a difference. This process of getting to know the founder can take months before Komisar is willing to commit.
According to Komisar, the nature of the work in Kleiner Perkins is very hands on. He meets with companies every week to build their strategies, partnerships and relationships. For this reason, it is no surprise that many companies from around the world move their management teams to Silicon Valley to build the business; the ecosystem in the area is very reinforcing. On the other hand, this is also why it is difficult for a venture capitalist to back and support a company that exists entirely in another country. 
Komisar sees social entrepreneurship is taking off. There is a group of highly motivated people wanting to make a difference but who are not as concerned with making money and are creating drastic innovations in business models. There is an incredible level of commitment from these folks and hopefully a bright future ahead of them, he adds.
Komisar explains how the original TiVO concept went through multiple transformations. Originally, the TiVO entrepreneurs wanted to create a stand-alone VCR box that would be sold by large retailers. Over time and with the guidance of Komisar, the entrepreneurs realized it would make better sense to offer TiVo as a service instead of a hardware product with low-margins. 
Innovation is not a monopoly of Silicon Valley, says venture capitalist Randy Komisar. But entrepreneurship as a profession, he notes, is practiced best on KPCB's home turf. Here, failure isn't personal, and it is tolerated for approximately 70 percent of the businesses that launch here. The Valley offers a unique understanding that Plan A is often flawed and that failure is a necessity for true innovation, and thus it offers the space for smart and inventive people to reassess and move on to the next venture. This key difference that has evolved over the past 70 years, says Komisar, is what has made Silicon Valley thrive.