Forget Pets.com or Infoseek, anyone who followed the rise of the Internet companies during the dotcom mania of the late 1990’s knows Mary Meeker. The former Morgan Stanley stock analyst and current venture capitalist, Meeker, known as “The Queen of the Internet” made a name for herself making bullish calls on the Internet darlings of the time.
In 2010, Meeker, who is now 58, joined famed venture capitalist firm, Kleiner Perkins, leading investments in Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, and Snap. The investor also pens an annual Internet trends report which is considered a must-read for anyone who follows the tech industry.
The famed Wall Street analyst and venture capitalist is about to start the next chapter in her successful career. She is gearing up to leave Kleiner Perkins this year to start a new investment fund. A big blow to Kleiner Perkins but exciting times for anyone who gets to work with or invest in Meeker’s new fund. Meeker isn’t going it alone. Mood Rowghani, Noah Knauf and Juliet de Baubigny are also leaving Kleiner Perkins to join the yet to be named new investment company. The firm will focus on investing in late-stage technology startups that could ink deals internationally. It will also continue to invest money from Kleiner Perkins KPCB Digital Growth Fund III. That fund is more than half invested in startups.
It has not always been smooth sailing for Meeker, who got her start at Merrill Lynch in 1982 as a stockbroker. She began covering tech in 1986 at Salomon Brothers and then went on to work for Cowen before landing at Morgan Stanley where she focused on the personal computer and software markets. After the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s burst, Meeker’s and other Wall Street analysts reputations were tarnished, blamed for being a cheerleader for companies that had no profits and no means to achieve them. Morgan Stanley and nine other Wall Street firms were part of a worldwide settlement due to the propping up of Internet companies and new policies were put in place to prevent bias in analyst coverage. Meeker quickly recovered and in August of 2004, Morgan Stanley with Meeker’s help acted as the lead manager in Google’s initial public offering. She has long been credited with being able to spot big trends before everyone else and is known for top-notch data gathering and analysis skills.
For 2018 Meeker ranked sixth in Forbes Midas List of Top Tech investors and ranked 84 for Power Women in 2017. More recently she has been credited for her investments in Spotify and DocuSign, both of which went public this year. She’s also made investments in JD.com, Airbnb and Houzz. She was also recently named as the first woman board member of the PGA Tour.
