Why Colin Powell Likes the Fisker Karma: Kleiner
The folks over at AutoBlogGreen have some great photos of former Secretary of State Colin Powell checking out the Fisker Karma at the Washington Auto Show this week — he’s looking under the hood and chatting with Fisker’s CEO. But while Powell is probably a natural gear head in his own right, there’s a bigger connection between Fisker and Powell: the venture firm Kleiner Perkins.
Colin Powell joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a strategic limited partner back in 2005. There was a lot of buzz over his appointment at the time, but since then he hasn’t seemed to offer much of a public face for the firm — and of course, Kleiner now has Al Gore to help with political connections. Kleiner has invested in Fisker Automotive, the maker of the Fisker Karma — reportedly at least $10 million. Anyhoo, just saying. Washington DC and Silicon Valley are pretty chummy these days.
Bingo! Good job Katie. While everyone else saw “Auto Czar” you got the real connection. KPCB investment in Fisker Automotive is a lot more than $10M and I’ll bet Powell & Gore each have a FA Karma on order.