Doerr adds Meeker at KPCB

John Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins guru who has also recruited Nashvillian Gary Ferguson to head ClearPractice in the health IT sector, has added former Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker (left) to the KPCB stable, suggesting to some that he's shifted some energy away from cleantech.

VC Doerr taps Ferguson CEO of EMR Play

In its exclusive report, Venture Nashville breaks news about Nashvillian Gary Ferguson's appointment as CEO of a electronic medical record (EMR) and revenue-cycle management (RCM) venture that will have a Nashville office, a St. Louis headquarters and the personal backing of famed VC John Doerr, whose dayjob is leading Kleiner Perkins. There's also background on KPCB in Tennessee and further info about NotifyMD, which Ferguson previously led as CEO.

Kleiner Perkins in again in Nodality

Nodality, the Bay Area biotech player with a key lab in Franklin, has gotten more money from Kleiner Perkins and other VCs: $15.5MM total in its latest round. Our story's here.

Chattanooga EPB to get Bloom Energy fuel cell pilot

[correction 0920 16 June] CEO KR Sridar, founder of Bloom Energy, recently revealed the company will place a 100-kilowatt prototype of its fuel cell at Electric Power Board (EPB) offices in Chattanooga. An earlier prototype had been at the Chattanooga-based SimCenter at UTC. The KNS' latest story examines the web of relationships that led to the decision. The KNS reported progress on the project, several weeks ago. Bloom has attracted Kleiner Perkins VC investment.

VC: Eco factors will drive Green investing

PBS "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" broadcast a few minutes (video here) ago an update on venture-capital investment in clean-energy and related green technologies. Much of the piece centers around an interview with former Kleiner Perkins VC and co-founder of Sun Microsystems Vinod Khosla (at left), an engineer-cum-VC whose own venture fund is looking for clean-energy investment opportunities. Another interviewee in the piece, as aired tonight, said he thinks VC interest in green investments is already waning -- as VCs choose to pursue later-stage deals in the current buyer's market -- but, Khosla said such cooling of ardor won't change the fundamentals. Said Khosla, Coal and Oil can't be our main solution, 25 years from now, because we cannot sustain a world dependent on fossil fuels. A fuller transcript of the interview with Khosla, from an earlier airing, is posted here.

Riveting story on VCs, Al Gore, Kleiner Perkins & the Green Future

A great read: If you care about university research, venture capital, innovation and, yes, the future of Civilization -- or, if you simply love or hate Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers or Al Gore or too much government or too little -- read The New York Times Magazine's Pulitzer-worthy piece, "Capitalism to the Rescue," which is the cover story today, Oct. 5. Writer Jon Gertner produced a story with depth, and along the way he put the spotlight on University of Tennessee researchers who have created a clean-energy phenomenon called The Bloom Box. Read Gertner's contribution, here. Here's a related KPMG survey of VCs regarding Green Tech.