VC firms rarely reinvent themselves. Kleiner Perkins did—and has a new $3.5 billion to show for it

History has weight, and few know that better than the team at Kleiner Perkins. 

Throughout 2025, I spent several days inside Kleiner Perkins, interviewing partners, portfolio companies, and firm leads Mamoon Hamid and Ilya Fushman about the legendary VC firm’s unlikely turnaround. 

I was the first journalist they’d opened up to in the better part of a decade. The history of venture capital is filled with firms that mattered once, but failed to enter a new era. Generally speaking, VC firms don’t turn around—they fade.