Silicon Valley legend Kleiner Perkins was written off. Then an unlikely VC showed up

Independently and immediately, a flood of people reached the same conclusion: This had to be a mistake.

It was the summer of 2017, and as word spread that Mamoon Hamid was joining venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, some people wondered if it was a joke, or “fake news.” And they didn’t hold back. 

“I got calls from friends in the venture business, other GPs [general partners], asking: ‘Are you sure this is happening? Is this real?’” Hamid recounts. “People kept asking: ‘What...