Mary Meeker earned a B.A. in psychology from DePauw University (1981) and an M.B.A. in finance from Cornell University (1986).
Meeker breaks the mould, she is a top investor in a man’s world. Mary Meeker was recently listed the 77th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
In 1982, Mary Meeker joined Merrill Lynch as a stockbroker. After graduate school, she began as an analyst covering the technology sector at Salomon Brothers in 1986.
She worked for Cowen from 1990-1991 before moving to Morgan Stanley to specialize in covering the personal computer and consumer software industries.
In 1995 Mary Meeker, together with Chris DePuy at Morgan Stanley, published The Internet Report, a landmark Morgan Stanley industry report which became known as “the bible” for investors in the Dotcom boom. The report went into popular circulation as a book and on the web.
Over the years, Morgan Stanley published similar landmark reports led by Meeker on online advertising, e-commerce, the evolution of search, the Internet in China, and the mobile Internet.
Mary Meeker’s reputation was somewhat tarnished after the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2000 to 2002 and it is a reminder why sharp analysts should introduce hedging (a jet out of jail card) in their writing.
Mary Meeker was vilified in the press for leading investors astray during the dotcom bubble. However, Meeker was not charged with any wrongdoing. Morgan Stanley and nine other investment firms were compelled to participate in a global legal settlement.
Nevertheless, Meeker survived the dotcom bubble.
Mary Meeker was characterized by Andrew Serwer in Fortune magazine in 2006 as “absolutely first rate when it comes to spotting big-picture trends before they come into focus. She gathers massive amounts of data and assembles it into voluminous reports that, while sometimes rambling and overambitious, are stuffed with a million jumping-off points.”
In December 2010 Meeker left her position as a managing director at Morgan Stanley and head of the bank’s global technology research team to become a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where she has participated in over 20 different deals.
Mary Meeker serves on the boards of electronic signature provider DocuSign, mobile payments company Square, and Peer-to-peer lending company Lending Club.
Mary Meeker’s investments are geared towards the internet and new technologies.
She is known on Wall Street as the “Queen of the Net”
INVESTMENT STYLE
Mary Meeker is a fundamental analyst. She gathers a vast amount of data and she is able to see the most important facts about a situation and the effects of that situation has on other things.
Moreover, it is interesting to see how lower levels of testosterone influence human investment decisions. The male (higher testosterone) tends to be more impulsive risk-taker, goes on gut reaction, takes ballsy gambles and charges. Sometimes, when things don’t go well, the male naked ape will even double-down (male pride-high testosterones). This often leads to widely varying results; either spectacular wins or devastating losses.
The female with lower testosterone, on the other hand, tends to be risk-averse, more conservative. She tends to do her due diligence. She is more likely to do her homework, analyze all the data before making an investment decision. She also tends to consult the advice of others compared to her male counterpart. The investment outcome often means a more stable return on capital. Hedge funds run by woman outperform.
The world of top investors may no longer be a man’s world going forward, bearing in mind that capital has no prejudice – it is gender/color blind and will eventually flow where it can get the best rate of return.
If female money managers continue to out-compete their male counterpart they could become a dominant force in tomorrow’s world of high finance.
I love data. I think it’s very important to get it right, and I think it’s good to question it – Mary Meeker
LEARNING RESOURCES
Mary Meeker focuses on investments in the firm’s digital practice and helps lead Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Funds, targeting high-growth internet companies that have achieved rapid adoption and scale.
Mary is the co-author of the industry-defining books:
The Internet Report (1995) and The Internet Advertising Report (1996).
She is also the co-author of:
The Internet Retailing Report (1997)
The Online Classified Advertising Report: It’s About Search/Find/Obtain (SFO) (2002)
The China Internet Report (2004)
The Mobile Internet Report (2009)
The Technology IPO Yearbooks. Beyond technology
Mary Meeker (and Liang Wu) created USA, Inc. (2011), an award-winning, non-partisan report / video that looks at the U.S. government (and its financials) from a business perspective.
Mary Meekers reports (including her annual Internet Trends presentations) are widely read around the world.
I grew up in a small town in northeastern Indiana. I had an all-American childhood. And I grew up as an optimist – Mary Meeker
CONNECT WITH INVESTOR
Follow this World Top Investor via their various social media channels and read more about their background and current investment interests on their official website:
Mary Meeker
www.kpcb.com