Thomas Perkins was a venture capitalist who founded the firm Kleiner Perkins, an early investor in Genentech. He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1953 and received a master’s in business administration from Harvard University in 1957. He founded University Laboratories, was the chairman of Tandem Computers for a time, and was the general manager of the computer division and later the director of corporate development at Hewlett-Packard. He left the company in 1972 and founded Kleiner Perkins. Perkins was the chairman of Genentech from 1976 to 1990, and remained the chair of the Genentech board executive committee until 1995. In this interview, Perkins discusses his involvement in Genentech’s history, his insights into the personalities behind Genentech, and the relationship between venture capital and biotechnology.