Pillow Talk With Perkins

Tom Perkins, venture capitalist and newly minted author, recently spoke with The Crimson over the telephone about his book “Sex and the Single Zillionaire.” The Harvard Business School alum will be donating all the profits from the book to his alma mater.

The Harvard Crimson (THC): What motivated you to write the book? It’s obviously not for money, as you’re donating all proceeds to Harvard.

Perkins: I got an invitation to try out for a sex frolic thing, like [protagonist] Steven Hudson, who meets these young girls and in the last week he marries one of them on national TV. It’s pretty ridiculous. If I wanted to marry a 20 something girl, there are easier ways of doing that. I showed [the letter] to my friends, and everyone laughed. I thought, I can make a humorous novel of this....

THC: How much of Steven Hudson is based on yourself?

Perkins: ....I’m a venture capitalist, Steven’s an investment banker. A venture capitalist is too smart to get into something like this. Investment bankers and venture capitalists are almost born enemies.

THC: Have your family, friends, and colleagues been supportive of this project?

Perkins: A couple of them are shocked by it, but it’s meant to be fun. There’s no political agenda, not really any philosophy. It’s the kind of book you take to the beach, but if you forget it there, it’s not a big loss....

THC: I see that you are also participating in a Win a Date with a Zillionaire contest? How did this come about?

Perkins: That was [the publisher of his book] Judith Regan’s idea. It’s bizarre. She made a deal with “Romantic Times,” a magazine which is very popular with women....So the contest, they’ll pick 3 winners, and they get to go to the annual convention of “Romantic Times” and have dinner with me. Fine, I’m up for that—meet some nice women and talk to them. I mean, it’s not romance or anything. Frankly, I’ve been shamelessly promoting this book, shameless because it’s for charity and all. I’m treating it as a hobby, an interesting experience, and if it pays off, it’ll benefit a great organization, namely Harvard.

THC: I read that you once wrote something about sports cars, and you mention the beautiful McLaren F1 in the book. Is this another passion of yours?

Perkins: The McLaren is too dangerous. It was far, far too powerful—kind of a silly thing....

—Staff writer Yan Zhao can be reached at yanzhao@fas.harvard.edu.