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Published on 09/15/1999 All articles from this issue

A new way of giving

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By Bruce Barton

Town Crier Staff Writer

Infoseek's Steve Kirsch champions causes: curing cancer, saving the world

Steve Kirsch is a true believer that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." To prove it, the founder of Infoseek, a major Internet search provider, uses some of his millions to address a variety of causes, from support for electric vehicle legislation to research for hidden asteroids.

The 40-something Los Altos Hills resident contradicts the image that Silicon Valley's most powerful high-tech barons are humorless scrooges who have neither the time nor inclination to give to charity. In 1998, Kirsch's foundation gave away $5.7 million. The Kirsch name surfaced prominently last past spring when he donated $1 million to help bail out the United Way of Santa Clara County, which, due to mismanagement, found itself $11 million in the hole.

"I wondered who would step up," Kirsch said in a Christian Science Monitor article, "and thought, how about you?" Other contributors followed Kirsch's lead, and soon, the United Way was back in the black.

The MIT graduate, whose technical brilliance has generated noteworthy inventions (the optical mouse) and lucrative companies (Frame Technology, Infoseek), also applies intelligent thinking to his reasons for giving.

With Kirsch, it's a matter of common sense, for instance, to donate to causes that will pay dividends in the future. Why not contribute to cancer research, Kirsch reasons, so that cures can be found to benefit future generations? Why not help scientists with money and equipment needed to find undetectable asteroids so that we can save ourselves? Why not fight for clean air now so that we're not choking in smog years from now?

Kirsch does his part. He drives around town in an electric car, an EV1 from General Motors. He vigorously supported Assemblyman Jim Cunneen's legislation, AB 71, that gives solo-passenger driven electric and low-emission vehicles the nod in the carpool lane. The bill was signed by Gov. Gray Davis last week.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Steve," Cunneen said last week. "Steve proved himself very effective in rallying high-tech leaders to support the bill."

Cunneen contacted Kirsch for support after reading a San Jose Mercury News editorial about his bill. The editorial mentioned that Kirsch drives an electric car.

"I thought like any Silicon Valley entrepreneur, he might send a letter," said Cunneen, who grew up in Los Altos. "But he would travel to Sacramento to support the bill."

Such efforts paint this Southern California native as someone who gets involved beyond merely throwing money at a problem. In another example, he suggested the Community Foundation of Silicon Valley allow donors to invest up to 50 percent of their funds in a higher-return investment to generate more foundation funding.

The Town Crier caught up with Kirsch last month at a Los Altos restaurant. He arrived in a polo shirt and shorts, cordial and quiet. He was direct, and tended to use few words to make a point. But his hot-button topics, such as electric vehicle legislation, had him talking in a passionate, rapid-fire delivery.

Kirsch described himself as: "A successful computer entrepreneur who's discovered that one person can make a difference in a lot of different areas. What's amazing to me is the number of people who choose not to be involved."

He recalled, at one point, e-mailing 50 prominent CEOs about AB 71, asking for support. He received only five responses. "What's gratifying, however, is that someone like Bill Gates said, 'Add my name,'" Kirsch said.

A lack of involvement among some peers mystifies Kirsch who finds the reasoning in the arguments of those who don't give "full of holes."

His home page on the Internet (skirsch.com) espouses his philanthropic philosophies in detail, not to mention his myriad, wide-ranging opinions on everything from cool cameras to effective home remedies for ants.

"If you've got a lot of money, you have a problem in terms of how to best utilize it," Kirsch said, "if you want to be intelligent about it, put it to good use."

"Steve Kirsch is emerging as one of the really fine philanthropic leaders in the local community," said Peter Hero, president of the Community Foundation of Silicon Valley. Kirsch has been involved with the foundation the past 10 years and currently sits on its board.

Hero said Kirsch is "generous, thoughtful and bright, looking for ways to make an impact with contributions that make a measurable difference. ... He's vocal about the satisfaction he gets from giving and is hoping others will step forward - the evidence shows this is happening. Just as David Packard and Bill Hewlett in their era were leaders in whose shoes others began to walk, I think Steve Kirsch stepping forward in such a generous way is going to be an inspiration to others."

Kirsch maintains a $50 million fund at the Community Foundation.

Possessing a genuine fascination in the world around him, Kirsch's interests and impacts are global and local. They often evolve as a result of his own innate, intellectual curiosity.

For instance, while treating an injured knee at Stanford in 1998, he met up with a physician involved in a cancer start-up company called Targesome. The company's name centers on the name of a large molecule that can accumulate in a growing cancer and carry "a large payload," as Kirsch puts it, of either diagnostic or therapeutic agents for imaging or killing cancer, respectively. The potential result could be effectively locating and treating cancer.

Kirsch contributed $2 million to the start-up, not to necessarily make a profit, but to help a noble case. "I told the company founders my objective, unlike that of typical venture capitalists, was to cure cancer, not return on investment," he said.

Other contributions stem from seeing a need in the course of daily life. He contributed another $200,000 last year to the Los Altos libraries and the Santa Clara County system when he saw too many people and too few terminals with Internet access.

"I tried to use the Internet terminals at the Los Altos library and they were all in use, so I thought I could help out instead with a donation," Kirsch said. "It seemed like a great cause since this enables people who otherwise could not afford access the ability to tap the power of the Internet."

Other interests are literally out of this world. On his home page, Kirsch includes a copy of a Time magazine article about Near Earth Objects (NEOs), or space rocks that stand a chance of colliding with earth. The thought that 90 percent of the asteroids that could hit earth haven't been identified leaves Kirsch uncomfortable, and he wants something done about it.

"With an extra $1 million a year in funding, we could identify all NEOs in 10 years," he writes on his home page. "Sure the chances are really slim that we are going to be hit soon. But they aren't zero. And if we get hit without warning, it is literally 'game over.'" The Time article, for instance, noted the impact of a mere mile-wide asteroid more than 60 million years ago was so powerful that it killed off the dinosaurs and changed the world's climate forever.

"One million dollars a year seems like a small price to pay for collision insurance," Kirsch said. And if Congress isn't willing to fund research in this area, Kirsch said he and other investors will.

A man with so many varied interests and opinions, spelled out in detail on the Internet, could give some people the wrong idea. Some may think Kirsch is being a bit self-serving in his rattling off the numerous charities to which he's given. But Kirsch sees his exposure as possible inspiration for others like him to follow on the philanthropic path.

He rejects the suggestion that the highest form of philanthropy is anonymous giving.

"I tend to focus on what the result of the giving is, not what the recognition is or whether I get recognition," he said on his Web page. "For example, in the United Way crisis, would it have been more effective to have given anonymously? I can't imagine how. If you look at what caused so many people to give in Seattle, it was because they saw other, high-profile donors ... giving. So if you have a charitable cause, which is supported by 'Anonymous,' and a cause supported by all your peers, which cause is likely to attract your attention more?"

Kirsch is that rare individual who possesses people skills to go with his extraordinary technical ability. His home page is laced with wit and humor. For instance, his reasons for giving include: "Because when we read 'A Christmas Carol,' we both thought that Ebenezer Scrooge made the right move at the end." Also: "It's a nice break from work."

Understanding that perhaps too many schools don't focus enough on teaching people skills, Kirsch is working with his alma mater, MIT, to develop programs enhancing such skills. "This is a ridiculous shortcoming of our educational system," Kirsch said. "Mastery of soft people skills can have dramatic impact on one's career."

With so many disparate interests, it's hard to predict what might be next for Kirsch. Even he doesn't know for sure.

"People tell me I seem to be pretty successful starting high-tech companies, so who knows?"