Vinod Khosla is an Indian-born American venture capitalist and an influential personality in Silicon Valley.
Khosla was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, where he served as its first CEO and Chairman in the early 1980s. In 1986, he became a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he remained through the early 2000s.
In 2004 Khosla formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures, which focused on venture investments in various technology sectors, most notably clean technology.
He is also known for his witty but controversial statements, for example: "If it doesn't scale, it doesn't matter. Most of what we talk about today—hybrid, biodiesel, ethanol, solar photovoltaics, geothermal—I believe are irrelevant to the scale of the problem."
Early life and education
Khosla's father was in the army and was posted at New Delhi, India. He read about the founding of Intel in Electronic Engineering Times at the age of fourteen and this inspired him to pursue technology as a career.
Khosla went on to receive degrees from the IIT Delhi, India (Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering), Carnegie Mellon University (Masters in Biomedical Engineering), and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).
Career:
After graduating from Stanford University in 1980, Khosla worked for electronic design automation company Daisy Systems. Then in 1982, Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems (SUN is the acronym for the Stanford University Network), along with his Stanford classmates Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and UC Berkeley computer science graduate student Bill Joy. Khosla served as the first Chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems from 1982 to 1984, when he left the company to become a venture capitalist.
In 1986, Khosla joined the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a general partner. At Kleiner, Khosla became a recognized venture capitalist, with several successful early stage investments. Khosla also played a key role with several of the tech industry's most spectacular failures, including Asera, Dynabook, BroadBand Office, Excit@Home, and many others.
He also invested in an Indian Microfinance NGO, SKS Microfinance, which lends small loans to poor women in rural India. Khosla is also one of the founders of TIE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of The Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India.
Khosla was featured on Dateline NBC in May 2006 where he discussed the practicality of ethanol as a gasoline substitute. He is known to have invested heavily in ethanol companies, in hopes of widespread adoption. He cites Brazil as an example of a country that has ended its dependence on foreign oil.
Khosla was a major proponent of the "Yes on 87" campaign to pass California's Proposition 87, The Clean Energy Initiative, which failed to pass in November, 2006. In 2006, Khosla's wife Neeru co-founded the CK-12 Foundation that aims to develop open source textbooks and lower the cost of education in America and the rest of the world. Khosla and his wife are also donors to the Wikimedia Foundation, in the amount of $500,000.
Khosla Ventures:
In 2004 Khosla formed his own venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures. The firm is based in Menlo Park, California and manages approximately $1 billion of investor capital as well as investments funded by Khosla himself.
In September 2009, Khosla completed fundraising for two new funds, to invest in cleantech and information technology start-ups. Khosla Ventures III secured $750 million of investor commitments to invest in traditional early stage and growth stage companies. Khosla also raised $250 million for Khosla Seed, which will invest in higher-risk opportunities.
In May 2010 it was announced that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to join Khosla Ventures to provide strategic advice regarding investments in technologies focused on the environment.
Other Accomplishments & Affiliations:
In addition to his role in founding Sun Microsystems, Khosla has been involved in the founding of a number of other businesses and organizations. Khosla was also involved with the founding of Daisy Systems in 1981. He is also one of the founders of TIE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India.
Khosla was a finalist for the 1999 World Technology Award and served as the Honorary Chair of the DonorsChoose San Francisco Bay Area Advisory Board. In addition, Khosla is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley.The Center is focused on finding solutions to address the crisis of extreme poverty and disease in the developing world. Mr.Khosla said at the NASSCOM that "Being a Enter pruner was hot".When asked whether he ever feared failure, Khosla said only those who dare to fail can succeed. “Freedom to fail is a key ingredient in success. Try and fail, but do not fail to try. Every disadvantage in India is an opportunity to do something big,” he said.