By definition, Vinod Khosla is an archetypal example of the American Dream. He found his passion in technology, spent years striving to actualize his vision of becoming the next Intel, succeeded, and is now perfectly positioned to tell the rest of us how it’s done.
He emigrated to the United States in the seventies to pursue his studies at Carnegie Mellon and Stanford University after a business venture selling soy milk in India never took off. He was determined that would be his last failed business, and so it was.
Upon graduating, Khosla founded Daisy Systems as an electronic design automation company. He continued to grow Daisy until leaving the company to start Sun Microsystems, his next venture specializing in computer software and IT services, with his Stanford classmates a couple of years later. Sun was eventually sold to Oracle in 2010 for a reported $7.4 billion dollars.
Since 2004, Khosla has been involved with his own venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures. He is dedicated to investing in “clean tech” along with his growing list of IT startups that keep his passion for tech alive and full-spirited. I managed to catch up with him to discuss his work and to get a better understanding of who he is through some not-so-conventional questions below.
“Money is to get freedom to do what you want or care about, not a goal by itself.”
Location: Menlo Park, California
Who is your idol?
Gates, because of his philanthropy & knowledge
What is the most significant decision you have made in your career?
To never get a job.
Where have you been happier- in India or the United States?
Silicon Valley (I'm a bigot)
When will technology become too much?
No idea.
Why don’t you retire considering your wealth and legacy already?
I am retired and doing what I love. I love it so much I do 80 hrs./week of it. Money is to get freedom to do what you want or care about, not a goal by itself.
Gates or Jobs?
Gates
eBay or Amazon?
Vice Media or CNN?
Not sure I care much for either.
Refusing to fail or accepting defeat?
Refusing to fail
Entrepreneur or intrapreneur?
Entrepreneur
You’re a self-made billionaire. You came from an Indian army household with literally no background in technology or innovation to become a tech investment mogul! Which aspect of your career drove you more- technology or entrepreneurship?
Definitely my love of technology and its ability to do new things for people. I say technology's impact comes from the power of ideas fueled by entrepreneurial energy. Technology can multiply resources and entrepreneurship makes it happen.
Your first venture came right out of college: a soy milk company. Unfortunately, it never took off since people in India didn’t have refrigerators at the time to store the product. Why did you decide to come to the United States afterwards and continue with your studies rather than stick with business?
I thought of soy milk very early as a student. I fell in love with the idea of technology entrepreneurship after reading the story of Andy Grove, a Hungarian immigrant, starting Intel. If he could immigrate to the US and start a technology company, why couldn't I? That caused me to start Daisy Systems and then Sun Microsystems.
Growing up, you idolized Intel which you’ve credited to sparking your interest in technology. In the late eighties, you found yourself in the perfect position to take on the conglomerate by building your own semiconductor company- Nexgen. How did you build a company, challenge a monopoly and do it all successfully?
Probably a combination of naivety, arrogance and persistence. But I'd rather try and fail than fail to try. To be fair I was a investor/supporter but not the driving entrepreneur at Nexgen.
In 2004 you launched Khosla Ventures to tackle social impact alongside for-profit investments. Social initiatives in venture capital firms are common now, but they were nearly obsolete even ten years ago. What prompted this move?
I had more than I needed and way more than I ever imagined. So I decided to only work on fun and rewarding things.
You’re a proponent of technology-based positions which are increasingly replacing humans in the workforce. Is technology capable of completely replacing human intellect? How do you envision the society of the future?
Yes, technology can replace the capabilities of the brain in most tasks over time, even creative one. We will get great abundance and a lot of freedom. We'll be free to use it well or poorly. The need to work may rarely go away. We should use technology to do what humans want.