Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a firm focused on assisting entrepreneurs to build impactful new energy and technology companies.
https://twitter.com/vkhosla
https://www.khoslaventures.com/
Previously he was the founding CEO of Sun Microsystems, where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors.
How to Build the Future is hosted by Sam Altman – https://twitter.com/sama
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Topics
00:00 – Vinod’s intro
00:40 – A zero-million-dollar company vs a zero-billion-dollar company
3:50 – What percentage of investors in Silicon Valley are good long-term company builders?
4:20 – Who has earned the right to advise an entrepreneur?
6:20 – Which risk to take when
6:50 – Helpful board members
7:45 – Who to trust for what advice
10:30 – First principles thinking and rate of change
12:30 – Evaluating a candidate in an interview
13:45 – How much should a founder have planned and how ambitious should a founder be?
16:00 – Recruiting great people
18:30 – Building a phenomenal early team
19:50 – Being generous with early employee equity
26:30 – Gene pool engineering – https://www.khoslaventures.com/gene-pool-engineering-for-entrepreneurs
26:48 – The art, science, and labor of recruiting – https://www.khoslaventures.com/the-art-science-and-labor-of-recruiting
27:50 – How founders should think about investors
30:30 – Doers vs pontificators
31:30 – What does Vinod want to do in the next ten years?
31:40 – Reinventing Societal Infrastructure with Technology – https://www.khoslaventures.com/reinventing-societal-infrastructure-with-technology