About this episode
Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures , a firm focused on assisting entrepreneurs to build impactful new energy and technology companies. 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 . *** Topics 00:30 - Vinod’s intro 01:20 - A zero-million-dollar company vs a zero-billion-dollar company 4:20 - What percentage of investors in Silicon Valley are good long-term company builders? 4:50 - Who has earned the right to advise an entrepreneur? 6:50 - Which risk to take when 7:20 - Helpful board members 8:15 - Who to trust for what advice 11:00 - First principles thinking and rate of change 13:00 - Evaluating a candidate in an interview 14:15 - How much should a founder have planned and how ambitious should a founder be? 16:30 - Recruiting great people 19:00 - Building a phenomenal early team 20:20 - Being generous with early employee equity 27:00 - Gene pool engineering 27:18 - The art, science, and labor of recruiting 28:20 - How founders should think about investors 31:00 - Doers vs pontificators 32:00 - What does Vinod want to do in the next ten years? 32:10 - Reinventing Societal Infrastructure with Technology