Vinod Khosla on How to Build the Future

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