Vinod Khosla

Building the foundations of internet

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  • Shiva Chinnam
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Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures

Background

  • Born to Punjabi military family in 1955, grew up in Delhi and went to IIT Delhi.
  • Inspired by the story of Intel Corporation started a soy milk company to service people in India who did not have refrigerators, which eventually failed to take off.

Education

  • Full scholarship Carnegie Mellon University for Masters in biomedical engineering.
  • Rejected twice before joining Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1980.

Entrepreneurship

  • Co-founded electronics design company called Daisy Systems which created significant revenue, profits and eventual IPO.
  • Co-founded Sun Microsystems which sold servers, workstations and created Java, the programming language that formed the foundation for much of today’s internet.

General Partner at KPCB Edge:

  • Mr. Khosla nurtured the creation of Juniper Networks, which built the routers and switches upon which the internet flourished.
  • Played a crucial role in building and growing semiconductor company, Nexgen, which eventually was acquired by @Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Khosla Ventures

  • Formed in 2014 became known for early investments in alternative energy technology like solar, biofuel, and batteries.
  • First investor in companies like DoorDash and Instacart

Continued Impact

  • Charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a non-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals that was founded in 1992 and has more than 40 chapters in nine countries today.
  • He is a founding board member of the Indian School of Business (ISB)