Jump to content

Vinod Khosla

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Gomzi kannan (talk | contribs) at 04:37, 11 March 2007 (Changed the spelling of governance). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Vinod Khosla
BornJanuary 28, 1955
Poona, India
OccupationVenture capitalist

Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Poona[1]) is an Indian American venture capitalist. He is an influential personality in Silicon Valley. He was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and became a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in 1986.

Early life and education

Khosla read about the founding of Intel in Electronic Engineering Times at the age of sixteen and this inspired him to pursue technology as a career. Khosla went on to receive degrees from some of the most prestigious institutions in the world: the IIT Delhi, India (Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering ), Carnegie Mellon University (Masters in Biomedical Engineering), and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).

Sun Microsystems

After graduating from Stanford University in 1979, Khosla along with his Stanford fellows Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim (another Carnegie Mellon graduate school alumnus), and a UC Berkeley masters degree holder named Bill Joy founded Sun Microsystems. Khosla left Sun in 1985. Khosla is also one of the founding fathers of The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India.

After Sun

Khosla "fell in love" with Zaplet.com, and the company has since merged and developed into a governance, risk and compliance leader.[2]

While recognized for several venture "hits", Khosla also played a key role with several of the tech industry's most spectacular failures, including Asera, Zambeel, Dynabook, Excite, and others.

In 2004 Khosla formed his own firm: Khosla Ventures.

Vinod was featured on Dateline NBC on Sunday, May 7, 2006. He was discussing the practicality of the use of ethanol as a gasoline substitute. He is known to have invested heavily in ethanol companies, in hopes of widespread adoption. He cites Brazil as an example of a country that has totally ended its dependence on foreign oil.[3]

Khosla was a major funder of Yes on 87's campaign to pass California's Proposition 87, The Clean Energy Initiative, which failed to pass in November, 2006.

Personal

He has four teenage children.

Accomplishments

Founding companies

Helping to found companies

Board membership

Other

Notes

  1. ^ IIT Delhi: Distinguished Alumni Awards
  2. ^ A winner looking to back other winners
  3. ^ Venture capitalist a techie at heart October 15, 2006
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Vinod_Khosla&oldid=114230710"