Vinod Khosla

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Vinod Khosla

Born January 28, 1955 (1955-01-28) (age 53)
Pune, India
Occupation Venture capitalist
Net worth ▲$1.5 Billion
Spouse Neeru
Children 4

Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Pune, India[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.

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[edit] Early life and education

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

[edit] Sun Microsystems

After graduating from Stanford University in 1980, 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. He then joined the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1986 as a general partner. Khosla is also one of the founders of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India.

[edit] 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.

He also invested in an Indian Microfinance NGO, SKS Microfinance, which lends small loans to poor women in rural India.

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.

In 2006, Khosla founded ck12.org that aims to develop open source textbooks and lower the cost of education in America and the rest of the world.

[edit] Personal

He lives in Woodside, California, with his wife Neeru and their four children - three daughters (Nina, Anu, and Vani) and one son (Neal).

[edit] Accomplishments

[edit] Founding companies

[edit] Khosla Ventures

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Khosla Ventures areas are the Internet, computing, mobile, silicon technology and breakthrough scientific work in clean technology arenas, such as bio-refineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, battery and other environmentally friendly technologies. Khosla Ventures is based in Menlo Park, California [4] and it was formed in 2004.

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[edit] Helping to found companies

[edit] Board membership

[edit] Other

[edit] 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
  4. ^ http://www.khoslaventures.com/about.html

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
first		 CEO of Sun Microsystems
1982 - 1984		 Succeeded by
Scott McNealy
Preceded by
first		 Chairman of Sun Microsystems
1982 - 1984		 Succeeded by
Scott McNealy