Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Vinod Khosla
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Vinod Khosla | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | January 28, 1955 Pune, India |
| Occupation | Venture capitalist |
| Net worth |  $1.5 Billion |
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.
Contents |
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).
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 founding fathers of The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India.
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.
He lives in Woodside, California, with his wife Neeru and their four children - three daughters (Nina, Anu, and Vani) and one son (Neal).
- NexGen (now purchased by AMD)
- Excite
- @Home Network
- Juniper Networks
- Cerent
- Corvis
- Grameen Foundation [1]
- DonorsChoose [2]
- MetricStream
- E-asic Inc [3]
- Spatial Photonics Inc
- Xsigo
- moka5
- Ausra
- Kovio
- Zettacore
- iSkoot
- The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)
- 1999 World Technology Award Finalist
- Honorary Chair, DonorsChoose San Francisco Bay Area Advisory Board
- ^ IIT Delhi: Distinguished Alumni Awards
- ^ A winner looking to back other winners
- ^ Venture capitalist a techie at heart October 15, 2006
- Vinod speaks to Google employees about ethanol on March 29, 2006
- Vinod's presentations, papers
- Vinod's ethanol views debated
- Press
- Vinod's Blog
- Computer History Museum, 11-Jan-2006: Sun Founders Panel
- Sun Feature Story: The Fab Four Reunites (webcast of the event)
- Biofuel-ethanol talk by Khosla. Google TechTalks March 29, 2006
- A Conversation with Vinod Khosla -- Summary of a phone "debate" over the merits of ethanol, in The Oil Drum, an online discussion forum about "Energy and Our Future."
- Khosla Ventures
- Vinod Khosla Charlie Rose, 22 Sept. 2006