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.
/ vkhosla
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 - / 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 - www.khoslaventures.com/gene-p...
26:48 - The art, science, and labor of recruiting - www.khoslaventures.com/the-ar...
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 - www.khoslaventures.com/reinve...

[@ravishankar2180]

experience doesn't matter, the rate of learning matters.

[@oneforallah]

My rate of learning is so much but time available to learn and achievements so little :(

[@yumikotanashi]

@@oneforallah yeah same

[@irvinJoelBanta]

so true…4 years ago…but now, it’s rate of learning + prompt engineering skills

[@Martinit0]

Learning is nothing without doing

[@neunzehnvierundachtzig]

Who would've thought 4yrs ago that Sam Altman (the interviewer) would be the Leader of a revolutionary Ai System GPT-4. Brilliant.👏

[@doncorleone3901]

What a great interview. Sam never interrupted, vinod made great points. Point about investors not being qualified to advice entrepreneurs is very relatable

[@sennaikaffl4058]

I really like the background used in this video.

[@musawirmohd6353]

I clicked because of it.

[@nelsonc5339]

03:48 “70% of investors add negative value”

[@danielm3977]

Man! , when you listen to these types of conversations you easily find out there is a next level of human being than those who encounter on a daily life . I wish I'd listen to this couple years ago ....

[@SportsIncorporated]

For me. I wished I'd listened back in 1990.

[@musawirmohd6353]

STEPHAN FEIBISH i feel overwhelmed as i am young and going into business.trying to increase my learning rate asap so i would never have to be in your position where i would have to look back at life and say i wish.I understand that now.thank you so much for unknowningly giving me this guidance. Now i KNOW what i love to do and that i will never regret this decision even if i fail at the end.

[@capitalreckless5516]

I feel ya, im 23 and im shook , feels like my brain is leagues below

[@Yuvraj.]

@@capitalreckless5516 as someone who is that type of person, the best advice I can give is to find those people. Excellence can be learned. You’re capable of more than you think.

[@pauldirc..]

@@SportsIncorporated you can build good business in your 40s also and if you are from America, you have good chances

[@william_8844]

One of the valuable lessons i learnt about business, was don't take injection money from people who don't understand what you do.

[@AnshMehraa]

What a terrific video! It is wiser to own 0.01% of a billion dollar company ($100,000) instead of 1% of a million dollar company. ($1,000). It's not only the three extra zeroes, being associated with billion dollar ventures is much more exciting than being associated with a million dollar venture. We have to focus on making the pie bigger instead of asking for a bigger slice 🥧

[@kopibin9532]

Khosla's critical thinking and advice have really created dramatic positive impacts on projects im working on. He's like my Yoda.

[@ryanpeters3289]

I learnt more about entrepreneurship in this video than I did in my MBA program

[@AdeelKhan1]

This is probably one of the best interviews I've ever seen. @Sama built up on the set of questions that he continued to ask. And he did that by going deeper into the schematics of how the entrepreneurial portion of Mr. Khosla's mind is structured. This is a really awesome education and I know that I am going to keep coming back to this interview. Thanks!

[@griksta7990]

Free flowing conversation at its best!

[@leadbylifestyle6650]

KZbin needs to make bookmarks for long deep videos like this. It’s so much that I need to look back on.

[@charlottejoytrudgill1690]

"A business plan is completely irrelevant other than to judge how they've thought about a problem" this video is full of great advice! Thanks YC

[@HashimAziz1]

Agreed. Also loved the Everest analogy at the beginning.

[@Martinit0]

Ha ha, my founding advisor said something similar. The business plan basically ensures that you have sat down and thought deeply enough about your venture and covered at least the most obvious bases.

[@rafaelcardenas515]

One of my favorites!

[@KaiwenTeh]

The book by Taleb that Vinod Khosla is referring to at 30:45 is Antifragile

[@titansolaris]

thanks kevin

[@tcsiwula]

Was surprised Sam didn’t know that one

[@sandysutb]

@@tcsiwula it's about recollecting the name...

[@RocketCarpenter]

6:55 Sam Altman foresaw what happened at OpenAI this week. Increased my level of respect for him!

[@foundingfreedom1537]

10:19 Founder Characteristics 16:31 Talent triumphs idea 30:16 Recipe for impactful company

[@andu896]

What I like about this interview is that Sam keeps getting interrupted, which usually doesn’t happen. :-)

[@shikki111]

"They advice the company, when they havn't earned the right to advice the entrepreneur" - Vinod Khosla , beautiful so many hostile takeovers nowadays with random companies or angels, that give demands.

[@sohambhatia]

insightful interview. funny how 95% of the comments are positive here vs on Twitter 95% were negative (Vinod said something controversial as usual). People love to hate rather than learn.

[@BharadwajGiridhar]

What was the controversial comment?

[@MrDivad006]

The video description (times + links) is awesome!

[@phillip_jacobs]

Sam literally spoke about how a company's board should be "A board that you feel is calming you down, is supporting you, is not adding you stress. And most board members tell you, you're going to die, then they send you press clippings of competitors to prove a point". The ex-OpenAI board clearly didn't watch this video LOL!

[@nativerootsinternationalof1906]

What a honest, transparent and a mindblowing interview. Khosla speaks straight from his experiences, crystal clear in his thoughts.

[@StartupYogis]

Very informative, would love to have a video covering equity dilution for startups

[@fathammy]

This is an amazing talk. Vinod Khosla really shows the difference in both his scale of thinking and experience vs almost every other "me too" GP by comparison. He is a great example of the cream of Silicon Valley and possibly arguably it's peak from the men that were part of building it and why the US still has a far better quality of investors at the top vs competing ecosystems. However these are all the benefits of inertia from a golden era long since past vs the relatively simpler ambitions of what many startups are doing today.

[@brilliantreadtv393]

This initiative of sharing videos with entrepreneurs is a great value add - Thanks Sam and Ycombinator

[@daniel.adeyemi]

"The single hardest decision you'll make is whose advice to trust on what topic"

[@yossimolcho841]

Great as always. Thank you.

[@natanloterio]

This lecture is a gold mine. I just realized that my notes became almost the transcript of this video

[@pauldirc..]

How are you doing Is learning from ycombinator helped you ?

[@Kmasif25]

The best piece of content in this channel so far. :)

[@briantobias9212]

Help everyone is out there innovating and dominating the market

[@Thomas-hp4hw]

Kinda wish it was atleast 2hrs longer. Podcast style.

[@BiancaAguglia]

@tommo I agree. This is the kind of content that worth making available in several formats.

[@acaciomagno1525]

igree !

[@acaciomagno1525]

agree *

[@pauldirc..]

How are you doing Is learning from ycombinator helped you ?

[@EKAmanyoh]

Thanks for sharing this!

[@darrylr]

Just a great interview, really well done by Sam and Vinod.

[@santoshr2984]

Wow ... thanks Sam for this one .. cheers

[@GregDubela]

Conversations like this are rare.

[@pauldirc..]

How are you doing Is learning from ycombinator helped you ?

[@entalpa]

Really good person. He knows a lot about startups!

[@TheAIEpiphany]

Rarely do I listen to someone who I've never heard before but who has so many fresh new ideas. Love his thinking from the first principles approach nicely captured in this talk by e.g. questioning the assumption behind the regular 15-20 or less % for the employee pool when building an AI company

[@kuwait85]

Some great guests 👍🏾

[@andrewdepascale3090]

i hope iam in as good of shape, and as mentally sharp at age 63 as Vinod is.

[@GregDubela]

These guys are 100% right about everything.

[@tennisislove1]

he is so great!!!!!!!!

[@eliastouil7686]

the setting is gorgeous please always shoot there :D

[@GregDubela]

My mind is blown.

[@kefamutuma7402]

very very interesting interview. one of the best talks

[@ageofminorities]

Agree, I think one of the best interviews they've done (not accounting for course work like startup school)

[@bluxgrean1025]

Sounds clear. A+

[@himanshuagarwal9219]

What a great mind!

[@yanayprop]

Lovely background

[@pravenabaskaran3000]

Absolute gold

[@titansolaris]

well that was inspiring. Sam is such a good interviewer, he's a good listener vs talker. what i didnt like is that Khosla says: Give out more equity from the start... tell that to facebook, its conflicting, as you quickly lose control if you're so diluted, and if you are ambitions, and end up being in the 70% negative and greedy investor pool, ur fucked as theyll want to just flip as he admitted... so .. apart that, the advice was golden, thanks Vinod Sam and YC

[@BigDataLogin]

Superb insights 👏

[@mariusschober]

I'm at 0:55 and I already love him because it is absolutely TRUEEE

[@pauldirc..]

How are you doing Is learning from ycombinator helped you ?

[@BiancaAguglia]

Great interview, great advice. One suggestion: it would be great to see more blog posts from Vinod. It's the kind of content I love spending time on and not feel guilty about it after. 😊

[@pauldirc..]

You can see his other interview he is amazing

[@christophert8419]

This man's sense of aesthetics is top notch

[@nakulshetty9171]

Good stuff

[@Kuzeika]

Could anyone please send me a link to the article "A call to entrepreneurs" that Vinod is talking about at 33:10? I would be very grateful.

[@reefreshedinc]

This was a great interview!

[@jeetsangjitendra]

very wonderful insights with many one-liners :)

[@rinhmuseum]

Seeds of ideas and powerful principles

[@tcsiwula]

Vinod is such an awesome guy.

[@WilliamLi-nd4lz]

An immigrant who built an empire, what an inspiration!

[@adolm9952]

Amazing video!

[@sennaikaffl4058]

I have been watching this video frequently for inspiration.

[@ageofminorities]

Same here

[@61757]

Vinod Meesha; has made him tireless and bold

[@pauldirc..]

How are you doing Is learning from ycombinator helped you ?

[@william_8844]

I watch these guys and i feel my heart tick, this is where i want to be.....but i look at where i am, everything looks extremely tough. Seems too ambitious and a fairy tale, feels like it would be fantasy!

[@pauldirc..]

Whom vinod or sam

[@AdeelKhan1]

26:29 Gene pool engineering that Mr. Khosla is referring to: www.khoslaventures.com/gene-pool-engineering-for-entrepreneurs 27:09 'The art, science, and labor of recruiting' by Vinod Khosla : www.khoslaventures.com/the-art-science-and-labor-of-recruiting Note: I realized that the links are documented in the description section of this video.

[@hellokozmo]

Wow

[@101islands]

Securing the IP vs Profitability - Why all VCs do not think like Vinod Khosla?

[@dannyiskandar]

90% of the investors does not add value, 70% negative value ... ooh woow , there is an opportunity here

[@jord9356]

Nice office @2128

[@MrLeifyGreenz]

"An investor is an employee who you can't fire." 29:05

[@ageofminorities]

That's a really good punch line 😂

[@BigDataLogin]

Cool

[@tupisamba211]

At the start, when he pronounces "vision", he says "wision". Hindi only has one letter to pronounce the sound of 'V' or 'W' (व) so there's not much distinction made when pronouncing one or the other. Thanks Quora.

[@UCZx48kBoTg9O]

He has managed to completely destroy his accent somehow. Making it harder for both Indians and Americans to understand what he's saying

[@raushanyadav6200]

👌👌

[@capitalreckless5516]

Wow, just wow, i hope to even have 10% brain power and vision of vinod

[@anavatka]

3:50 "we're among friends it's okay" and goes on to post for the whole world to see

[@habebnino]

Nice , and Sam come to Libya when you visit Africa next time

[@FreedomLovin]

Why only non-governmental innovation? Government/governance is ripe for disruption and innovation, so many things within it don't work.

[@ErikChan]

BAM

[@ansha2221]

We hired Eric Schmidt who then went on to run Google. I didn't know he gonna be was that capable. :)

[@elmehdisaniss2731]

Why someone will want to make a business and invest his time and effort and life for it ? It may seem a stupid question but please, try to answer it extensively and accurately.

[@alexandros47]

OMG!! Vinod Khosla's voice is similar to Sundar Pichai's voice.

[@Clyde]

It's amazing.. Vinod should go on shark tank and share this on prime time..ohh and put Cuban in his place 🤣🤣🤣

[@teeI0ck]

Manjistha Seeburn

[@mmennote]

Mr. Koshla will you sit on my board? This interview was so great! Thanks Sam.

[@pauldirc..]

How are you doing Is learning from ycombinator helped you ?

[@JassimAli]

Everyone Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face- Tyson

[@SportsIncorporated]

I like him. He's bold, he's fresh. Let's bottle him.

[@JapnitSethi]

𝐌𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬: 💡 A company becomes the people it hires and not the plan it makes 💡 Experience doesn't matter, the rate of learning matters: For eg. pick the best athlete and not the most established wide receiver who only knows how to run one pattern! 💡 Give a unique/new problem to an entrepreneur/person to solve and the way they would tackle that problem from scratch is the best indicator of how fast they will learn! 💡 When hiring a VP of Marketing get to know what will be the questions they'll ask and how will it help make the CFO and the VP of Engineering better! And to evaluate this, put them in a specific scenario of thought process. For eg. If I gave you $10 million, what 3 startups would you consider, and what are the reasons you would/wouldn't invest in? 💡 In recruiting for your venture, a no is a maybe and a maybe is a yes! And its our job to turn that into a yes! 💡 Early Employee equity: Try to keep 15% for yourself and hire one or two people at 15%, eventhough they came in later or did not come up with the idea but they would especially be magnets to attract others For eg. Andy Bechtolsheim became a magnet to bring Eric Schmidt to Sun Microsystems 💡 Instead of hiring for specialized roles, you hire for non-linear people! For eg. a VP of Marketing who would also make the VP of Engineering better! 💡 An investor is an employee who you can't fire: Find an investor who cares about your vision, and for this talk to other founders about the key questions of how they think about hiring! If an investor is just trying to get to liquidating asap then that's the wrong direction! 💡 Have a big vision and know the first one, two and three steps: The first three steps are identifying the problems, what is hard to do and how you are going to do it!

[@vaibhavgupta20]

very vague, would love some details .

[@jazzymichael]

I need to leave my current company

[@zbdsgvb]

6/14/23

[@harunk.7871]

Can anyone see the Obama in Vinod Khosla? or am i alone in this freaking world?

[@SpeakMouthWords]

"You haven't earned the right to sit on boards" and "Experience doesn't matter, the rate of learning matters" seem to be at odds with each other.

[@mreese8764]

The first is for VC/advisers the second is for founders.

[@spnyp33]

The problem is when you do without pontificating.

[@alisheheryar1770]

r/Greentext >be me >watching Ycom channel >Builds future

[@troooooper100]

is it me or sam looks CGI?

[@PrinceKumar-hh6yn]

Omg ! He's chat gbt

[@litchips]

Should have asked him why he damaged his reputation fighting against access to a public beach.

[@FreedomLovin]

Can you explain this?

[@litchips]

www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/technology/vinod-khosla-beach.html

[@pauldirc..]

@@FreedomLovin How are you doing Is learning from ycombinator helped you ?

[@romanerrandonea7791]

Hello, I am the CEO of Elexion, an information brokerage platform. We are engaging with people in Silicon Valley to learn about emerging issues in communicating this information to Latin American entrepreneurs! If you are a citizen We would like to know the problems that are occurring. Write us....

[@shadowpsychic588]

He is mean in person he is my friends great uncle