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Vinod Khosla is a 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, but the company has since failed. 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 who has totally ended their dependence on foreign oil. Khosla is a major funder of Yes on 87's campaign to pass California's Proposition 87, The Clean Energy Initiative. Personal He has four teenage children. Founding companies Helping to found companies Board membership Other Notes | ||||||||
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