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Vinod Khosla

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Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Poona<ref>IIT Delhi: Distinguished Alumni Awards</ref>) 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 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).

[edit] 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.

[edit] After Sun

Khosla "fell in love" with Zaplet.com, and the company has since merged and developed into a goverance,risk and compliance leader.<ref>A winner looking to back other winners</ref>

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.<ref>Venture capitalist a techie at heart October 15, 2006</ref>

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.

[edit] Personal

He has four teenage children.

[edit] Accomplishments

[edit] Founding companies

[edit] Helping to found companies

[edit] Board membership

[edit] Other

[edit] Notes

<references />

[edit] External links

ja:ビノッド・コースラ

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