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Vinod Khosla
Born	January 28, 1955 (1955-01-28) (age 54) Pune, India
Occupation	Venture capitalist
Net worth	▲$1.5 billion [1]
Spouse(s)	Neeru
Children	Nina, Anu, Vani and Neal

Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Pune, India^[2]) 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.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2.1 Sun Microsystems 2.2 Post Sun 3 Khosla Ventures 4 Personal life 5 Accomplishments 5.1 Founding companies 5.2 Helping to found companies 5.3 Board membership 5.4 Other 6 Notes 7 See also 8 External links

[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] Career

[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] Post Sun

Khosla "fell in love" with Zaplet.com, and the company has since merged and developed into a governance, risk and compliance leader.^[3]

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.

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

Khosla 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.^[4]

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. Khosla and his wife Neeru are also relatively substantial donors to the Wikimedia Foundation, in the amount of $500,000.^[5]

[edit] Khosla Ventures

This section requires expansion.

In 2004 Khosla formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures.

Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm focusing on early stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, silicon technology and clean technology sectors. Within cleantech, the firm has invested in bio-refineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, battery and other environmentally friendly technologies. Khosla Ventures is based in Menlo Park, California ^[6] and it was formed in 2004.

[edit] Personal life

He lives in Portola Valley, California, with his wife Neeru and their four daughters-Nina, Vani, Anu and Nealia.

[edit] Accomplishments

[edit] Founding companies

• Sun Microsystems Inc.
• Daisy Systems

[edit] Helping to found companies

• NexGen (now purchased by AMD)
• Excite
• @Home Network
• Juniper Networks
• Cerent
• Corvis
• LS9

[edit] Board membership

• DonorsChoose [1]
• MetricStream
• eASIC
• Spatial Photonics Inc
• Xsigo Systems
• moka5
• Ausra
• Kovio

[edit] Other

• 1999 World Technology Award Finalist
• Honorary Chair, DonorsChoose San Francisco Bay Area Advisory Board

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Forbes 400 #317 Vinod Khosla
2. ^ IIT Delhi: Distinguished Alumni Awards
3. ^ A winner looking to back other winners
4. ^ Venture capitalist a techie at heart October 15, 2006
5. ^ Cadelago, Chris (August 24, 2008). "Wikimedia pegs future on education, not profit". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/23/MNIJ12ETP4.DTL&tsp=1. Retrieved on 2008-08-24. 
6. ^ Khosla Ventures

[edit] See also

• Range Fuels
• Virgin Green Fund

[edit] External links

• Fear, Greed and Sky Diving, Vinod speaks at Stanford
• Vinod speaks to Google employees about ethanol on March 29, 2006
• Making cement while sequestering carbon, Issue 127, July 2008; Retrieved 2008-07-20.
• 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
• Khosla Ventures:
  • Khosla Ventures Funds Gevo.
  • Gevo Licenses UCLA Technology.
  • Vinod Khosla plugs into the electric car; EcoMotors.
  • Solarflare presentation (ppt).
• Vinod Khosla Charlie Rose, 22 Sept. 2006
• From geeks to greens
• Press release about significant gift to Wikimedia Foundation (which runs Wikipedia)

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