Y Combinator Startup Podcast
#107 - Vinod Khosla and Sam Altman
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Show notes
Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a firm focused on assisting entrepreneurs to build impactful new energy and technology companies. 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.
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Topics
00:30 - Vinod’s intro
01:20 - A zero-million-dollar company vs a zero-billion-dollar company
4:20 - What percentage of investors in Silicon Valley are good long-term company builders?
4:50 - Who has earned the right to advise an entrepreneur?
6:50 - Which risk to take when
7:20 - Helpful board members
8:15 - Who to trust for what advice
11:00 - First principles thinking and rate of change
13:00 - Evaluating a candidate in an interview
14:15 - How much should a founder have planned and how ambitious should a founder be?
16:30 - Recruiting great people
19:00 - Building a phenomenal early team
20:20 - Being generous with early employee equity
27:00 - Gene pool engineering
27:18 - The art, science, and labor of recruiting
28:20 - How founders should think about investors
31:00 - Doers vs pontificators
32:00 - What does Vinod want to do in the next ten years?
32:10 - Reinventing Societal Infrastructure with Technology