With so much wealth at his
disposal, Vinod Khosla has
made it is life’s mission to
make this world a better
place to live in, thus helping
contribute his parts to restoring
a “greener” Earth. He has
reportedly invested over $450
million of his earnings to further
contribute to greener initiatives
including ethanol factories,
solar-power parks and several
others.
Early life
Born on January 28, 1955,
Vinod Khosla was born to an
Army family where his father
was an officer in the Indian
Army and was based around
in New Delhi. Khosla did his
schooling from Mount St.
Mary’s School. Following his
encounter with the founding of
Intel that was published in the
Electronic Engineering Times
as a teenager was what drove
him to make an impact on the
lives of the people and the
society. That is where he got
his inspiration from.
This was also the reason that
drove him to pursue a career
in technology from the Indian
Institute of Technology in Delhi.
He did his B.Tech in electrical
engineering from the said
institute. Apart from that, he
also pursued master’s degree
from the Carnegie Mellon
University followed by his
MBA degree from the Stanford
Graduate School of Business.
Career
Following acquiring all the
educational degrees, Khosla
knew that his ideas weren’t
supposed to be bound by the
traditional desk jobs that he
was offered for a good sum
of money.
But, following his completion
of MBA, Khosla worked for
Daisy Systems which is a
popular electronic automation
company. This was in 1980.
After working there for two
years, Khosla branched
out and co-founded the
SUN Microsystems which
was an abbreviation for
Stanford University Network.
The same was done in
collaboration with three
other people including
Scott McNealy, Andy
Bechtolsheim, and Bill
Joy. He was part of the
company for two years from
the foundation and served
as the first chairman and
CEO following which he left
the company to work as a
venture capitalist.
Later in 1986, Khosla joined
the Kleiner Parkins, which
is a venture capital firm, as
a general partner. Following
his joining, he experienced
rapid growths and better
involvements in the coming
days that led him to become
a contributor to some of the
JANUARY 2020 | WWW.WISHESH.NET