Vinod Khosla Interview - Part 1
Link: Hi I am Link the valley girl, I live in Silicon Valley, the heart of innovative technology. I know where all these awesome companies are but how the heck did they get here? That is what I am here to find out. I am Link the valley girl, what do you do?
Oh hi! I am Link the valley girl. You are probably wondering what I am doing. I am trying to wind power my phone because everyone seems to be starting these green companies. I do not think it is working though.
Our next guest will have some good ideas about this. He is known as the king of green. Please welcome mister Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures.
Hi Vinod how are you doing?
Vinod Khosla: Hi valley girl.
Link: Have a seat in my pink chair. Can I pour you a little—drink?
Vinod Khosla: Oh thank you.
Link: How is your day? It is pretty early.
Vinod Khosla: It is too early.
Link: Yeah it is, it is very early but you know I feel like the pink kind of wakes you up, the pink room, you know?
Vinod Khosla: It definitely does.
Link: It wakes you up and cheers you up, it is just you know very sunny.
Vinod Khosla: I like it.
Link: It is very sunny and you know all about sunny because you co-founded Sun Microsystems when you co-founded Sun, did you have any idea how big it was going to be?
Vinod Khosla: We had great ambitions, maybe naïve but great ambitions.
Link: And how did that come about? Whose idea was it; did you all kind of collaborate?
Vinod Khosla: Well, I came up with the idea from else I was doing before then.
Link: Oh okay what was?
Vinod Khosla: Something very flowery called Daisy system.
Link: Oh yes. So you daisies and suns.
Vinod Khosla: And greens and I like the color.
Link: So why did you not call it noon?
Vinod Khosla: Oh we actually considered it. We were joking about calling it noon.
Link: Uh huh?
Vinod Khosla: Sun we use for Stanford, Stanford University Network and we love Stanford.
Link: Oh okay, okay.
Vinod Khosla: And that is where the name came from.
Link: Now tell me what is Clean Tech?
Vinod Khosla: Clean Tech to me is the same as regular tech, it is just a narrow slice of our main lifestyles that use a lot less of everything; that is a lot less energy, a lot less materials, a lot more sustainable. But in the end, I actually do not like Clean Tech because it is a little bigger of the overall picture. I like to say Main Tech is more impressing than Clean Tech.
Link: Oh, interesting.
Vinod Khosla: It is like everything we do.
Link: Everything, more instead of less. Now where do you think Clean Tech or Green Tech or where do you think Tech is headed in the next ten years?
Vinod Khosla: Not only a few hundred million people out of six billion people on this planet have been enjoying a good lifestyle, the air conditioning, cars, that kind of thing. Now we need to have enough for nine billion people which we will have in a few decades on this planet, they will all want the same lifestyle. So we need a lot more not a lot less of energy and if we are going to have a lot more, it better comes from sources that are renewable and the only thing that can make that possible, the only thing is technology. I am an optimist, I am a technology optimist.
Link: Me too.
Vinod Khosla: Yeah.
Link: I am totally an optimist.
Vinod Khosla: I cannot like thinking not being optimist.
Link: Yeah.
Vinod Khosla: You have to have a good outlook on life.
Link: Exactly.
Vinod Khosla: Otherwise you would be the brown valley girl.
Link: Exactly.
Let us talk about cars, what do you think is better, auto electric or a hybrid?
Vinod Khosla: Well, so you have to be realistic, all electric cars will mostly be powered with what? What do you think? Where does the electricity come from?
Link: The copper outlet.
Vinod Khosla: Yes. And what is behind that? A big coal power plant, you have to be realistic and look all the way and so I am interested in things that can get away from dirty sources.
Link: From dirty sources.
Vinod Khosla: Now you could generate the electricity with solar or wind.
Link: Okay.
Vinod Khosla: And then you would have clean electricity.
Link: I was trying to wind power my phone, do you think we will eventually have wind powered phone?
Vinod Khosla: Well you did not blow hard enough. Still don’t work? Okay.
Link: So did you want to invest?
Vinod Khosla: After you make it work.
Link: After I make it work. No you do not want to invest in product that does not work.
When you invest in you know these companies, do you go with your gut?
Vinod Khosla: First we screw up all the time.
Link: Yeah me too.
Vinod Khosla: So you know? I am not afraid to screw up. We know we need to succeed once in a while.
Link: Yeah.
Vinod Khosla: The only time you need certainty is when you are jumping out of a plane and you need a parachute to open that is when you want it to work all the time.
Link: Yeah, that is true. I would want my parachute to open.
Vinod Khosla: Yeah, but most of the work we did. We do not mind failing.
Link: Okay.
Vinod Khosla: Our principle is: It is okay to fail. But if you do succeed it, better be worth succeeding so create something important.
Link: You know I am so impressed with how green you are. I just thought for the day it would be kind of fun to be as green as you. So you know I was hoping maybe you could paint me.
Vinod Khosla: Okay. I will paint you green. Oh, that is fun. Okay.
Link: I am so excited to be as green as Vinod.
Vinod Khosla: Okay, where do we start?
Link: Just start painting. I am so excited to be in new color for a day. I think it is time for a break. We will be right back and I will be greener than ever.
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