Vinod Khosla

7: Vinod Khosla

Vinod Khosla At Y Combinator

Third Time Watching: Vinod, Larry, Sergey

I am watching this video for the third time now, the second time today. These just so happen to be three of the most fascinating people in tech.



The Google Guys seem to have some First World Problems. The world is nowhere close to an age of abundance. Maybe by 2050 if we get our act together. But now? No way.

Google failed at health, when it first tried. But I hope it is not done. If it can do to health what it is trying to do to transportation, that would be monumental.

Larry saying something about the government being illogical about spectrum. I feel that way strongly about immigration. And quite a few other things.

If being a CEO is about photogenics, Sergei is better media feed than Larry. There's ethics, there's photogenics. But Larry is awesome. In terms of sheer impact, Steve Jobs has nothing on Larry Page.

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Vinod Khosla, Larry Page, Sergey Brin

Source: Khosla

Two Things I Noted

Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Deutsch: Taj Mahal im indischen Agra. Español: Vista del Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Français : Le Taj Mahal, à Âgrâ, en Inde. Русский: Мавзолей Тадж-Махал, Агра, Индия. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Khosla might be legendary to the world, he is beyond legendary to me.

I watched this video with immense interest: Khosla At Disrupt.

I noted many things, but two things I would like to briefly mention.

One, his mention of the 500 million people in India who have never seen a doctor because they can't afford one. He seems to suggest, there's an app for that. I mean, that is revolutionary.

Two, and this is coming from Arrington. When he said even shorter URLs, he was kidding. But I don't think he needs to be kidding. I think shorter URLs are a good option. Even Bitly URLs are long. Instead of bit.ly why not simply b.l - I mean, that part might already be an easy option.

Off to watch Zuck speak.

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Khosla At Disrupt

Source: TechCrunch

Blogger Khosla

Image via WikipediaVinod Khosla: TechCrunch: The “Unhyped” New Areas in Internet and Mobile

a whole new world of platforms, a post-PC era, which I’d more aptly describe as the always/everywhere era, finally, and that means a whole new set of opportunities ..... the cost of experimentation has gone down dramatically ..... raw computing power is taken for granted. ..... What else new has the potential (nothing is certain!) to be truly disruptive or establish a new category in the domain of consumer Internet/mobile/services (which to me are fast becoming interchangeable)? ...... AirBnB and Instagram would be examples of companies whose categories existed prior to their entry, but they are meaningfully different. ...... I call them the “unhyped dozen” (to go with my energy investing activities, which I call the “clean dozen”) ...... (1) Data Reduction or Filters (Siri) (2) Big data or Analytics ... There will be countless new types of data streams .... Much has been written about big data and it and may be getting past the unhyped label! (3) Emotion (Foodspotting, Ness, Instagram) (4) Education 2.0 (Khan Academy) ... “Education models that dramatically reduce the cost and increase the availability of quality learning.” The puzzling question is why education has not already changed. (5) TV 2.0 (6) Social Next (7) Interest-based networks (Twitter) (8) Health 2.0 (9) Internet of Things/Universal ID/NFC/Smart sensors.... The network of things is supposedly growing faster than any other network, social or otherwise. (10) Personal Collaborative Publishing (Pinterest, Tumblr) ... Self-publishing on Amazon is becoming real, removing the gateway of traditional editors and the tax of traditional business models. Where will this lead? Books, especially non-fiction, can become more interactive, crowdsourced (ck12.org), social and collaborative. (11) Utility Apps (Siri) (12) Marketplaces & Disintermediation (Etsy) .... Why does Tom Freidman need The New York Times to get readers ................. We as investors have seen Square take off at an unprecedented rate (so far) for a payments startup, but in terms of relative scale, even Square is dwarfed by Mpesa — it is 20% of Kenya’s GDP already (using a totally different model than Square). Meanwhile in India, their UID system could remake the concept of “cash”....... Tools and services that used to be inaccessible to all but large manufacturers are now available to everyone. Foreign factories that were impenetrable before are now an email away. Design software costing thousands of dollars per seat is freely available (or very cheap). Hackers are mixing all of these elements together and re-imagining entire industries from the ground up. ..... the next industrial revolution ...... “The under 25” who don’t know what they don’t know, mostly have not worked at what traditionalists would call a “real job” and are not afraid to try new things ..... the rate of change is accelerating and the possibilities are endless!

The Clean Dozen
Artificial Intelligence
Teachers Or Algorithms

Why the Interest Graph Will Reshape Social Networks (and the Next Generation of Internet Business)

Vinod Khosla At MIT
When Vinod Khosla Took A Break From Tweeting
Vinod Khosla's Entry Into New York City
Vinod Khosla: For Profit Poverty Alleviation
Vinod Khosla's Green Tech Sweep
The Microfinance Fishing Net

Vinod Khosla At MIT

When Vinod Khosla Took A Break From Tweeting

I sent out a tweet to Vinod Khosla. Chances are he never saw it. But for a guy who had been tweeting near daily to that point took two weeks off after that. That is not a good sign.

Normal People Easy To Get Along With

Image via Wikipedia

Fred Wilson: Difficult Is Good: He then said, "sometimes we make money with brilliant people who are easy to get along with, most often we make money with brilliant people who are hard to get along with, but we rarely make money with normal people who are easy to get along with."

I am so not a VC. I am on the other side. Fred Wilson's best MBA Monday post - according to me - is one where he got an entrepreneur - Charlie - to relate his story.

This quote from Dan Valentine makes total sense to me. And I understand it 100%.

The best entrepreneurs tackle the biggest problems. Those problems are, by definition, badass. Others have not touched them because they are big and bad. But we operate in paradigms. You already know what a McDonald's burger looks like. That is a paradigm. That gives you peace of mind. You know.

Who Owns The Company?

Image via WikipediaI have been meaning to write this blog post for a while now, months, possibly over a year. Finally I am getting around to it. It has become urgent. I have a pre-launch startup.

For conventional wisdom I am going to refer to this, but later.

Mark Peter Davis: Entrepreneur's Guide To Raising Venture Capital

I do know Mark, but that is not why. And this might or might not be the best guide out there to venture capital. But I expect it to be sufficiently good to provide me with the framework of the venture capital business as it stands today. But I have made a point not to read through his posts. I want to express my thoughts before I get corrupted by conventional wisdom.

So who owns the company? Just like I have a bias for Founder CEOs, I have a bias for startups that will go IPO. And it is those two scenarios that I have in mind. So my thoughts might not resonate with startups with other kinds of exits, which ends up being most startups.

Non Profit Microfinance Vs For Profit Microfinance: The Stupid Debate

Image via WikipediaThere has been a stupid debate going on for a few years now that has taken new life the past few months. There is a school of thought that says microfinance can be non profit and non profit alone.

There has been some serious abuse of microfinance. A lot of MFIs - microfinance institutions - have been messing up the last mile in serious ways. Charging ridiculously high rates is one of them. Some debt collection methods have been shady.

Needed: A Napkin Keyboard

I was just reading this fabulous blog post that I first spotted in Vinod Khosla's Twitter stream.

Matthew Devost: 23 Devices My iPhone Has Replaced

250K Or 500K: How Much To Raise?

Image via WikipediaI am in mind to raise 250K from Union Square Ventures. That would be my first choice. I can guarantee you I can get Fred Wilson to give me 15 minutes of his time any day for me to able to pitch him. That much I know. But the deal is up in the air. I am not going to assume it will happen. That part is not in my control. What is in my control is I am going to leave no stone unturned to get him. My part is in my control.

Serenity Prayer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Another idea that is being floated by some people on my team is that I raise 500K, but without giving equity. It would be like I get 500K, and in my next round - which could happen in as little as six months - I give that money a 600K valuation. I would be very open to that.

The Stink From The New York Times

Image via CrunchBaseNetflix has a market value of $10 billion. The New York Times has a market value of barely one billion dollars. Articles like this one are the reason why. This feels like a hachet job done by a Vinod Khosla enemy.

The title of the article itself is so out of the whack. The microfinance industry in India is nowhere close to collapsing. Not even close. The article itself talks about how 1% of those who borrowed the money might no longer be able to pay. That is not a collapse. That is an excellent default rate. The default rates at big New York City banks that rich people and companies borrow from are much higher. And I am talking pre Great Recession numbers.
Image via CrunchBase
Just like the default rate remains low, yes, there are borrowers who have committed suicide because they could not pay back. But the article makes it sound like the microfinance industry in India has given rise to a country wide epidemic of suicides. People are committing suicide left and right by the roadside. That would be like taking the news of one Congresswoman in Arizona getting shot and making it sound like now there was a raging civil war in America.

Microfinance

No Alzheimer’s For Me
Pinging Hussein Kanji (2)
Pinging Hussein Kanji
Liking Is For Cowards
The Internet And The Emperors
The Music Tag On Tumblr
PayCheckr: Not Dead Yet
Mark Pincus Is Really Something
The Dong Rule
Video Blogging Would Beat Panels And Ignite
Wow Technorati
Southern Hospitality
My 50 Strong Tech Team Ranked 17 Globally On Vworker
Internet Week Fail Whale
Social Concentric Circles
Microfinance: Post Obama Race Talk
Fuck Yeah Africa
My BusiCopy Cofounder Anuj Bikram Thapa
The UN, The US, The Internet
Slow Down The Blogging
The Long March Of Democracy
Born In The USA
Someone From Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Now Followng Me On Tumblr
Live Nation And GroupOn: That Offline Component
Social Media And StartUps: Striking The Right Balance
Mafia Politics In Nepal
Mobile Banking For The Unbanked
Twitter Gangs Of New York (2)
18 Months Ago GroupOn Did Not Exist
Gender And The Wilson Household
Tequila
Patti Smith's Dancing Barefoot: One Powerful Song
Chris Dixon Kind Of Person
Superfluidity
Is Location The Fifth Dimension?
Jazz And Rock Fusion From Nepal
Me In The New York Times
Having Momo: Do Not Disturb
Doing Two Tech Startups
Subscription Business Models For Mindfood
Adaptive Text: The Book Deserves To Come Alive
Apple Does Hardware In Asia
That 10X Return Thing
Jessica Wilson Hearts Mahatma Gandhi
Mike Arrington And I: Close
Teamwork
Swiss Machine
Water Changes Everything
Kristina Hoke
Google Earth Builder
Your Local Library On Kindle
Indian Invasion Comedy
Way To Go Christina
Brooklyn Loves Bollywood
My Non Personhood Of 2009, 2010
SMS Power
Great To Meet Craig Newmark
This Week In Venture Capital: Gotham Gal
The Proverbial White Male
GroupOn's Legacy: Cute Email?
Two Upheavals Already
Having Mango Lassi: Do Not Disturb
Kiva Is In Nepal
Just Became A Cofounder
Tony Tsieh Could Have Been Richard Branson
How Wal-Mart Got Started
A Boulder Invitation From Brad Feld Himself
Played Farmville After Long Months
Getting To Meet Mark Suster In Person
Having Mango Lassi
2,000 Squats
A Social Graph For When Everyone Is Connected
Mike Yavonditte: An Hour Of Video
Technology And Social Justice
Owning Equity, Owning House
Grameen Miracles
Grameen Under Attack At Home
Is Square A Microfinance Company?
To You I Offer Buddhism And Yoga
To Catch A Dollar
Barack's Positivity
Rudiments Of A Corporate Culture
The Arab Revolutions And My Rethinks On Britain And France
Minority Majority Nation?
New York City
Is It A Bubble?
Gender Talk And Pragmatism
Caroline McCarthy On Gender
Autobiography
How To Pitch: The Rachel Sequoia Way
Jagdish Bhagwati: Misplaced Criticism Of Yunus
Multidisciplinary Approaches
Africa's Internet Strides
Alexis Ohanian: Angel Investor
The Institutions Of Globalization Will Be Built On The Internet
My Chrome Notebook Never Arrived
Happy World Water Day
Yunus Should Launch A Political Party
One Step Behind
Me @ CNN
The Two Poles Of My Social Reality
A Little Bit Of Untidyness, A Little Bit Of Randomness, A Little Bit of Chaos
Immigration Limbo
More Sam Walton Than Bill Gates
Rich Kids
Sean Parker, Billionaire, Was Really Poor Once
Blogging Works Wonders: Here's An Example
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A Life Of Poverty
Bundling Investors
Mobile Phone Banking: Major Boon To The Last Mile Of Microfinance
Very Much Would Like To Go Into Bihar
Passion For Microfinance, Passion For Social Media
Walking/Running: Putting One Foot After The Other
Going High Tech: Selfish Reasons
Microfinance Alone Can't Cure Poverty
Focus, Focus, Focus
This Guy Jack Dorsey
The Kiva Story
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn
Me: Author
Carpet Bombing Angels
My Failures
Indian Hurdle
Brooklyn And Santogold/Santigold
Bihar, Darbhanga
Twitter Is Amazing For Networking
In Foley Square A Libya Feeling
Incredible India
A Tweet From Someone Running For Congress
Hackers And Founders MeetUp: Amazing
Not Rich Yet
Like David Noel?
Michael Yavonditte: An Exemplary Entrepreneur/Investor
Just Because My Name Ends With An A
Black Buddhas: The Madhesis Of Nepal: Documentary
Social Media Is For Real
Advantage India, Disadvantage India
Top Discussion At A Top LinkedIn Microfinance Group
Raising Money, Building Teams
Rootlessness And The City
Microfinance: No Substitute For Good Governance
Aggressive Fundraising, Aggressive Recruiting
Microfinance, Not Just Microcredit
Having Kenya And Chinatown Thoughts
Revolutionary Poverty Alleviation
Microfinance: The Basics
When Zuck's Facebook Account Got Hacked
The Google/Facebook Of Microfinance
Leave Yunus Alone
Immigration Mess/Humiliation And Window Shopped Tech Entrepreneurship
Normal People Easy To Get Along With
Validation From Fred Wilson: Froth
Arab Focus, Microfinance Focus
50 Hours Into One Five Minute Pitch
Tweet Pitches To First World Women
2015: A Mobile Tech Company Will Storm The Room
Could You Have Predicted A Google In 1990?
The Entrepreneur Does Have A Boss
Who Owns The Company?
You Have To Be A Little Wild
Mark Zuckerberg Loves Union Square Ventures
Non Profit Microfinance Vs For Profit Microfinance: The Stupid Debate
Three Syllables
10,000 People In 10 Years
Immensely Excited
A Mini Bubble Burst In Three Years
Union Square Ventures: You Love Me, You Love Me Not
A Moment Of Despair
Slumdog Millionaire: A Movie About My People
The Early Stages
Third World Guy
Jack Dorsey Also Has A FinTech StartUp
250K Or 500K: How Much To Raise?
The Stink From The New York Times
My Tech Partners Sunil Madhu, Marty Monaco
Allen Paltrow: A Most Promising Princeton Freshman
So I Had A Shake Shack Burger
The Stink From India
Yunus On Loan Sharks
Nazrul Islam Chunnu: Motherfucker
Not Going Into Any Accelerator Program
My Third World Advantage
Who Hired You?
We Are Not Trying To Solve All The World's Problems
A FinTech StartUp With An Edge
Mock Pitching Brad
The Best Way To Deal With Venture Capitalists
Kiva And My Outfit: Three Major Departure Points
Going For Profit
Catchafire
Intrepid Woman Rachel Cook
Union Square Ventures: A Real Choice
The Gotham Gal
MLK Day Brunch With Jack In Philly
Chris, Come In At 50K
Hola Charlie, A 50K Opportunity
FinTech: I Am Loving The Term
General Assembly: Singing Praises
Fred, How About Some Money?
Microlending Film At Kickstarter
Whining Is Not The Word
Going To Kickstarter For My Microfinance StartUp
Microfinance: Cutting Edge Like Clean Tech, Bio Tech, Nano Tech
Wearing Black
Eric Schmidt's Cloud Computing And My IC Vision
You Don't Need Billions To Take Care Of Your Family
Microfinance: A Zero Trillion Dollar Industry
$160 Smartphone From India: No Contract, No Subsidy
The Day I Got Called Sean Parker
Brazil
Number 52 In New York
Racism Caused Recession
Vinod Khosla's Entry Into New York City
Event At Hunch: Gender Talk (4)
Vinod Khosla: For Profit Poverty Alleviation
Google, Please Don't Be Evil
Leave Costa Rica Alone
The Microfinance Fishing Net
Engineering, Creativity, Sector Reform, Sector Revolution
I Am In Finance, Microfinance
Microfinance: The Next Big Thing?
Blog Carnival: Microfinance
Microfinance, Nanotech, Biotech, Software/Hardware/Connectivity
Seed Money

A FinTech StartUp With An Edge

Image via WikipediaWhat I have is a FinTech startup. It is a tech startup. But it is not a tech startup that is trying to come up with the next big thing in tech. That we will leave to the companies that are first and foremost web tech companies.

But we a-r-e going to stay on a constant lookout for developments in tech to see what new developments we can put to the use of microfinance. So we are going to keep our antenna up. But then that is not true only of web tech. We are also interested in the developments in clean tech, bio tech, nano tech. If there will be developments in those sectors that we can possibly put to the service of our microfinance efforts, we will go in with both hands.

Going For Profit

Yunus is the father of non profit microfinance. When the white people in the Arctic Zone of Scandinavia awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize, he made a little over a million dollars.

Intrepid Woman Rachel Cook

Last night I was at Gizzi's Coffee for a screening of the MicroLending Film by my colleague Rachel Cook. Later we went to a birthday party of a friend to our tech partners Sunil Madhu and Marty Monaco. That was at Draft Bar in Brooklyn. Sunil was at the screening too. He left for the party early.

The Glass Hammer: Intrepid Woman: From Futures Trader to Microfinance Film Maker: I was working as a Futures Trader on the European shift – in the middle of the night, Chicago time – in September 2009 when I first came across an op-ed in The New York Times written by Nick Kristof the month before, “The Women’s Crusade.” I was completely floored by the article – it told the stories of women in the developing world, facing terrifying, seemingly insurmountable odds. And some of these women were able to overcome these odds using a development tool I’d heard little about – microfinance. I was intrigued. Microlending seemed to help women, and it seemed to be a high-return financial investment – both topics of high interest to me...... While maintaining my trading job, the crew and I traveled to South America and filmed in Paraguay in 2010, and we’re only getting started – we’ll continue filming throughout this year...... I love trading. I wasn’t a superstar, but I was profitable over the course of my career when trading a variety of products, including during the financial collapse in 2008. I made more money than I had expected to see at 25 ..... But over the course of my trading career it became increasingly evident that much of the criticism about the trading world was all too true – particularly in its attitude toward women. ...... During my tenure at this first shop, the 2008 presidential elections were happening, and I’d hear these macho frat guy-types yelling at the TV, telling Palin to “go back in the kitchen” after Senator McCain first announced her as his VP pick. ...... we’re planning to shoot in Bangladesh and India in late February, and will also film in Kenya and in New York, in the interest of making this a truly comprehensive project about microfinance and how it impacts women

Rachel's Microlending Film was the best of the three movies shown for the evening. The other clips had too much forced violence. It was like, okay, time to end the 15 minute movie, let's kill a character.