#107 - Vinod Khosla and Sam Altman

About this episode

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/vkhosla">Vinod Khosla</a> is the founder of <a href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/">Khosla Ventures</a>, 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.<br><br><a href="https://blog.ycombinator.com/category/how-to-build-the-future/">How to Build the Future</a> is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/sama">Sam Altman</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br></b><br>00:30 - Vinod’s intro<br><br>01:20 - A zero-million-dollar company vs a zero-billion-dollar company<br><br>4:20 - What percentage of investors in Silicon Valley are good long-term company builders?<br><br>4:50 - Who has earned the right to advise an entrepreneur?<br><br>6:50 - Which risk to take when<br><br>7:20 - Helpful board members<br><br>8:15 - Who to trust for what advice<br><br>11:00 - First principles thinking and rate of change<br><br>13:00 - Evaluating a candidate in an interview<br><br>14:15 - How much should a founder have planned and how ambitious should a founder be?<br><br>16:30 - Recruiting great people<br><br>19:00 - Building a phenomenal early team<br><br>20:20 - Being generous with early employee equity<br><br>27:00 - <a href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/gene-pool-engineering-for-entrepreneurs">Gene pool engineering</a><br><br>27:18 - <a href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/the-art-science-and-labor-of-recruiting">The art, science, and labor of recruiting</a><br><br>28:20 - How founders should think about investors<br><br>31:00 - Doers vs pontificators<br><br>32:00 - What does Vinod want to do in the next ten years?<br><br>32:10 - <a href="https://www.khoslaventures.com/reinventing-societal-infrastructure-with-technology">Reinventing Societal Infrastructure with Technology</a><br></p>