What drives Vinod Khosla?

Almost free primary healthcare for everyone. Near free personal tuition for every child. Rewarding jobs and an end to drudgery. Personalised entertainment on demand. The climate crisis solved.

These are among the most eye-catching of Vinod Khosla's "12 Predictions for the Future of Technology", which he described in a TED talk. And if his claim that "a few entrepreneurs, aided by policy, can make this happen" sounds hubristic, consider this.

Worth an estimated USD 7.2 billion, Khosla is one of the most successful investors in the world, as well as one of the most influential. His ability to identify disruptive technologies with high earnings potential - the core skill of a venture capitalist - has awarded him iconic status in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Personable, articulate, and media savvy, Khosla also has form politically. He's an outspoken supporter of the Democrats, and regularly hosts party fundraisers. Now 69, he has said that he wants to dedicate the rest of his life to "reinventing societal infrastructure". 

Conviction indeed. But where did it all begin?

A budding entrepreneur with big ideas

Khosla's father was an officer in the Indian army and wanted his son, born in Puna, Maharashtra, in January 1955, to follow in his footsteps. But the budding entrepreneur had other plans and big ideas, even as a teenager.

Inspired by the story of Intel and its Hungarian immigrant founder, Leslie Vadász, Khosla studied electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, where he showed an early interest in emerging technologies.

In 1975, after trying - and failing - to start a soymilk company intended to provide a milk alternative for the millions of Indians without refrigerators, Khosla left India for the US to pursue his start-up dreams.

He took an MA in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied on a full scholarship, and moved to Silicon Valley. In 1980, having worked two full-time jobs to fulfil the university's work experience requirements, he received an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

A series of remarkably successful business ventures followed, which helped to establish Khosla's reputation as a visionary entrepreneur.

First, he co-founded Daisy Systems, which claimed to be the first significant computer-aided design system for electrical engineers. Then in 1982, together with other Stanford graduates, he co-founded Sun Microsystems, inventor of the Java computer programming language.

Within five years, Sun was making USD 1 billion in annual sales. As Sun CEO, moreover, Khosla was responsible for several hires who went on to become tech legends, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Carol Bartz, former president and CEO of Yahoo.

Sun was the making of Khosla as a venture capitalist. Seed money for its founding had come from his friend and fellow board member John Doerr of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB). In 1986, Khosla joined KPCB as a general partner, responsible for investments in then-emerging technologies like video games and semiconductors.

Powers of prediction - and persuasion

Khosla's powers of prediction, and persuasion, proved extremely lucrative for KPCB, earning it billions.

Founding his own venture capital firm was a logical next step and in 2004, driven, according to his website, "by the need for flexibility to accommodate four growing children, the desire to be more experimental and to fund sometimes imprudent 'science experiments'", Khosla formed Khosla Ventures.

Experimental technologies with social impact

Khosla Ventures' "experiments" have included large-scale, early investments in alternative energy technologies such as solar, biofuel, and batteries, as well as the characteristically far-sighted incubation of food-delivery platforms. And if some of these investments have taken time to pay off - according to Business Insider, it took ten years to return "more than a billion dollars" to the firm - Khosla's enthusiasm for experimental technologies with "social impact" remains undimmed.

He believes passionately in solving society's challenges by using capitalism's ability to scale. He's also convinced that "the more you use AI systems, the better they get." He acknowledges that AI and machine learning will replace many jobs and widen income disparities. But he also insists that they will generate enough GDP to provide everyone with a basic income, and deliver the benefits cited in his influential TED talk earlier this year.

What's more, Khosla has leveraged his own successful experience in the sector to redefine what venture capitalism actually is, or should be.

"A surprising proportion of venture capitalists, especially those from the more financially oriented firms, do more harm to start-ups than good," he claims. Why? Because "many find themselves on company boards without ever having built a company themselves, or seeing one from the inside."

Having personally completed what he calls "the very lonely entrepreneurial journey," Khosla is now committed to helping start-ups build "companies that truly impact the world". At Khosla Ventures, he says, "we believe that our role is to add value to our portfolio companies, not just to provide them with capital. That is why we call ourselves a Venture Assistance firm, and why we work so hard to live up to the expectations that that title sets."