Religion asks you to believe things without questioning, and technology and science always encourage you to ask hard questions and why it is important in science and technology. So I was always interested in science and technology.
Vinod KhoslaIs it 10 years, 20, 50 before we reach that tipping point where climate change becomes irreversible? Nobody can know. There's clearly a probability distribution. We need to ensure this planet, and we need to do it quickly.
Vinod KhoslaNow it will take a long time to scale biofuels, but I'm the only one in the world forecasting oil dropping in price to $35 a barrel by 2030. I'll put it on the record: Oil will not be able to compete with cellulosic biofuels. If you do it from food, the food will get so expensive you can't make fuel out of it.
Vinod KhoslaIn the next 10 years, data science and software will do more for medicine than all of the biological sciences together.
Vinod KhoslaI generally disagree with most of the very high margin opportunities. Why? Because it's a business strategy tradeoff: the lower the margin you take, the faster you grow.
Vinod KhoslaCommunication always changes society, and society was always organized around communication channels. Two hundred years ago it was mostly rivers. It was sea-lanes and mountain passes. The Internet is another form of communication and commerce. And society organizes around the channels.
Vinod KhoslaThe world is hung up on food-based biofuels. Not only are they the wrong thing, they're the uneconomic thing.
Vinod KhoslaThe right way to build a company is to experiment in lots of small ways, so that you have plenty of room to make mistakes and change strategies.
Vinod KhoslaWill biofuel usage require land? Absolutely, but we think the ability to use winter cover crops, degraded land, as well as using sources such as organic waste, sewage, and forest waste means that actual land usage will be limited. Just these sources can replace most of our imported oil by 2030 without touching new land.
Vinod KhoslaSpreadsheets are fiction. Believing in what you're doing and what you're building is what's important.
Vinod KhoslaI believe cellulosic fuels, biofuels made from nonfood crops are the only solution that will make a difference.
Vinod KhoslaOil replacements and then efficiencies in engines and housing and the way we build houses is a very interesting market.
Vinod KhoslaEverybody else is afraid to fail. I do not really care because when I fail, I try something new.
Vinod KhoslaThe first rule of venture capitalism is hands-on experience. You have to get your hands dirty.
Vinod KhoslaIn my view, it’s irreverence, foolish confidence and naivety combined with persistence, open mindedness and a continual ability to learn that created Facebook, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft, Apple, Juniper, AOL, Sun Microsystems and others.
Vinod KhoslaI've probably failed more often than anybody else in Silicon Valley. Those don't matter. I don't remember the failures. You remember the big successes.
Vinod KhoslaFor electric power generation, we are very optimistic about solar-thermal technology, and we’re intrigued by the potential of enhanced geothermal energy to replace coal-based power generation. Traditional carbon capture and sequestration-based coal power generation is somewhat unlikely to be competitive.
Vinod KhoslaThe U.S. has fallen well behind Europe in recognizing climate change and the implications of climate change.
Vinod KhoslaThe state of healthcare today is that we are busy in the practice of medicine vs. being in the science of medicine.
Vinod KhoslaI'm not a political person. I'm a techie nerd, and I enjoy the techie part. I mean, all my life, I've loved great technology.
Vinod KhoslaSeeking an acquisition from the start is more than just bad advice for an entrepreneur. For the entrepreneur it leads to short term tactical decisions rather than company-building decisions and in my view often reduces the probability of success.
Vinod KhoslaI'm a fiscal hawk. I vote against all taxes, but I do believe the environment, and climate change, is a bigger issue than fiscal deficits are as a risk to the nation.
Vinod KhoslaYour cellphone has 10 sensors, and your car has 400. But your body has none - that's going to change.
Vinod KhoslaEntrepreneurs have the flexibility and the ability to do things that large companies simply cannot. Could a large company pull off a trick like Amyris, going from anti-malaria medicine to next-generation fuel?
Vinod KhoslaThere are parts of the country in America, in the Midwest, where wind is a big resource, and we should absolutely use it. But to try and apply it nationally doesn't make sense. There are technologies that will work that are appropriate to certain regions.
Vinod KhoslaImagine the world of mobile based on Nokia and Motorola if Apple had not been restarted by a missionary entrepreneur named Steve Jobs who cared more for his vision than being tactical and financial.
Vinod KhoslaStartups allow technologists and scientists to take risks and change plans in a way that would be frowned upon in a big company. Having said that, big companies will play a key role in certain areas and in partnerships with little companies. Each has its strengths.
Vinod KhoslaIt doesn't matter what your probability of failure is. If there's a 90% chance of failure, there's a 10% chance of changing the world.
Vinod KhoslaThere's no doubt in my mind over the next 25 years how we drive, how we build our houses, how we fly, how we build our buildings, will all change.
Vinod KhoslaWe don't need a fuel that's cleaner, we need a fuel that happens to be cleaner, but is half the price of oil.
Vinod KhoslaIf I collected all the diamonds in the world, I'd have no 'income' but I'd have a lot of 'assets'. Would my company be worth nothing because I have no income? A lot of Net companies are collecting assets. They have to be measured with a new set of metrics.
Vinod KhoslaSetting an aggressive enough carbon-reduction goal will result in an appropriate price for carbon and will help many a renewable technology. Consumer education will help. Most importantly, though, will be the continually declining cost trajectory of the real breakthrough in clean-technology costs driven by research and innovation. In the end, private capital is the real barometer of change.
Vinod KhoslaCertain food-based biofuels like biodiesel have always been a bad idea. Others like corn ethanol have served a useful purpose and essentially are obsoleting themselves.
Vinod KhoslaAs for companies invested in the space - I think its important to distinguish between a good investment and a material climate change technology - you can have the first without the second, even in the "clean tech" space.
Vinod KhoslaThe only way you multiply resources is with technology. To really affect poverty, energy, health, education, or anything else - there is no other way.
Vinod KhoslaLetting the perfect be the enemy of the good is one of the reasons we have a coal-dependent infrastructure, with the resulting environmental impact that all of us can see. I suspect environmentalists, through their opposition of nuclear power, have caused more coal plants to be built than anybody. And those coal plants have emitted more radioactive material from the coal than any nuclear accident would have.
Vinod Khosla