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I don’t mind the low probability of success, but it better be impactful if we do succeed.

Vinod Khosla

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Vinod Khosla
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: January 28
Businessman
Businessperson
National Capital Region of Delhi
Probability
Lows
Succeed
Success
Better
Mind

More quotes by Vinod Khosla

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Future is not extrapolation of past
Vinod Khosla
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Electric cars are coal-powered cars. Their carbon emissions can be worse than gasoline-powered cars.
Vinod Khosla
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Climate deniers are clearly the fringe group and need to see a proctologist to find their heads.
Vinod Khosla
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For 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 Khosla
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We humans think linearly but tech trends are exponential.
Vinod Khosla
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Seeking 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 Khosla
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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 Khosla
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Any problem is an opportunity. The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity.
Vinod Khosla
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Startups 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 Khosla
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Will 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 Khosla
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Now 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 Khosla
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It 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 Khosla
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One of the best things data can enable us to do is to ask questions we didn't know to ask.
Vinod Khosla
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The world is hung up on food-based biofuels. Not only are they the wrong thing, they're the uneconomic thing.
Vinod Khosla
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Oil replacements and then efficiencies in engines and housing and the way we build houses is a very interesting market.
Vinod Khosla
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If everyone played it safe, we wouldn't get anywhere.
Vinod Khosla
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I don’t mind failing, but if I succeed it better be worth succeeding for.
Vinod Khosla
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There'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 Khosla
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Is 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 Khosla
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I 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 Khosla