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Lifetime Achievement in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Award for 2009

2009 Recipient:
Vinod Khosla

On Wednesday, September 9th, the Lester Center proudly bestowed our 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship and Innovation to visionary Vinod Khosla, Founder and Principal of Khosla Ventures.

As part of the event, the Dean's Speaker Series hosted a lecture by Vinod Khosla on "The Innovation Ecosystem and Its Role in Shaping Our Renewable Future". View the lecture on YouTube.

"We could not have chosen a better candidate for this year's award than Vinod Khosla, who has certainly taught and led others by example" said Haas School of Business Dean Richard Lyons. During a private reception at the Haas School of Business, Khosla repeatedly touched on the theme of teaching, and being taught, by the entrepreneurs with whom he has the pleasure of working and investing in. He views his current role as a venture "assistant" or coach, not a venture capitalist. For Khosla, the ideas and the team far outweigh the funding and that's where he focuses his energy.

The evening also included a presentation to the larger Haas community- students, faculty and staff entitled "The Innovation Ecosystem and Its Role in Shaping Our Renewable Future." His talk focused on the importance of challenging conventional "wisdom," noting that predictions, especially by experts, were of limited value, and that entrepreneurs had to be alert for opportunities, to think deeply and independently, and not to be dissuaded by conventional expectations. A video of the presentation will be posted on this page next week.

More about the Lifetime Achievement Award and Vinod Khosla

Introduction of Vinod Khosla by Jerry Engel, Faculty Director of the Lester Center

Click here for a bio of Vinod Khosla. Click here for more about Khosla Ventures.

Scenes from the Event:


Dean Lyons addresses the crowd	Khosla with Laura Tyson and Richard Blum	Vinod Khosla and David Charron

Khosla with Keval Desai and Bill Campbell	Dean Lyons and John Doerr	Vinod Khosla and family

More about the Lifetime Achievement Award and Vinod Khosla

The Annual Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who exemplifies one of the best attributes of entrepreneurship- the pursuit of excellence and the support of others in their success.

Here at the Lester Center and the Haas School of Business we care not just about succeeding, but the way in which one becomes successful. We care not just about the return on investment but the return to the larger society. We believe entrepreneurship can be, and often is, a vehicle for positive change, for creating value for all stakeholders, direct and indirect, which in turn creates value for society as a whole. It is in this spirit that the Lester Center has chosen Vinod Khosla for this honor.

Vinod's greatest passion is being a mentor to entrepreneurs, assisting entrepreneurs and helping them build technology based businesses. Vinod assists or serves on the boards of a number of the companies including EASIC (programmable ASIC platform), Infinera (optical communications), Kovio (printed electronics), Skyblue (internet PC), Spatial Photonics (Micromirror displays), Xsigo (datacenter switch), among others.

Like previous Lifetime Achievement honorees including such notables as Gordon Moore, Arthur Rock and Dick Kramlich, Vinod Khosla’s accomplishments as an entrepreneur, investor and visionary “set a model of entrepreneurship and personal values that is exemplary and will inspire future generations,” reflects Jerry Engel, the Lester Center’s Executive Director. He goes on to say “As a pioneering entrepreneur and investor in computers, semiconductors, telecommunications and now green-tech and ecological investing, Khosla’s accomplishments shine as beacons of innovation and social conscience.”

Past Winners of the Award

The award was inaugurated in 1998. [award home page]

Honorees include:

2008 Recipients: John Freeman and Jeffry Timmons
2007 Recipient: L. John Doerr
2006 Recipient: F. Warren Hellman
2005 Recipient: C. Richard Kramlich
2004 Recipient: Sanford R. Robertson
2003 Recipient: Dr. Ralph Landau
2002 Recipient: Dr. Edward Penhoet
2001 Recipient: Mr. William Hambrecht
2000 Recipient: Dr. Gordon Moore
1999 Recipient: Mr. Arthur Rock
1998 Recipient: Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni

Through the Lifetime Achievement Award, we seek to identify exemplars of entrepreneurship whose success can teach future generations by the example they set. Further, it allows us to bring outstanding practitioners to the Berkeley campus, creating opportunities for exchanges of ideas with faculty and students. We believe that by enhancing the interaction among academics, entrepreneurs, scientists and faculty, pragmatists and idealists, we help foster entrepreneurial success for individuals and the community as a whole.

The Lester Center has identified three distinct components shared by successful entrepreneurs. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the presence of these elements in the people who are thus honored. First, the award recognizes entrepreneurial excellence. This is reflected in the individual’s success in multiple business arenas and the significant impact of that success on a given industry.

Second, the award acknowledges the individual’s leadership in both business and community. As a leader, the award recipient models behavior that young entrepreneurs can emulate.

The third component of the award recognizes the efforts by which the entrepreneur returns value to his/her community. The award recipient’s contributions may be to the preservation of the environment, improvement of educational opportunity, or some other substantial contribution to the well-being of the community.

Introduction of Vinod Khosla
by Jerry Engel, Faculty Director of the Lester Center

Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Thank for joining us on this wonderful and important evening. It is my honor to address you and present the Lester Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award to our honoree, Vinod Khosla.

Let’s set the context for this evening by asking three questions:

Why Celebrate Entrepreneurial Accomplishment?
Why with Awards?
Why Vinod Khosla?

Entrepreneurship – Why Celebrate it?

As we embark on the challenges of the 21st century, entrepreneurship has been broadly recognized as an important mechanism for creating value and, if done well, it has the capacity for improving the human condition. Enabling and harnessing the natural human desire and compulsion to pursue opportunity is the heart of the American experiment, a theme that has found global acceptance. So in this context it can be understood that Entrepreneurship is more than a business process, but indeed a value system and a tool for social change and human betterment.

Why Awards?

When I came to UC Berkeley almost 20 years ago, the question I was most frequently asked was “Can Entrepreneurship be taught?” Implied in this question was the belief that some people were just born entrepreneurs, and that was pretty much the end of it. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Vinod Khosla – these are BORN entrepreneurs. And if that is true – that it is all about personal attributes – what role does a business school have in trying to TEACH entrepreneurship?

Now some 20 years on we have answered that question. We have come to a more sophisticated understanding – that Entrepreneurship, is a PROCESS; a sophisticated process of identifying and pursuing opportunities without being constrained by the resources under your control- that the entrepreneur’s unique challenge is the simultaneous creation of opportunity, reduction of risk, creation of the perception of increasing value and using that dynamic to recruit, secure and manage the resources needed to take the next step. And as it is a process, a process that can be studied, it is also a process that can be taught.

But how? We teach entrepreneurship the way we teach many other integrated management processes – by case study, searching for generalizable frameworks, and by example.
And that brings us to tonight’s moment. It is about teaching. Teaching by example. Holding up to the light of public acclaim those whom we believe exemplify the best in professional and personal accomplishment.

So if you are going to teach by example, it is important to select your exemplars carefully.

Why Vinod Khosla?

The Lester Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes outstanding Bay Area individuals who have encouraged innovation, helped create successful entrepreneurial ventures and through their success, example and mentorship fostered the success of others. Those honored to date beginning with our first award in 1998 include:

Alejandro Zaffaroni, 1998
Arthur Rock, 1999
Gordon E. Moore, 2000
William R. Hambrecht, 2001
Edward E. Penhoet, 2002
Ralph Landau, 2003
Sanford R. Robertson, 2004
C. Richard Kramlich, 2005
F. Warren Hellman, 2006
L. John Doerr, 2007
Prof. Jeff Timmons, 2008
Prof. John Freeman, 2008

Attending this evening is John Doerr. John, would you – on behalf of your fellow honorees - step forward and be recognized.

Our Honoree - Vinod Khosla

The Beginning:

Joining their distinguished ranks this evening is our honoree – Vinod Khosla.
Vinod Khosla was born on January 28, 1955 in Pune, India, the son of an army officer. His father valued job security and encouraged Vinod to enlist in the army. But as Vinod said, “I’ve always been the opposite of job security.” In fact, at age 14 when Vinod read in a back issue of Electronic Engineering Times about Gordon Moore [our 2000 Lifetime Achievement Honoree] and the other founders of Intel, he was inspired by their example – an example he would follow.

College Years:
Fast forward a few short years, Vinod was admitted to the very competitive Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi, graduating at age 20 with a degree in electrical engineering. During college, he exhibited his start-up instincts, convincing IIT to offer its first computer programming class, its first computer club, and its first biomedical engineering class.
After receiving his bachelors from ITT, Vinod won a scholarship to Carnegie Mellon University where he received his Masters in Biomedical Science.
His ultimate target, though, was Silicon Valley. Stanford Business School rejected Vinod’s application, saying that he lacked the necessary work experience. Vinod is not one to take “no” for an answer and was eventually admitted to Stanford where he received his MBA in 1980.

Daisy Systems Was Born:
Following graduation, Vinod applied to 400 small companies. He chose small, new companies so he could work in an entrepreneurial environment and learn how to start his own company. But none offered him a job.

Then by chance, a fellow student referred Vinod to his father, a venture capitalist looking to do a start-up. Vinod then wrote a business plan and Daisy Systems was born, providing the first significant computer-aided design software for electrical engineers.

And Then Came Sun…
Less than two years later, Vinod co-founded a little company with two Stanford classmates and Cal Bear Bill Joy, called Sun Microsystems. Sun changed the face of the then emerging workstation market with its revolutionary hardware and software technology. It was there that Vinod pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors. Sun got its funding from two men who would become key in Vinod’s life, Bob Sackman of US Venture Partners and John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins.

Entering the VC World:
At the tender age of 30, with two big successes under his belt, Vinod could have retired, but in 1986, John Doerr convinced him to join Kleiner Perkins.

It started as a part-time job, but soon he became a general partner and Forbes was calling him a “superstar VC.” But to this day, Vinod does not call himself a “venture capitalist.” He refers to himself, instead, as a venture “assistant” or coach. At Kleiner, Vinod often put less than $1 million into a venture, believing that it’s the ideas and team that matter more than the money.

Vinod was among the first to recognize that internet technology and fiber optics would unleash an explosion of productivity by making communications fast, cheap and easy. His half dozen best deals turned $50 million of his firm’s investments into $15 billion.

Family Always Comes First…
For Vinod, family always comes first. Joining Vinod this evening are his partner and wife Neeru, along with two of their three daughters Nina and Anu. Neeru is the co-founder and Chairperson of the CK-12 Foundation. Started in 2006, CK-12 works to make textbooks available worldwide to K-12 students.

Despite an incredibly hectic schedule, Vinod has said that his “family is my principal job and work is my principal hobby.”

Venturing on his own…
In 2004, Vinod left Kleiner and started Khosla Ventures to pursue what he calls “crazy science experiments” – ideas too imprudent for the traditional venture capital investor.

Looking at their website, you can see what’s important to them, reflecting Vinod’s personal approach to investing.

FROM THE KHOSLA VENTURES WEBSITE:

Khosla Ventures offers venture assistance, strategic advice and capital to entrepreneurs.

The firm helps entrepreneurs extend the potential of their ideas in breakthrough scientific work in clean technology.

They also help in traditional venture areas such as the Internet, computing, mobile and silicon technology.

His trailblazing pre-eminence as a green technology investor has recently been recognized by the truest test – the test of the marketplace – with his astounding success announced last week, raising over $1 billion for his new fund.

Going Green before it was the “in” thing…
Vinod’s focus on green technology dates back to 2001. He has personally invested in some 45 companies pursuing solutions ranging from ethanol made from wood chips to solar thermal plants and cement, whose manufacture absorbs rather than spews carbon dioxide.

Politics and Public Policy:
In 2006 Vinod got involved in politics and public policy when he funded California’s Proposition 87, known as the Clean Energy Initiative, which failed to pass. Prop 87 was a solar energy initiative which taxed oil drilling and used the revenue for alternative energy projects.

Philanthropic Interests:
Vinod’s entrepreneurial interests extend to the social sphere as well – with a special emphasis on microfinance as a way to alleviate poverty. He is a supporter of many microfinance organizations in India and Africa. He also is passionate about alternative energy, petroleum independence, and the environment.

A global citizen, Vinod and his wife often celebrate their Indian heritage by participating in South Asian groups. For example, Vinod is a Trustee of the American India Foundation, a founding board member of the Indian School of Business and a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). His wife, Neeru, is on the Advisory Board of the American India Foundation, which is a leading development organization working toward “accelerating social and economic change in India.”

Clearly Vinod Khosla exemplifies a zest for life with purpose. With these insights into his accomplishments, his goals and his values, it is clear that Vinod Khosla sets an example that will shine brightly for generations of aspiring entrepreneurs. I would like to invite Dean Richard Lyons and David Charron, Executive Director of the Lester, to the podium to present the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

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