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His investment thesis is high-growth startups. Funny enough, that's YC too. What you are leaving out is his thesis assumes overwhelming control. That thesis is
by coleslawfail 13y ago
His investment thesis is high-growth startups. Funny enough, that's YC too. What you are leaving out is his thesis assumes overwhelming control. That thesis is not in a founder's best interests. It's far better to raise less.
Nice dodge though turning hundreds of startups into tens based on no evidence. And in fact, when you look at his non-cleantech portfolio you can see that almost every YC startup would have a place there, especially the biggies and especially when they just need growth equity now.
The problem is Vinod saw the insane terms he could get in cleantech, while pushing founders aside, and so he anchors to those terms for everyone, including other VCs. The proof is in his lack of big wins, not even from his Kleiner days.
- marcamillion 13y agoGiven the hostility and your new account - I am going to assume that you have an axe to grind.
- coleslawfail 13y agoThe hostility comes from the large gap between his public persona and what people actually know. That annoys me, yes. He's not a guy that accomplished people actively seek out. You can judge him solely based on his portfolio. You dont need me for that. And that portfolio is lacking big wins and more importantly, founders who have become really successful.
- marcamillion 13y agoHrmmm.....ok....now you piqued my interest and I decided to check out some of their portfolio companies: http://www.khoslaventures.com/information-technology.html http://www.khoslaventures.com/information-technology.html Xobni, ZocDoc, RockMelt, Bitly, Square, Instacart, FuzeBox, and a few others. Those seem like either big wins already or a high possibility of success.
- coleslawfail 13y agoSome of those have already exited and for barely getting their money back. Square is the outlier. But Dorsey was proven by that point. His success certainly isn't Khosla. Again, don't just look at KV. Khosla has been at this for a long-time starting at Kleiner. Where are all the companies he made? Those aren't that...
- keithrabois 13y agoFeel free to email Jack at Square (Series A), or John Herring at Lookout (Series A), or Hosain at Jawbone (Series A, B) for references on KV. You might also be familiar with Juniper, for example.
- coleslawfail 13y agoIf that's the best you got, you've proved my point. Square I address below. Vinod gave the best valuation exactly because it was Jack. That's hardly founder friendly when you have no choice. Jawbone is another fun data point. Yes, he bailed them out when they were going under. But all that did was give Vinod insane positioning. You care to share how much he owns? It's private equity, not VC. Juniper is a perfect example of Bad Vinod. How long after founding did Pradeep last as CEO? and relative to Kriens, how we'll did he end up? Lookout I don't know enough to comment on, but it looks like they were smart enough to get a second firm in to keep Vinod from his worst tendencies.
- keithrabois 13y agoSquare will be a $10 B+ outcome. Juniper already is. Lookout, Jawbone and ZocDoc (all Series A leads) are $1 Billion companies. Ring Central is on the precipice of its IPO, etc.
- coleslawfail 13y agoNice dodge on the questions. I freely admit he does well BT his LPs. The problem is Bad Vinod has consistently screwed with founders. Good Vinod is likely a product of all of those terrible outcomes.