Khosla Ventures

By Vinod Khosla at KV CEO Summit 

 From Amit Soman, President

"EcoMotors came into existence with KV [and] the firm’s belief that dramatic fuel efficiency improvements are required."

 From Kevin Nazemi, Co-Founder

“Solving the delivery of high quality healthcare at low cost will make or break the long-term economy of the U.S.”

Congratulations, you are now an executive at a venture-backed company! You survived the presentations, the term sheet shuffle and the due-diligence. But now you have to recruit a team. How do you evaluate a candidate, especially for a management role that you do not have great familiarity with?

The right advisor asks the questions you never knew were important. Instead of focusing on regular board “governance,” we ask CEOs to focus on the most critical and pivotal risks, questions and opportunities facing the company.

The main thing you’re trying to do in startups is optimize risk management. The real test of a company is the tradeoffs you make and how much courage and conviction you have to pursue the billion dollar vision while doing the million dollar tactics. Be obstinate about your vision, but be flexible about your tactics.

Knowing whose advice to take and on what topic is the single most important decision an entrepreneur can make.