Starting Up in High Gear: An Interview with Venture Capitalist Vinod Khosla

The current high level of venture capital investment is driving enormous innovation in business. About 40% of the growth in the U.S. GDP is coming out of the tech sector, and most of that can be traced to the vibrancy of entrepreneurial initiatives, according to accomplished entrepreneur and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. But in a wide-ranging interview, Khosla says greed is at a high level, too, and he's concerned about its effect on entrepreneurs and their infant businesses. Today, an entrepreneur with a plan for a new business can get funded within a week. But the entrepreneur doesn't get an honest, painstaking critique. The weaknesses of the plan are often ignored. The result is that great ideas don't reach their full potential. Khosla touches on the qualities required of today's entrepreneurs and the difficulties that established companies face in adapting to the Internet. He also offers some of his secrets for finding and exploiting the biggest new technologies.