Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers

Khosla Venture's Samir Kaul on building an iconic, durable firm, and the role of non-consensus decision making

Feb 16, 2024

Samir Kaul from Khosla Ventures discusses investing across cycles, market insanity pre-2022, and building a firm. They talk about their focus on technology-heavy investments, capital abundance, the potential of the AI super cycle, and non-consensus decision making in venture capital. They reflect on their quarter-century career and share advice on focusing on high-growth companies.

42:08

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Samir Kaul

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Quick takeaways

Khosla Ventures prioritizes the evaluation of technical risk and believes it is a sustainable long-term advantage in the market.

Khosla Ventures values tough feedback and brutal honesty in order to help founders build lasting and successful companies.

Deep dives

Investing in Technology-Heavy Firms

CoSla Ventures focuses on building a firm that is technology-heavy, prioritizing the evaluation and assessment of technical risk. They believe that this technical advantage is a sustainable long-term advantage in the ever-changing market. The firm surrounds themselves with investment professionals who have a real curiosity for technology and are not afraid to put their own money at risk. CoSla Ventures aims to provide industry-leading returns while focusing on investing in companies that are mission-positive and have a societal impact.

Investing and Partner Recruitment Insights

01:25

Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs in Deep Tech Investments

01:04

Navigating Financial Crises in Venture Capital

01:47

Introduction

2min

Background and Transition to KV

14min

The Impact of Capital Abundance, Insulated Areas, and the Potential of AI Super Cycle

5min

Investing in the Future: Timing, Technology, and Total Addressable Markets

8min

Non-Consensus Decision Making in Venture Capital

10min

Reflections on a Quarter-Century in Venture Capital and the Power Law of Investing

3min

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

We have a conversation with Samir Kaul from Khosla Ventures.

Founded in 2004, Khosla is one of the largest and most well-known venture capital firms in the world and led by legendary investor and entrepreneur Vinod Khosla. The firm is known for investing in companies that are solving very large and complex problems. The firm currently has over $15B in AUM investing in companies such as Square, Doordash, Stripe, OpenAI, and Impossible Foods.

During the episode, we covered investing across cycles, the market insanity we saw pre-2022, and how they approach both building a firm and investing.

Note: We recorded this prior to the news that Keith Rabois was rejoining the firm, hence no mention of it during the discussion.

About Samir Kaul:Samir Kaul is a Founding Partner and Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, and he specializes in investments across health, sustainability, food, and advanced technology sectors. His notable investments leading to successful exits through IPOs or acquisitions include companies like Vicarious Surgical, View, Guardant Health, Nutanix, Oscar, Quantumscape, Granular, SLD, NanoH2O, Iora Health, and Raxium. Additionally, he has played a pivotal role in investments in transformative startups such as Impossible Foods, Mojo Vision, Primer, and many others, demonstrating a keen eye for identifying and nurturing groundbreaking technologies and business models.

Before joining Khosla Ventures, Samir's career was marked by significant achievements in biotechnology and venture capital at Flagship Ventures and the Institute for Genomic Research, where he contributed to pioneering efforts in genomics and biotech startups like Helicos BioSciences and Codon Devices. His work in sequencing the Arabidopsis genome set new standards for efficiency and impact in the field of genomics. Beyond his professional endeavors, Samir is deeply committed to philanthropy, serving on the boards of the Tipping Point Community, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, and the US Ski and Snowboard Association, showcasing his dedication to societal betterment and healthcare.

In this episode, we discuss:

(01:45) Samir’s career path to venture

(05:15) Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

(06:04) Building Long-term Companies

(08:49) Venture Capital's Role Beyond Funding

(12:13) Evolution of Venture Capital

(16:15) AI and Tech Super Cycles

(22:24) Learning from Past Mistakes

(28:03) Investing in High Conviction Trends

(32:33) Firm Culture and Decision Making

(37:17) Hiring and Building a VC Team

(39:12) Advice to Younger Self

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Samir. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

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