Quotes by Vinod Khosla. Helping Startup to find their Way.

Venture Capital terms is not a new terminology, it is old and effective.  VC provides their investee a big runway from where they take a flight to a height from where they can see the whole world, then only they can see the best place which somewhere will be a fertile land for startups to grow their business. 

They provide funds to burn the worries in the early days of operations and teach us how to focus on our aim. I am lucky that I could get some inherent sense of business from well known billionaire Mr Vinod Khosla.  Yesterday one of my friend Gaurrang Govind send me a link which was the artistic quotes by Mr Khosla. These 12 golden lines gave me a ground to think like an entrepreneur and boost my confidence to next level of expertise which further helped me  to become a Co-founder of an Innovative & revolutionary Idea “Kiranaking”. 

We should not limit our thoughts to a particular room. Let it be flown in the open area and grasp maximum information, knowledge.  I am really happy to see the quotes that make my discipline and propel me ahead on this path of growth. Together we (Investor and we) will build a billion-dollar company.

Quotes of Prolific Venture Capital Investor Mr Vinod Khosla is well articulated by Alexander Roznowski. All 12 points are suited to Startups seeking VC Funding. if we go by each quote we will find that all propel us to scale the business significantly and to create Value, thus. Success will automatically create Valuation (Balwant Rana)

     1.      Aim for inconsequential outcomes:

2.      Focus on company building, not deal-making

3.      Do something different.

4.      Seek for unfair advantages

5.      Invest more in people than a specific plan:

6.      Believe will drive you through bad times

7.      Don’t focus solely on the monetary outcome:

8.      Focus more on technology risk than market risk

9.      Compete with yourself

10.   Lower your margins for high growth

11.   Acknowledge that you don’t know everything

12.   Take advice from the right people

 

Vinod Khosla is one of the most prolific ventures capital investors. Here are some of the best quotes by Vinod Khosla.

 

1.    Aim for inconsequential outcomes: (Patience)

“It doesn’t matter what your probability of failure is. If there’s a 90% chance of failure, there’s a 10% chance of changing the world.” “Most technology startups fail. There’s a winner, and there’s 7 out of 10 that lose.” “I don’t mind failing, but if I succeed it better be worth succeeding for.” “I have seen too many startups where they have reduced risk to a point where they have a higher probability of succeeding, but if they succeed it is inconsequential.” — Vinod Khosla

 

2.    Focus on company building, not deal-making ( Value)

“We are in the company building business, not in the ‘deal’ or ‘capital’ business.” “I don’t think of myself as being in the investing business. I think private equity investors are very much in the business of doing deals, putting money in, getting money out. To me, that is a very, very different business and all that they are doing is spreadsheets. I think of myself in a completely different business of building companies. I have not made IRR calculations on a spreadsheet ever since 2004. I either believe or I don’t. If I believe, then my goal is to get involved and make things much bigger and help them be successful. It’s a different kind of business.” — Vinod Khosla

 

3.    Do something different: (Perfection)

“If you’re doing what everybody else is doing, you’re not doing anything interesting, and we won’t want to invest.” “Doing things at the edge is what venture is about.” “I don’t even invest in businesses where six other people have the same technology.” “The idea is how can you turn a technology advantage into a business advantage? It’s much more like playing a chess game than it is investing. It is strategic, it depends how much you can help the company. Therefore, it is much more fun.” — Vinod Khosla

 

4.    Seek for unfair advantages: ( Opportunity)

“We seek out unfair advantages: proprietary and protected technological advances, business model innovations, unique partnerships and top-notch teams.” — Vinod Khosla

 

5.    Invest more in people than a specific plan: (People)

“We invest more in people than in a specific plan, because plans often change.” “Failing quickly is a good way to plan. Failing often makes failures small and successes large….In small failures you accumulate learnings about what works and what doesn’t. Try many experiments but don’t bet your company on just one, keep trying, keep failing small.” “There are probably three or four things you can control out of ten that matter for the success of your company.” Competitors control another three or four. “The rest is just luck.” “I’ve never seen one [business plan] that’s accurate.” — Vinod Khosla

 

6.    Believe will drive you through bad times: ( Believe)

“Bad times come for every startup — I haven’t seen a single startup that hasn’t gone through a bad time. Entrepreneurship can be very very depressing. If you really believe in your product, you stick with it.” — Vinod Khosla

 

7.    Don’t focus solely on the monetary outcome: (Scale)

“Seeking an acquisition from the start is more than just bad advice for an entrepreneur. For the entrepreneur it leads to short term tactical decisions rather than company-building decisions and in my view often reduces the probability of success.” — Vinod Khosla

 

8.    Focus more on technology risk than market risk: (IT driven)

“We prefer technology risk to market risk.” — Vinod Khosla

 

9.    Compete with yourself:  (Fear )

“How would you compete against yourself?” — Vinod Khosla

 

10. Lower your margins for high growth: (Growth,GMV )

“I generally disagree with most of the very high margin opportunities. Why? Because it’s a business strategy tradeoff: the lower the margin you take, the faster you grow.” — Vinod Khosla

 

11. Acknowledge that you don’t know everything: (Execution, Process & System)

“Where most entrepreneurs fail is on the things they don’t know they don’t know.” “Things go wrong. There is lots of uncertainty, and there are times when you’re unsure of yourself. I’ve found that the less people know, the more sure they are.” — Vinod Khosla

 

12. Take advice from the right people: ( Consult, Advisor)

“The single most important thing an entrepreneur needs to learn is whom to take advice from and on what topic.” “Entrepreneurs could get such great help, but instead they think they need money. It’s this sort of schizophrenic divide between worrying that you’re going out of business and dreaming big that’s needed. Sophisticated entrepreneurs know this. Less sophisticated entrepreneurs don’t even know whom to ask for advice. They’ll ask a marketing and a technology question to the same person. Ask different questions of different people, both those who have been successful and those who haven’t.” — Vinod Khosla

Articulated by : Mr Alexander Roznowski Source: https://medium.com/ipo-2-0/best-quotes-by-vinod-khosla-a18335c7734d

 

Be the true follower of a leader like Vinod Khosla, choose your path which led to you towards a grand Success and could create a history where people will follow you like me following him. (……. Bhardari)

 

Posted on my blog: 25.12.2020

Jaipur, India

Presenter & Decorated by: Balwant Singh Rana, Cofounder & Director – Kirana King

 

Why Every Organization Should Have Leaders at Every Level

Sponsored Article for Mr John Eades: 

When things aren’t going a team’s way, it’s easy to point a finger of blame at the market, the products offered, or even one team member. More often than not, a struggling team boils down to ineffective leadership from more than just the person at the top. 

Teams that are highly effective at overcoming adverse conditions are capable of unleashing what I call “leaders at every level.” Unfortunately, this isn’t a light switch that can be turned on at any time. What’s required is a strategy and an intense focus on hiring, developing, and equipping people to choose to lead daily. 

Great companies develop their people to be leaders because every circumstance demands it. 

“Leaders at every level” is not only a reputation in the marketplace for having an elite culture, but it permeates internally as team members are expected to become the leader they are capable of becoming. 

There was a time in the not-so-distant past where every critical decision was left to the CEO or management team. In today’s current rapid change environment, this practice can and will be detrimental to an organization's existence.

The Model is Changing

To retain top talent, organizations have relied on promotions into positions of leadership. While this retention tactic is still in practice, human resource executives and executive leaders are getting wiser. Now, they are not only evaluating leadership skills in their succession planning process, but there is a lot more emphasis on asking people to act like leaders right where they are. This is particularly important since most professionals want their work to have a more meaningful impact. 

Organizations like Extended Stay, Cora Health, Lippert Components, and many more have embraced the idea of developing leaders at every level. While this approach can be time-consuming and more expensive in the short-term, it creates a workforce that is prepared to lead. 

Developing leaders is time-consuming and expensive, but it creates a workforce that is prepared to lead.

Here are a few strategies for creating "leaders at every level" in your organization: 

Create a Culture of Growth and Learning

Leadership, like many things, is a journey and not a destination. Many organizations know this, and they have built internal leadership development academies/universities. These include things like year-long courses, learning tracks, workshops, coaching, and mentoring, just to name a few. However, best companies do this not because it’s a nice thing to do, but because it’s tied to their purpose and mission.

Take Coke Consolidated as an example. Even though they are the largest Coca-Cola Bottler in the United States, they know they exist for a much bigger purpose. Todd Miller, the Vice President of Organizational Capability, said, “We are a purpose-driven company that attracts, engages, and grows a highly talented, diverse workforce of servant leaders enabling Coke Consolidated’s growth and performance.” 

One of my favorite ways Miller and his amazing team do this is by “Rewarding and recognizing teammates driving our culture of growth and learning. This is critical because we all tend to repeat what is rewarded.”

“We tend to repeat what is rewarded”

Thanks to the internet and the massive amount of information available to us, every organization, regardless of their budget, can tap into the unlimited number of opportunities to learn at any time. The best companies and talent development leaders recognize this and are getting creative in creating a culture of learning.  

David Hare and the talent development team at GE Appliances were forced to put in-person training and hold in through the Pandemic. Instead of putting all development on hold, they did the opposite. They created a series called "Rise," which was weekly lunch and learns with internal and external experts. These were optional training opportunities to learn and grow to promote their culture of growth and learning.

Preach and Promote Coachable 

Since the best leaders are learners, being coachable is essential for any leader. More often than not, a person’s ability to say or do something significant is built on the backbone of hard work, dedication, and being coachable.  

What’s interesting about coachability is that it’s not a technical skill or inherent to us. It’s a mental mindset that anyone can embrace. Being coachable means, you proactively seek help and feedback to support your growth and development. 

Being coachable means, you proactively seek help and feedback to support your growth and development. 

Nick Saban, the legendary head football coach at Alabama, constantly preaches to his players and coaches to “respect the critical eye.” This means that instead of getting defensive, embrace when someone is coaching you with a critical eye because they are trying to make you better.  

Organizations that promote coachable and “respect the critical eye” professionals at every level will have more leaders than those who do not because coachable people eventually pour that knowledge into others. It reminds me of the great Sophia Bush quote: “We are allowed to be a masterpiece and a work and progress all at the same time.” 

Focus on Attitudes That Are Energy Giving

One of the most popular questions I get in my LinkedIn or Instagram DM box is, “What do I do if I am a part of a toxic or dysfunctional team?” There are three commonalities for everyone who asks this question - they are on teams with bad attitudes, negative energy, or a bad leader. If an organization wants to develop leaders at every level, they must avoid putting people in leadership positions who have bad attitudes, spread negative energy, or tolerate constant pessimism.  

If you leave bad leaders in positions of leadership, this is what is going to happen.

Organizations must continuously identify and highlight relentlessly positive professionals. In an interview with Jacob Morgan for The Future of Work Newsletter, ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott said, “Never underestimate the power of relentless optimism. Challenges create opportunity. We must think boldly and create the solution others view as possible.”

If you want to create leaders at every level, having relentlessly optimistic professionals is a great place to start. 

Closing

It would be amazing if having “leaders at every level” were as easy as turning on a lightswitch. But when you think about all the work, effort, and dedication it took and continues to take for that light switch to turn on the lights, it proves there is nothing easy about it.  

However, if companies both have the desire and commitment to developing leaders, great things happen. Frontline employees provide a better experience to customers, managers will have healthier teams, and moms and dads will have a stronger family structure outside of work.

Best written by Mr John Eades

Dt. 22.12.2020