Vinod Khosla explains why you don’t want “founder friendly” VCs

“There are a number of firms in the Valley that push the idea of ‘We are founder friendly.’ What that really means is they’re never going to challenge you. They want to be popular with you as opposed to help you.”

Vinod compares this to the analogy of raising kids:

“If I always say yes, they’ll end up really spoiled… You want their welfare at heart, but you want to teach them what’s right and wrong, debate them, and then over time, mostly pass their decisions on to them.”

He cites the following quote on the Khosla Ventures website:

“Our style is very direct and straightforward. We are not here to be your friends or to control ownership; we are all about helping you build a business. We prefer brutal honesty to hypocritical politeness. You won’t have to guess what we’re thinking; even if we have a hard conversation, it’s because we think it helps you as an entrepreneur.”

Well-intended critique of your strategy is what you want.

Vinod points out that the best founders and CEOs always ask him, “What can I do better?” They never just tell him all the things they’re doing great.

He gives Replit CEO Amjad Masad as an example:

“He could talk about all the things that are going well, and we could have filled up the hour. I’d feel good. He’d feel good. But I’d have added zero value to his thinking.”

Full video: South Park Commons “Why I Backed OpenAI, AGI, & the Zero to One Team | Vinod Khosla“ (Apr 2025)