It was a privilege to sit down with Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures this week at “AI 2026” at the San Francisco Chase Center, hosted by some of San Francisco’s leading AI founders Josh Sirota, Josh Jung, Catherine Di, Sampei Omichi. We dug into what really matters when you’re building a new startup with AI.

For founders out there — here are the five ideas I walked away with.

Five mantras from Vinod Khosla

1. Fall in love with the problem — don’t worry about sector expertise

“No so-called expert or big company executive ever built anything massively disruptive …”

Vinod argued that in the AI era, first-time founders have an edge because they move fast, obsess over a problem, and start building — without waiting for perfect analysis or market-validation. They look to what’s possible vs what’s been done - or not able to be done - in the past.

2. Go after “improbable” — chase moonshots, not incrementalism

“I argue only the improbables are important… we just don’t know which improbable.”

His philosophy: don’t build another incremental startup. Take the hard technical bets that incumbents won’t touch. The biggest breakthroughs (and outsized returns) come from going after massive problems.

3. AI as a lever for abundance

“If I were building today, I would give everyone in the world an AI primary care physician and any medical specialist they needed access to, for $2-3 / month…”

Vinod sees AI not just as a tool, but as a transformative force that could radically reduce the cost of expertise (e.g. in medicine, legal, education), democratizing access and enabling previously unthinkable scale.

4. Be mission- and values-driven — not just profit-driven

“… and make sure you are having fun, above all else!”

Founders should hold a clear vision, but stay tactically flexible. A startup built around purpose and positive societal impact tends to be more resilient and ultimately more meaningful.

5. Focus on building a great team and culture

”The company you have is the team you build, not the plan you make.”

Build the right team and culture early and be generous with equity. This is hard to change. Enable the founder to grow into a public-company CEO; the most successful technology companies are still founder-led.