THE RAINMAKER

RISHI KHOSLA'S ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY STARTED LONG BEFORE HE FOUNDED HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE: IT BEGAN WITH HIS GENERAL ENTERPRISING APPROACH TO LIFE

- SOUMYA DUGGAL

A 1956 Doris Day song famously introduced American audiences to “cheerful fatalism”: “Que sera, sera” says a mother to soothe her child’s anxiety about what the future might hold. Over the years, the song became a cultural artefact with changing connotations: a classic children’s song, a sports anthem, a Hitchocockian reference, an ironic dark comedy backdrop, a nostalgic ode to 1950s’ seeming social stability. Entrepreneur Rishi Khosla, however, was never one to abide by its message of leaving one’s future up to fate—”What will be, will be” not, he believes.

A FINANCE PRODIGY

Early in life, Khosla decided that he would build businesses. Driven by this vision, he achieved all major academic milestones three years earlier than the average student does: started GCSE at age 11 years, first A-level exams at 13 years, undergrad in economics at University College London (UCL) at 17 years, and master’s in accounting and finance at London School of Economics (LSE) at 20 years. Khosla now braced himself for the rigour of the professional world, working first at ABN Amro, the third-largest Dutch bank, then at GE Capital, one of the world’s largest financial services companies at the time, and later at a family office where he had the opportunity to manage a fund that invested in fintech companies, such as digital payment pioneer PayPal, though “fintech” as a term would be coined several years later in 2013.