How Lakshmi Mittal's teachings helped Rishi Khosla build a billion-dollar business

When you work with the one of the richest men in the world, chances are you will walk away some pearls of wisdom. For Rishi Khosla, founder of a UK-based digital banking start-up, the decision to deliberately stay away from diluting his stock in his start-up came while working for Lakshmi Mittal.
“Having seen how much he [Mittal] didn’t dilute was a big lesson for me,” Khosla told a business magazine, recalling his stint at LNM Internet Ventures. According to Khosla, when early stage entrepreneurs receive funding, they start to get caught up in chasing value. “What’s my next valuation? Who can I go next to raise? These ultimately lead to the question: How can I ultimately sell and exit?” he said, explaining why he chooses to build a fundamentally strong business that one can run for life instead of building one to sell.

That strategy seems to have worked for Khosla’s company, which has been billed as the fastest unicorn in Europe, with a billion-dollar valuation.