The legendary* Vinod Khosla spoke with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington at Disrupt SF today and discussed some of the unordinary startups he has invested in, including an efficient lettuce picker, dairy-less cheese, and high-tech beef.

Khosla said one of the companies is trying to develop salt that is “as salty as salt” but with 50 percent less sodium to combat high blood pressure and other health problems. He said that people tasted one of the startups’ dairy-less cheese and couldn’t tell the difference.

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The two argued over how far along the taste of faux beef is and how similar it is to regular meat.

“I just never know where these conversations are going to go when I get on stage,” Arrington said.

Evan Williams and Biz Stone were also on stage earlier today discussing their own meatless meat startup, Beyond Meat. Khosla used his less “techy” startup interests to discuss larger themes, like his emphasis on the importance of hiring.

*Arrington started the interview by noting how he always sees Khosla described online as legendary, asking how and when that happened.

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• VINOD KHOSLA

Person: Vinod Khosla

Companies: Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, CK-12 Foundation, LanzaTech New Zealand, Square, Kior, Metamarkets, Sun Microsystems, iLike

Vinod Khosla was a co-founder of Daisy Systems and founding Chief Executive Officer of Sun Microsystems, where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors. Sun was funded by longtime friend and board member John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In 1986 Vinod joined Kleiner Perkins, where he was and continues to be a general partner of KPCB funds through KP X. Through the years there, with other partners, he took on Intel’s monopoly with Nexgen/AMD (the only...

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