Why Startups Should Train Their People
Ben Horowitz, Author at Andreessen Horowitz

            
                            



                
        
                        More About Ben
                                        Ben Horowitz is a cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The Hard Thing About Hard Things and What You Do Is Who You Are. He also created the a16z Cultural Leadership Fund to connect the greatest cultural leaders to the best new technology companies, and enable more young African Americans to enter the technology industry.
Prior to a16z, Ben was cofounder and CEO of Opsware (formerly Loudcloud), which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in 2007, and was appointed vice president and general manager of Business Technology Optimization for Software at HP. Earlier, he was vice president and general manager of America Online’s E-commerce Platform division, where he oversaw development of the company’s flagship Shop@AOL service. Previously, Ben ran several product divisions at Netscape Communications. He also served as vice president of Netscape’s widely acclaimed Directory and Security product line. Before joining Netscape in July 1995, he held various senior product marketing positions at Lotus Development Corporation.
Ben has an MS and a BA in computer science from UCLA and Columbia University, respectively.
Ben serves on the board of Anyscale, Databricks, Mayvenn, NationBuilder, Navan, Okta ($OKTA), and UnitedMasters.
                                

                                    

        
        Latest Content
        
                                                            
    
        a16z and Microsoft share policy ideas for AI startups so they can thrive, collaborate, and compete.
    
                                                                            
    
        a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz explore an unusual intersection of AI and crypto: the sudden rise of a bot-beloved memecoin.
    
                                                                            
    
        Las Vegas Metro Police improved public safety with $6.3M in state-of-the-art tech from Skydio and Flock Safety, enhancing intelligence and awareness.
    
                                                                            
    
        In this special episode, Marc and Ben dive deep into the REAL story behind the creation of Netscape—a web browser co-created by Marc that revolutionized the internet and changed the world. As Ben notes at the top, until...
    
                                                                            
    
        The time has come to stand up for Little Tech. Bad government policies are now the #1 threat to Little Tech. We believe American technology supremacy, and the critical role that Little Tech startups play in ensuring that supremacy, is a first class political issue on par with any other.
    
                                                                            
    
        In this latest episode on the State of AI, Ben and Marc discuss how small AI startups can compete with Big Tech’s massive compute and data scale advantages, reveal why data is overrated as a sellable asset, and unpack al...
    
                                                                            
    
        We have just raised $7.2B for American Dynamism ($600M), Apps ($1B), Games ($600M), Infrastructure ($1.25B), and Growth ($3.75B). This marks an important milestone for us.
    
                                                                            
    
        “If America is going to be America in the next one hundred years, we have to get this right.” - Ben Horowitz
    
                                                                            
    
        Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke speaks with a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz about scaling tech startups, leadership, business strategy, and more.
    
                                                                            
    
        Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz discuss the new bestselling book Read Write Own with author Chris Dixon on the web3 with a16z crypto podcast.
    
                                                                            
    
        "The Ben & Marc Show" features a16z's co-founders Ben Horowitz & Marc Andreessen. In this episode, Marc and Ben continue their in-depth exploration of the current education system. While Part I of their discussion unpacked the crisis facing higher education, Part II presents solutions to overhaul the modern university.
    
                                                                            
    
        In this one-on-one conversation, Marc and Ben tackle the university system – what has certainly been a hot topic that’s been dominating the news over the past few months. As Marc states at the top of the episode, universities matter tremendously to our world, but they’re currently in a state of crisis.
    
                                                                            
    
        Marc and Ben are joined by special guest Tony Robbins to discuss new breakthroughs in regenerative medicine, AI, biohacking, gene editing, mindset and why this might be the best time to be alive.
    
                                                                            
    
        If a candidate supports an optimistic technology-enabled future, we are for them. If they want to choke off important technologies, we are against them
    
                                                                            
    
        Taking a company from idea to household name is always difficult. But the past few years presented challenges that caught even the most-seasoned CEOs off guard.

In this episode, you’ll hear from two CEOs that navigated these waters and somehow, came out on the other side. These recordings come straight from our exclusive Connect/Enterprise event, bringing together top executives across the a16z network.
    
                                                                            
    
        In an article that has sparked widespread conversation across traditional and social media, Marc challenges the pessimistic narrative surrounding technology today, and instead celebrates it as a liberating force that can lead to growth, progress and abundance for all. In this one-on-one conversation based on YOUR questions from X (formerly Twitter), Ben and Marc discuss how technological advancements can improve the quality of human life, uplift marginalized communities, and even encourage us to answer the bigger questions of the universe.
    
                                                                            
    
        Today’s episode continues our coverage from a16z’s recent AI Revolution event. You’ll hear directly from a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Databricks cofounder and CEO, Ali Ghodsi as they answer questions around AI and the enterprise, plus their perspectives on open source, whether benchmarks are BS, and the scramble of universities to take part in the very wave they kicked off decades ago.
    
                                                                            
    
        Ali Ghodsi, CEO and cofounder of Databricks, and Ben Horowitz, cofounder of a16z, explain the data wars happening inside and outside enterprises and how they could impact the evolution of LLMs.
    
                                                                            
    
        In this exclusive conversation from the Bio + Health BUILD summit, founding partner Ben Horowitz sits down with general partner Jorge Conde.
    
                                                                            
    
        In this exclusive conversation from a16z’s Bio and Health BUILD Summit, founding partner Ben Horowitz sits down with general partner Jorge Conde. They discuss everything from the inspiration behind Ben’s book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, how the open Internet was secured, the difference between wartime and peacetime CEOs, scaling culture, and understanding how bio & healthcare differs from other forms of technology.
    
                                                                            
    
        The holy grail of company building is finding product-market fit. But what most people don’t tell you is that once you’ve found it, product-market fit brings its own set of challenges, particularly when it comes to scaling rapidly and hiring the right executives at the right time.

Drawing from their extensive experiences, a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Databricks cofounder and CEO Ali Ghodsi sit down to talk about the hardest things about executive hiring and firing, and what is at stake.

They dive into the common reasons an exec fails, why sometimes micromanagement is a good idea, and the difference between someone who has written a playbook and someone who has only run one.
    
                                                                            
    
        a16z’s Ben Horowitz and Databricks’ Ali Ghodsi sit down to talk about hiring and firing executives, including the common reasons an exec fails, why micromanagement can be a good idea, and the difference between someone who has written a playbook and someone who has only run one.
    
                                                                            
    
        If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably heard of the recent FTX scandal.

While there’s much still unknown, in this episode we get the unique opportunity to hear from Brian Armstrong – co-founder and CEO of Coinbase – about what’s top of mind for the crypto industry. That includes the impact of this current event on future regulation, how this crypto winter might be different from previous ones, founder psychology during downturns, the transparency that comes with being public, and much more.

Brian is interviewed by a16z cofounder and general partner Ben Horowitz, who has the unique perspective of having invested in, built, and been on the board of numerous companies during the ups and downs, leading him to his well-known book The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
    
                                                                            
    
        While building and shaping culture is as relevant as ever for startups and companies today, leaders have sought the answers to these questions for hundreds of years – and there is practical advice to be had by examining different cultures across time and around the globe.

In this episode from December 2019, a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz sits down with host Sonal Choksi to talk about what actually makes up culture, whether in a company or any organization or team, as based on Ben’s best-selling book, What You Do is Who You Are. They discuss the idea of culture as code, the nuances of setting and changing a culture, and how to apply the principles of his book to startups, the tech industry and any company today.
    
                                                                            
    
        Behind many great leaders, you’ll usually find a great mentor. The mentor-mentee relationship is often one of the most important and most fulfilling relationships people have, in both their careers and in their lives. So how do you find a mentor? What are different kinds of mentorship? And how can it help you break into an industry – or help others break in themselves?

In this episode from July 2018, a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz discusses mentorship with his mentor, Silicon Valley pioneer Ken Coleman, and Ben’s mentee, Michel Feaster, founder of Usermind and now Chief Product Officer at Qualtrics. They begin with their personal journeys and share advice and frameworks for mentorship, leadership, and growing as a founder.
    
                                                                            
    
        Ben Horowitz discusses the leadership styles of Intel’s Andy Grove and Apple’s Bill Campbell, how Okta won its market with culture, and how to look for and hire the talent you don’t have in an interview with David Weiden...
    
                                                                            
    
        Since our inception in 2009, Andreessen Horowitz has been a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Now, our headquarters will be in the cloud.
    
                                                                            
    
        In this episode from February 2017, a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz and Jason Rosenthal, former Lytro CEO (now Vice President, Subscription Services, at Google) share stories and lessons learned from doing whatever they could to help their companies survive in hard times, including making and living through major pivots, selling new products before they were ready, figuring out financing with market and industry headwinds against them, and more. From their days together at LoudCloud to Jason’s experience at Lytro, and beyond, a common theme emerges: a CEO’s job is lonely in these moments and the hardest thing about a big pivot or change might be in finding the courage to make the decision in the first place.
    
                                                                            
    
        Andreessen Horowitz just raised $9B to invest via our Venture, Growth, and Bio funds. Why invest $9B in a brand new set of technology companies?
    
                                                                            
    
        Nailing customer experience is tough. Every conversation, across every channel, counts. And while much in our lives has changed since the 1960s, the site of these customer conversations has not: the contact center. Conta...
    
                                                                            
    
        This podcast (which was recorded at the Computer History Museum before the pandemic) is all about how companies create culture beyond their values and mission statements: A lot's changed... and a lot hasn't. Based on the book What You Do Is Who You Are, the nuanced discussion that follows probes how startups evolve and whether companies and people can change; common tropes that often come up in Silicon Valley folklore; and practical advice. Please note that the discussion that follows includes various mentions of violence.
    
                                                                            
    
        Boss Talk is a  weekly live show on Clubhouse, where a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi discuss CEO stuff, leadership stuff, management stuff… you know, boss stuff. Here we share the second installment; in it, they explain Conway’s Law and shipping your org chart; how to transition from a boss to a boss of bosses; and their predictions for Silicon Valley post-pandemic.
    
                                                                            
    
        On social audio app Clubhouse, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are hosting a new live show called "One on One with A and Z", where they go deep on questions submitted via Twitter. The show is based in part by a newspaper column that Andy Grove did in the 80s, where readers sent in questions for him to answer in his column. 

In this mega-episode of the a16z Podcast, we've combined their first two episodes into almost three hours of discussion and debate about some of the most important topics in entrepreneurship, tech, and culture. Each of these episodes also initially aired on our new show, a16z Live, which captures and share many of the live discussions and events featuring, hosted, or co-hosted by a16z partners (with outside voices too) on Clubhouse and beyond.
    
                                                                            
    
        Since Netflix started in the late 90s as a DVD-by-mail rental service competing with Blockbuster, it has completely reinvented itself... twice – first, when it went from DVD rental to video streaming platform, and then again when it went from licensing to producing original content.

But what does it takes to create an organization capable of reinventing itself? Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings explains...
    
                                                                            
    
        For B2B startups, a downturn can be a boon – the trick is to survive.
    
                                                                            
    
        Given recent events around George Floyd and far beyond, this special episode of the a16z Podcast features Shaka Senghor, a leading advocate for criminal justice reform, and Terry Brown, a former police officer in East Palo Alto -- who, incidentally, both grew up in Detroit but ended up on different sides of the law -- in conversation with a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz. The conversation goes deep and on the ground...
    
                                                                            
    
        Given recent events around George Floyd and far beyond, this special episode of the a16z Podcast features Shaka Senghor, a leading advocate for criminal justice reform (and bestselling author), and Terry Brown, a former...
    
                                                                            
    
        A robot lawyer that helps people automatically fight bureaucracy to get money back, find hidden money, or sue others/ go to small claims court. Also now helps people delay utility bills and rent payments that are eligible for an extension or waiver of late fees due to the coronavirus crisis.
    
                                                                            
    
        A home care company and network of home care agencies that cares for elders and also puts caregivers at the center.
    
                                                                            
    
        This is the next cycle of Hustlin' Tech, a podcast series about technology platforms that create opportunities for people. Recorded right before the coronavirus pandemic, these next 3 episodes touch on many things that are top of mind right now: from the profession of nursing; to taking care of the elderly; and fighting bureaucracy to get money back -- or to get help delaying utility bills and rent payments that are eligible for an extension or waiver of late fees due to the crisis.
    
                                                                            
    
        A hiring platform for nurses in the U.S. used by hospitals and health systems that helps hospitals find nurses faster, offers free continuing education to nurses everywhere, and puts nurses at the center.
    
                                                                            
    
        This year at CES, Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, famously announced that Moore’s Law is dead. We’d argue that it’s not just that Moore’s Law is dead, but it’s also become largely irrelevant.
    
                                                                            
    
        
            Kristina Shen
        Martin Casado, Peter Levine, David Ulevitch, and Ben Horowitz
    
        Almost every new enterprise software company today is a SaaS company, so when we started our search for a new general partner to join our enterprise team, we knew it had to be someone who would bring tremendous expertise...
    
                                                                            
    
        In any company, even the seemingly smallest behaviors will influence your culture, while the loudest proclamations won't.
    
                                                                            
    
        “Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong
    
                                                                            
    
        The difference between a good CEO and a great one? Trusting your gut and confronting your fears head on.
    
                                                                            
    
        Sisu joined with Snowflake in Oct. 2023. Read their announcement here.
    
                                                                            
    
        It could all be so simple, but you had to make it hard
    
                                                                            
    
        I watch your actions not just captions in the sh*t you post
    
                                                                            
    
        “To me it's kinda funny, the attitude showing a n*&#a driving
    
                                                                            
    
        “You got what it takes, but not enough to get started” --Too Short
    
                                                                            
    
        Hustlin’ Tech is a new show (part of the a16z Podcast) that introduces the technology platforms -- and mindsets -- for everybody and anybody who has the desire, the talent, and the hustle to do great things. Read more ab...
    
                                                                            
    
        Hustlin’ Tech is a new show (part of the a16z Podcast) that introduces the technology platforms -- and mindsets -- for everybody and anybody who has the desire, the talent, and the hustle to do great things. Read more ab...
    
                                                                            
    
        Hustlin’ Tech is a new show (part of the a16z Podcast) that introduces the technology platforms -- and mindsets -- for everybody and anybody who has the desire, the talent, and the hustle to do great things. Read more ab...
    
                                                                            
    
        "You cannot be IN it... and not be OF it."
    
                                                

        
                                            



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