Fireside Chat, Panel, Roundtable
On Career Moves and Business Leadership
- Ben Horowitz began writing and rapping at age 18 after a friend was shot and went blind; he recorded DJ sets from "Cool DJ Red Alert" to send to his friend, leading to the formation of the rap group "Blind Deaf Crew" (playing on the era of Run-DMC).
- Horowitz started his tech career at Silicon Graphics, where he worked in QA writing programs to crash the operating system kernel; he recalled a boss named Chris Wagner who possessed near-photographic memory of the entire OS memory map.
- He joined Netscape after witnessing the first release of the Mosaic browser, which he described as mind-blowing compared to the text-only, manually configured internet of the 1980s.
- Horowitz founded Opsware (originally LoudCloud), which was later acquired; he faced the "IPO from hell" where Business Week labeled his IPO the worst, forcing him to hire "A-players" despite the company's public perception of failure.
- The title of his book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, originated from a sleepless night realizing traditional business books offered no guidance on surviving the "hard things" like laying off employees after missing goals.
- Horowitz defines corporate culture as "how people behave when you are not looking," citing the need for shocking rules to break bad habits, inspired by Toussaint Louverture's Haitian Revolution.
- He applied this historical lesson at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) by instituting a rule to fine employees $10 per minute if they are late to meetings with entrepreneurs, enforcing a culture of respect that contrasts with typical venture firm tardiness.
- Horowitz distinguishes between "peacetime" and "wartime" leadership; peacetime focuses on empowerment and development, while wartime requires speed, precision, and decisive, often unpopular action to ensure survival (e.g., pivoting away from customers to build new technology).
- He advises students to avoid over-engineering their futures and to instead identify what they are uniquely good at, emphasizing that combining skills (e.g., engineering, storytelling, and rapping) creates unique value.
- Regarding automation and AI, Horowitz argues that historical job loss fears have been overstated; while the pace of change is accelerating, new job categories (like graphic design post-typesetting) consistently emerge to replace automated roles.
- He identifies Artificial Intelligence and Bioengineering as the two most exciting fields, noting that AI can now learn algorithms rather than just following them, and CRISPR technology allows for "writing" biology.
- A specific investment example is Freenome, a company using machine learning on blood tests to diagnose cancer in early stages, solving the problem of dangerous and inconvenient biopsies.
- Horowitz transitioned from entrepreneurship to Venture Capital to support technical founders, observing that while PE firms wanted his turnaround skills, a16z was created to help technical founders become CEOs.
- He contrasts the "CEO rhythm" (where speed of decision-making is paramount) with the "Investor rhythm" (where quality of decision-making over a long timeline is paramount).
- For AI startups, a16z looks for a defensible "theory of how you get a data advantage" rather than proprietary algorithmic breakthroughs, as much of deep learning is now open-sourced by major tech firms.
- In clean tech, Horowitz warns against past mistakes involving heavy reliance on fuel distribution infrastructure and government regulatory subsidies, citing battery technology and grid storage as more viable paths forward.
- He advises that young founders must pitch a "breakthrough idea" that seems stupid to others, as experienced founders with obvious ideas are less risky investments than young founders with standard ideas.