In a company, hundreds of decisions get made, but objectives and goals are thin. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
In Silicon Valley, when you're a private company, the entrepreneur can do no wrong. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“If our company isn’t good enough to win, then do we need to exist at all?” — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“The purpose of process is communication. If there are five people in your company, you don’t need process, because you can just… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Every employee in a company depends on the C.E.O. to make fast, high-quality decisions. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Hire sales people who are really smart problem solvers, but lack courage, hunger and competitiveness, and your company will go out of… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
When the value of the company clearly has fallen below what its assets are worth, having a shareholder who says, 'Let's get… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
The big value of the founder running the company is really two things: the knowledge and the commitment. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Shareholder activism works when activists understand something about the characteristics of the business that the board doesn't. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“If you run a company, you will experience overwhelming psychological pressure to be overly positive. Stand up to the pressure, face your… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“Spend zero time on what you could have done, and devote all of your time on what you might do. Because in… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
When you look at a company that's already succeeded or is at the very top of its game, it isn't necessarily when… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Over the last ten years, technological advances have dramatically lowered the financial bar for starting a new company, but the courage bar… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“What would you do if capital were free?” is a dangerous question to ask an entrepreneur. It’s kind of like asking a… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
In life, everybody faces choices between doing what's popular, easy, and wrong vs. doing what's lonely, difficult, and right. These decisions intensify… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Startup CEOs should not play the odds. When you are building a company, you must believe there is an answer and you… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
I think when companies are struggling, they don't want to talk to the press. The guys who write business books aren't interested… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“Remember that this is what separates the women from the girls. If you want to be great, this is the challenge. If… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
The most important thing you can learn as CEO- one of the hardest things to do is, you have to discipline yourself… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“We would have won, but the other guys gave the deal away.” “The customer selected us technically and thinks we are the… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Generally the reason they fail in the job is, you made some mistake in the hiring process in that you didn't match...… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“When founders come in to pitch our firm—one as the CEO and the other as president—the conversation often goes like this: “Who… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“Most business relationships either become too tense to tolerate or not tense enough to be productive after a while. Either people challenge… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“Me: “Why does competitor X have five times your revenue?” Entrepreneur: “We are using partners and OEMs, because we can’t build a… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“If you investigate companies that have failed, you will find that many employees knew about the fatal issues long before those issues… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“The most important thing to understand is that the job of a big company executive is very different from the job of… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Good shareholder activists have incredible interest in the company because they own a lot of it. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Big companies have trouble with innovation. Innovation is about bad ideas, or ideas that look like bad ideas. That's the fundamental thing. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
It helps to have founded and run a company if you're going to help somebody run a company who is a founder. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
I think that business book reporting, it's all Jim Collins, it's the story of victory; it's success bias over and over again. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Groupon looked like a very high valuation, but any investment in a great company at any stage is almost always a good… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
One of the great things about building a tech company is the amazing people that you can hire. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
“This is not checkers; this is motherfuckin’ chess. Technology businesses tend to be extremely complex. The underlying technology moves, the competition moves,… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
There is no silver bullet. There are always options and the options have consequences. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
Groupon looked like a very high valuation, but any investment in a great company at any stage is almost always a good investment. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
By far the most difficult skill I learned as a C.E.O. was the ability to manage my own psychology. Organizational design, process design, metrics,… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
“The hard thing is when those “great people” develop a sense of entitlement and start demanding unreasonable things. The hard thing isn’t setting up… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
“As painful as it might be, I knew that we had to get into the broader market in order to understand it well enough… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
“On my grandfather’s tombstone, you will find his favorite Marx quote: “Life is struggle.” I believe that within that quote lies the most important… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
“Bill Campbell: "It's not about the money." Ben Horowitz: "What's it about, Bill?" Bill: "It's about the FUCKING money.” — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
When the value of the company clearly has fallen below what its assets are worth, having a shareholder who says, 'Let's get a better… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
One person is never as stupid as a group of people. That's why they have lynch mobs, not lynch individuals. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
As companies move to web-based computing they get a lot more servers, which are difficult to manage and control. All kinds of problems can… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
Breakthrough ideas usually come from guys who look like they're hallucinating — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
When screening engineers from other companies, its smart to value engineers from great companies more than those from mediocre companies. — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
“No matter who you are, you need two kinds of friends in your life. The first kind is one you can call when something… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
“The difference between being mediocre and magical is often the difference between letting people take creative risk and holding them too tightly accountable. Accountability… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share
