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
The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company. — 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
Nobody knows how to be a CEO. It's something you have to learn. It's a very lonely job. — 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
Good shareholder activists have incredible interest in the company because they own a lot of it. — 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
In life, you don't have a level of confrontation and the nonsense you run into when you're a CEO. CEOs aren't born. — 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
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
“People always ask me, “What’s the secret to being a successful CEO?” Sadly, there is no secret, but if there is one… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
When I was a CEO, the books on management that I read weren't very much help after the first few months on… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
When you found a company, you have the original vision, you make all the original decisions, you know every employee, you kind… — 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
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
“PEACETIME CEO/WARTIME CEO Peacetime CEO knows that proper protocol leads to winning. Wartime CEO violates protocol in order to win. Peacetime CEO… — 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
In order to build a great technology company, you have to hire lots of incredibly smart people. It's a total waste to… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
If you manage a team of 10 people, its quite possible to do so with very few mistakes or bad behaviors. If… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
You read these management books that say, 'These are the hard things about running a company.' But those aren't really the hard… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
The bad thing about young people starting a company is that sometimes they do it for the wrong reasons or because they… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
I described the CEO job as knowing what to do and getting the company to do what you want. Designing a proper… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
If I'm in my position at a company, I may not have the knowledge of the C.E.O., I may not know what's… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
As a company gets big, the information that informs decision-making gets massive. Depending upon the prism through which you view the business,… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
The hardest thing about starting a company and running a company is, there's just so many expectations on you, and there are… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
I was an executive running a pretty substantial group before becoming CEO, and I had no idea what it was like. When… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
I do think a lot of people are trying to do important things still, and I think it is really a great… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
John D. Rockefeller said that he found friendships based on business to be far more long lasting and profitable than the reverse.… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
How do you make your company a good place to work in general? That's a really, really, really large and complex set… — Ben Horowitz Copy Share Image
Look - this is the terror of being a founder & CEO. It is all your fault. Every decision, every person you… — 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
