$46B of hard truths: Why founders fail and why you need to run toward fear | Ben Horowitz (a16z)

Ben Horowitz is the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, Silicon Valley’s largest and most influential venture capital firm, with over $46B in committed capital across multiple funds. He took Loudcloud public with just $2 million in revenue (dubbed “the IPO from hell”), sold it for $1.6 billion, and has backed companies from Facebook to Stripe to Airbnb to OpenAI to Databricks (now worth more than $100 billion). His management philosophy—forged through near-death experiences and refined through coaching hundreds of CEOs—contradicts most conventional startup wisdom.

In our conversation, Ben shares:
1. Why “founder mode” is half right and half dangerously wrong
2. The story behind “Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager” and why it went viral despite being written in anger
3. Where the biggest AI startup opportunities remain
4. Why you need to run toward fear, never away
5. The one trait that predicts that a founder will fail as CEO
6. Inside Paid in Full, Ben’s nonprofit awarding pensions to pioneering hip-hop artists

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Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/46...

My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): ⁠https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/17...

Where to find Ben Horowitz:
• X: https://x.com/bhorowitz
• LinkedIn:   / behorowitz  
• Andreessen Horowitz’s website: https://a16z.com/

Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X:   / lennysan  
• LinkedIn:   / lennyrachitsky  

In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to Ben Horowitz
(04:09) Important leadership lessons from Shaka Senghor
(10:15) Running toward fear and why hesitation kills companies
(19:35) Who shouldn’t start a company
(22:36) The Databricks story: thinking bigger
(24:54) Managerial leverage and CEO psychology
(28:06) When founders should be replaced as CEOs
(31:20) Normalizing failure for CEOs
(37:57) Counterintuitive lessons about building companies
(42:31) “Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager”
(48:21) Product managers as leaders
(51:16) Why a16z invested in Adam Neumann after WeWork
(56:23) Is AI in a bubble?
(01:02:43) The biggest opportunities in AI
(01:12:51) Why U.S. leadership in AI matters
(01:18:53) The Paid in Full Foundation for hip-hop pioneers
(01:23:18) Lightning round: book recommendations, products, and life mottos

Referenced:
• Shaka Senghor on The Joe Rogan Experience: https://open.spotify.com/episode/79ne...
• 1999 Martha’s Vineyard plane crash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Ma...
• John Reed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S....
• LoudCrowd: https://loudcrowd.com/
• Marc Andreessen on X: https://x.com/pmarca
• Ali Ghodsi on LinkedIn:   / alighodsi  
• Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/
• Ion Stoica on LinkedIn:   / ionstoica  
• Hadoop: https://hadoop.apache.org/
• The Sad Truth About Developing Executives: https://a16z.com/the-sad-truth-about-...
• Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook:   / zuck  
• Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama
• Brian Chesky’s new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/br...
• Brian Chesky—Founder Mode & The Art of Hiring:    • Brian Chesky - Founder Mode & The Art of H...  
• Bob Iger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Iger
• Larry Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Page
• Kanye West: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanye_West
• Diddy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Combs
• Arsalan Tavakoli on LinkedIn:   / arsalantavakoli  
• Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager: https://a16z.com/good-product-manager...
• Netscape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape
• Jensen Huang on LinkedIn:   / jenhsunhuang  
• David Weiden on LinkedIn:   / davidweiden  
• Raghu Raghuram on LinkedIn:   / raghuraghuram  
• Adam Neumann on X: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Ne...
• WeWork: https://www.wework.com/
• Cluely: https://cluely.com/
...References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/46...

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.