Before co-founding a16z, Ben Horowitz was a founder and CEO himself. His bestselling book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, tells the story of how he led enterprise software company Opsware from a stock price under a dollar to an eventual $1.6 billion acquisition by HP.
In this fireside chat, Ben discusses the real challenges founders face when scaling companies... and explains why a company’s story is actually its strategy.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:46 - Best Way to Attract Best Talent
03:33 - Storytelling as a Company
04:49 - The Nature of Hiring in AI Era
07:47 - Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager
11:43 - Where The Next Opportunities Are
13:29 - When NOT to Pivot in Your Product
15:25 - Competing in the AI Age
16:50 - Advice for Successful Fundraising
💡 Are you a founder building the next big thing? Join Speedrun, the startup accelerator designed to help founders move fast with capital, mentorship, and top investors.
👉 Apply now: https://speedrun.a16z.com/
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X (Twitter): https://x.com/speedrun
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/a16zspeedrun/
