The Hard Thing About Hard Things, every mention

31 scenes · ← back to The Hard Thing About Hard Things

tap a year for its mentions
0084158201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
048201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
001428201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode

every year anyone Harry Stebbings 12Ryan Caldbeck 3Samir Kaji 2Miki Kuusi 2Melody McCloskey 2Iman Abuzeid 2Anish Acharya 2Zachary Bookman 1Tom Blomfield 1Sean Brecker 1

Verbatim, from the transcripts: the passages where The Hard Thing About Hard Things comes up

loading…

a16z, Anish Acharya: Is SaaS Dead? Do Margins Still Matter? Why We Are Not in an AI Bubble? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Feb 9, 2026 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 1:10:25 Anish Acharya Ben, like, to me, I mean, Hard Things was the first honest business book. 2 times in the scene

Cerebras CEO, Andrew Feldman on Why Raise $1BN and Delay the IPO & Why NVIDIA’s Worried About Growth · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Oct 6, 2025 · 1 mention

Zachary Bookman: Why Valuations and Fundraising are BS | E1235 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Dec 6, 2024 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 31:07 Zachary Bookman And so, I don't know, that's, that's the, Ben Wolowitz talks about this and the hard thing about hard things.

William Hockey: How I Founded Plaid; The Ultimate Cold Email Tip; Hiring Lessons | 20VC #955 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Dec 3, 2022 · 1 mention

Miki Kuusi: How I Scaled Wolt to $8B; Why I Sold to DoorDash | 20VC #953 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Nov 28, 2022 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 25:41 Miki Kuusi Like, uh, Ben Horowitz wrote a fantastic book called Hard Things About Hard Things.
  • ▶ 1:03:31 Miki Kuusi Um, my favorite book though, it's actually very clear from a professional point of view, that would be Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz.

20VC: Bumble's Whitney Wolfe Herd on How The Best Leaders Manage Intense Pressure, How To Think Through Risk vs Reward Frameworks & What it Truly Means to Listen so Your Teams Will Talk Aug 26, 2022 · 1 mention

20VC: Former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney on Why "Only the Niche Will Survive" in Crypto, How Governments and Central Banks Retain Control in a World of Decentralised Finance & The Winners and Losers in Crypto Exchanges and NFTs Jan 10, 2022 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 33:08 Harry Stebbings So, uh, the former 2700 said Hard Thing About Hard Things, so I'm thrilled that you came up with Arcadia.

20VC: Scaling to a $1.3Bn Valuation While in Stealth, The Power of Different Network Effects Within Payment Platforms & How To Leverage Your Board and Investor Base for the Most Value with Matan Bar, Founder & CEO @ Melio Feb 11, 2021 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 20:36 Matan Bar Blitz scaling, the hard thing about hard things, like every book that talks about hyper growth companies, I mean, discusses, it always feels like these books were written about us.

20VC: Why Most Founders Do Not Structure Their Fundraise Correctly, The Pros Of Having An MBA As A Startup Founder & How To Manage The Psychology Of Being CEO and Overcome Self Doubt with Iman Abuzeid, Founder & CEO @ Incredible Health Mar 6, 2020 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 17:20 Iman Abuzeid You know, Ben Horowitz in his book, Hard Things About Hard Things, one of the first things he says is the number one job of the CEO is to manage your own psychology.
  • ▶ 29:44 Iman Abuzeid Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, because it just explained and set the expectations for how intense the CEO journey is.

20VC: a16z's Ben Horowitz on How To Create An Environment of Trust with Founders, How and Why Creating Shocking Rules Is So Impactful To Culture & What The Samurai, Shaka Senghor and Toussaint Teach Us About Company Culture Building Oct 28, 2019 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 0:38 Harry Stebbings Ben is also the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, and the upcoming Harper Business book, What you do is who you are, available on October the 29th.

20VC: a16z Partner Frank Chen on The Future of Car Ownership, Whether The High Employee Attrition Rate in The Valley Is A Feature or A Bug & His Biggest Lessons From Netscape, Loudcloud & Opsware Feb 25, 2019 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 4:21 Harry Stebbings I do have to ask you, you mentioned the element of working with both Mark and Ben for a considerable time, and obviously the hard thing about hard things is such a hailed book in our industry with the lessons from Ben from Opsware. 2 times in the scene

20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence Nov 30, 2018 · 1 mention

20VC: Ryan Caldbeck on Why The Business Model of VC is Broken, Who is To Blame, How The Best Funds Will Use Data Intelligently Moving Forward & Whether We Are In A Consumer Bubble Or Not? Nov 2, 2018 · 1 mention

20VC: Why Too Many People Give Up Too Quickly, Why You Should Never Start A Venture Without Owning The Underlying Data & Why We Have Over-Estimated The Ability of Automation with Dennis Mortensen, Founder & CEO @ X.ai Oct 19, 2018 · 1 mention

20VC: Lessons From Slack and Opendoor on Price Sensitivity, Why The Best CEOs Are Able To Manage Momentum and Why Being A Board Member is a "Full Contact Sport" with Glenn Solomon, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital May 29, 2018 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 25:09 Glenn Solomon I like to read, you know, those who read my blog know that I put out an annual reading list, and I know that, you know, some of my favorite books that have been mentioned on episodes of your show, like Sapiens and The Hard Thing About Hard…

20VC: What Does It Take To Raise A Venture Fund Today, An Analysis of The Explosion of Seed Financing & Why IRR No Longer Takes Centre Stage with Samir Kaji, Senior Managing Director @ First Republic Bank Oct 11, 2017 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 23:28 Samir Kaji I, you know, I'll say one of my favorite books over the last, you know, few years is, is Ben Horowitz's book. 2 times in the scene

20VC: Why Every Founder Should Bootstrap Their Startup, How To Solve Information Asymmetry Between Founders and VCs & Living In A Cupboard For Two Years To Fund StyleSeat with Melody McCloskey, Founder & CEO @ StyleSeat Mar 31, 2017 · 2 mentions

20VC: Why We Are Valuation & Ownership Insensitive, Why We Do Not Take Board Seats & The Effects Of The Series A Crunch with Topher Conway, Co-Managing Partner @ SV Angel Feb 13, 2017 · 1 mention

20VC: Why Adaptability Is Key To Fundraising, Why Supply Is Always The First Priority In Marketplaces & Why Sometimes You Have To Hire Fast & Fire Fast with Nav Athwal, Founder & CEO @ RealtyShares Oct 21, 2016 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 23:36 Nav Athwal So let's do your favorite book and why this one's tough, but I would have to say the hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz.

20VC: Maximising Engagement and Retention on Mobile & Why There Should Always Be Availability To A Free Product with Sean Brecker, CEO @ Headspace Aug 26, 2016 · 1 mention

20VC: Why People Should Never Be Surprised If Fired, Subscription E-Commerce Is Hot & People Never Give True and Direct Feedback with Amir Elaguizy, Co-Founder @ Cratejoy Jul 29, 2016 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 20:41 unnamed speaker It's Ben Horowitz's book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. 3 times in the scene

20VC: How Startups Should React To Today's Funding Environment & Why Big Markets Are More Forgiving with Jenny Lefcourt, Partner @ Freestyle.vc May 18, 2016 · 2 mentions

20VC: Fundraising Is Also Business Development with Nicolas Dessaigne, Co-Founder & CEO @ Algolia Apr 22, 2016 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 22:02 Nicolas Dessaigne And then, of course, many other books like, uh, like HeartSing, about HeartSings, is just awesome, and so on.

20VC: Maveron's Rebecca Kaden on The Patterns Of Entrepreneurship and Taking A Consumer Product From Niche To Mass Market Mar 23, 2016 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 21:06 unnamed speaker We, we've had many hard things about hard things, but never that before, um, but, but it's on my reading list now, there you go.

20VC FF 035: Why Crowdfunding Is Not Right For Tech Startups with Ryan Caldbeck @ CircleUp Feb 12, 2016 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 19:59 Ryan Caldbeck The, the, the hard thing, yeah, the hard thing about hard things, and, um, because he is so candid. 2 times in the scene

20 VC: The Ultimate Guide To Marketplaces with Boris Wertz, Founding Partner @ Version One Ventures Dec 28, 2015 · 1 mention

FF 009: How To Leverage Your Connections To Grow Your Business with Sarah Schupp, Founder & CEO @ University Parent Aug 21, 2015 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 12:09 Harry Stebbings In, I don't, I don't know if you've read Ben Horowitz's latest book The Hard Thing About Hard Things. 2 times in the scene

20 VC 053: Inside Union Square Ventures with Jonathan Libov @ Union Square Ventures Jul 13, 2015 · 1 mention

20 VC 033: The Pros and Cons of Venture Capital, Atomico and Entrepreneurship with Chris Dark, President International @ C2FO May 4, 2015 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 17:37 Chris Dark Um, but what really distinguishes, I think, the best investors is, you know what, and they're, you know, if you read, you know, the hard thing about hard things, you know, Ben Horowitz.
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.