Ken Coleman

Special Advisor, Andreessen Horowitz · 1 appearance on the record.

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A pioneer among Black Silicon Valley executives, Coleman held early management roles at Hewlett-Packard and Activision before serving as Executive Vice President at Silicon Graphics. He later founded ITM Software and is renowned as a mentor to venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, serving as a Special Advisor to Andreessen Horowitz.

13statements → 0claims → 0claims resolved → 3.85/5average certainty → 2.23/5average debate potential →

1 opinion · 12 insights · every statement was checked. none of them is a claim the record can settle: opinions, insights and disclosures never carry an assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ken argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: speaking style how? →

236 words/min while actually speaking · 0.8 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Ken Coleman: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews.

Measured by listening to 2,496 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Ken Coleman is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

What they said13 Episodes1

Everything Ken Coleman said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Coleman: Corporate diversity efforts fail when D&I officers lack actual authority

“I'm finding that a number of D&I people have the job but no power, no influence, and trying to do diversity is hard, like anything else. You have to have goals and objectives like anything else that's important, and you have to have people who have the ability…”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 20:59 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Coleman: Tech hiring managers prioritize risk minimization over maximizing opportunity

“In technology that the average hiring manager is not trying to maximize the opportunity to try and minimize risk.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 24:05 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Ken Coleman: Over-reliance on resumes misses true drivers of success

“Well, I think there's an over reliance on resumes and experience, and people miss what's really important in success, which is skills, abilities, and personal attributes.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 2:13 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Opinion

Coleman: Junior managers demand unrealistic experience in hiring specs

“I find it fascinating that a manager who's five years out of school is recruiting somebody and puts a spec together for 15 years of experience.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 3:11 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Coleman: Most companies lack employees who exercise 'intelligent override'

“Companies put together systems and processes, and unfortunately, about 10, sometimes up to 20% of the time, that process makes no sense. It's just not helpful. And so what you want to do in a company is people who can do what I call intelligent override. The p…”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 5:02 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Coleman: Peers can serve as effective professional mentors

“And my point there, you can have a peer as a mentor, because we were peers. I didn't work for him, he didn't work for me.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 7:36 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Ken Coleman: The CEO role changes more than any other as companies scale

“There's a difference when there are five of you, or eight of you, or 10 of you, when there's 500 of you, or thousand of you, and the person's job who changes the most in a growing environment is the CEO's job.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 9:44 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Ken Coleman: CEOs stop knowing every employee once team size exceeds 125

“Because when you're up to about a 125 people, you, the CEO, You're the leader of the company. You can know everybody. When you got 500 people, everybody knows you, and you know a very small part of the company.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 10:04 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Coleman: High-growth leaders act on feedback within one week

“The people that can grow the most are people when you have a conversation today, and you talk to them a week from the day, and they've done something with the conversation.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 12:31 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Ken Coleman: Mentorship must develop organically through trust and honesty

“So I believe you should be about getting to know more and more people, and the mentorship happens organically as you get to know people, because you can't make somebody be a mentor, and for it to work, That relationship, there has to be trust, and you gotta be…”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 13:46 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Ken Coleman: Addressing diversity issues creates stronger companies and leaders

“So if you push on the diversity issues, it'll make you a better company or a better leader.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 26:37 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Ken Coleman: Difficulty is a terrible excuse for avoiding corporate goals

“So, hard is a terrible reason not to do anything, because we live in this world where we choose to do hard every day.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 28:51 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Insight

Coleman: Ending meetings asking 'what can I do for you?' is powerful

“Every time you meet with this guy, he always ends with, what can I do for you? It's fast, it's disarming, and you feel, wow, he cares. He cares about how he can help me. I just find that a very powerful way to end the conversation.”

Ken Coleman Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 17:43 a16z Podcast | On Mentors and Mentees

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
a16z Podcast \| On Mentors and Mentees	Jan 2, 2019	13m

Ken Coleman

The record, in short

How they sound: speaking style how? →

Appearances (1)

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