a16z surveys rejected founders to measure if they were treated respectfully
Ben Horowitz · Fireside Chat Part II: Ben Horowitz (a16z) on Culture with Matt Turck (FirstMark) at Data Driven NYC · Feb 20, 2020 · at 32:42
Ben Horowitz is a co-founder and General Partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Speaking at Data Driven NYC, he discusses how a16z uses data to track cultural compliance.
0:00 / 0:14exact quote · 14.2s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“We measure, we do a customer satisfaction survey of entrepreneurs we rejected to measure whether we treated them with, because that's kind of, to me, the litmus test of, are you treating people with respect?”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ben Horowitz
Horowitz: Hiring through separate diversity initiatives fails at real inclusion
“So if you hire somebody on race and gender through the urban talent department, instead of through the normal talent department, through the fucking side door instead of through the front door, because you can't see the talent, then you're never going to be go…”
a16z operates without a head of diversity or diversity program
“But we don't have a head of diversity. We don't have program. We just have, like, criteria that's wide, where we can see talent that we ourselves might not have.”
Horowitz: Founders who lie in pitches also lie to employees
“If you have a founder who's, like, say, telling you, like, some pretty aggressive, not true things in the pitch, then, you know, that's gonna be a tricky founder to work for, because it's very rare to have a person who, you know, lies only to investors and not…”
Horowitz: a16z employees who publicly trash startups on Twitter are fired
“One of the things I tell everybody at New Employee Orientation is if you get on Twitter, like some VCs, and start shitting all over somebody's company, you know, saying, oh, they'll never make any money, that's a dumb idea, I can't believe they called it bodeg…”