Ben Horowitz, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, pushes back against the stereotype that the most successful tech founders have low emotional intelligence.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Horowitz: Las Vegas Police reopened the Tupac murder investigation at my request
“So at the end of the dinner, I say to the chief of police, Mike Gennaro, I'm like, Mike, you ought to reopen the Tupac case, and he goes, I'll talk to the sheriff. And the next day I called me, I said, what did the sheriff say? He said, if Ben wants us to open…”
Insight
Horowitz: Founder hesitation on painful layoffs can destroy the company
“The level of like, you know, I was completely wrong about everything, and now I'm going to fire half of you because I, of the mistakes I made will just cause you to hesitate in a way that could cost you the company itself.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Horowitz: Facebook Executives Attempted a Coup in 2007 to Force Yahoo Sale
“The Facebook traffic had flattened and
The current, the executive staff that he had at the time was trying to run a coup to force him to sell to Yahoo. So they were leaking all this stuff to Valleyrag at the time and Valleyrag was, you know, calling for Zuck t…”
Insight
Horowitz: AI video is a distinct creative medium, not just efficiency
“It's not like making the old thing more efficient. It's a new medium. It's an actual new thing in the same ways that like movies weren't plays. You know, AI video is not video. The stories that you can tell are completely different because you can do things th…”
Disclosure
Horowitz: a16z Employees Who Criticize Founders on X Are Fired
“If you if you talk smack about an entrepreneur on X, you're fired. It doesn't matter if they're in the portfolio or not. You're just, that's it.”
Opinion
Horowitz: Jeff Bezos is a top two or three CEO of the last 40 years
“And by the way, like whatever, like, you know, people always make you into cartoon when you get to that level, he is, you know, for sure, like a top two or three best CEO in the last 40 years.”