The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 24 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
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…”
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.”
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…”
Horowitz: Top Founders Like Zuckerberg and Musk Understand People Exceptionally Well
“The ones who truly
Don't understand people are, don't actually turn out to be good CEOs. Like they don't get to that level. Like you can, you know, you can make fun of Larry Page or Elon or Zuck or so forth, but they are actually very smart about people.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
Horowitz: 'Shit sandwich' feedback fails because employees see right through it
“You're not giving them a shit sandwich. You're the greatest person in the world, but this is all fucked up. And I love you like that, that like people are onto that, like it's just too simple.”
Horowitz: Taste and instrumental virtuosity are distinct skills decoupled by AI
“There's a big difference between taste and creativity and being a virtuoso violinist, right? Like those don't necessarily have to be the same thing. And it's great that, you know, people You know, whatever. Practice violin for three hours a day and like get am…”
Horowitz: a16z Fines Investors $10 Per Minute for Meeting Tardiness
“If you're late for that meeting, it's 10 dollars a minute.”
Horowitz: CTOs Must Influence the Whole Company, Not Intimidate Subordinates
“The CTO has got to marshal the resources of the whole company to get what he needs to get the job done. And if you go to like a junior person, you're like five levels below you and make her cry. You know, you're probably right, but like, you're never going to …”
Horowitz: CEO hesitation creates a power vacuum leading to dysfunction
“And if you lose your confidence, you hesitate. And if you hesitate as CEO, then somebody's got to step into that vacuum. And then that's when it becomes very like. Political and dysfunctional.”
Horowitz: Daily executive standups permanently fix broken company communication
“As you grow, like communication becomes your biggest challenge. And so it's just a way to go like, okay, I'm gonna Manually unscalably fixed communication in this organization right now. And the amazing thing about it is does tend to be very long lasting where…”
Horowitz: Having a vacant executive role beats keeping a bad executive
“If he's doing a bad job, like no job is better than a bad job.”
Horowitz: Musk's Tesla Success Unlocked Hard Tech Venture Financing
“Whereas like only Elon could have financed Tesla, normal people can start to finance these things now because Elon has shown that it's possible. So it's a little bit like the four minute mile on that way, I would say.”
Horowitz: Flock Safety Cameras Caught Las Vegas Tesla Arsonist
“And actually, that's how they caught, interestingly, the Tesla terrorists who set the, Tesla ship on fire in Las Vegas was he came in earlier to case the place. Flock safety pick up the car. They saw the car come back at night and they were like, oh, we know w…”
Horowitz: Integrity Only Exists When Tested Against Severe Personal Costs
“Integrity only matters when it's tested. Everybody has integrity. Everybody's honest until it's tested. And then when it's tested, very few people are, right? Like when it costs you money, when it costs you a deal, when it costs you your marriage, are you hone…”
Horowitz: Uncorrected sub-standard behavior creates a new, lower organizational standard
“Well, if you if you see something below standard and you don't correct it, you set a new standard. And that's very true. And that's why they have to be specific because if they're not specific, you can't enforce it.”
Horowitz: Expecting life to be fair wrecks young people
“I see young people wreck themselves so much because they have an expectation that something about life is going to be fair. Like nothing about life is fair. It's not fair where you're born. It's not fair. What race you are. It's not fair. Like what your parent…”
Horowitz: a16z Hosted CEO Barbecues With Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Kanye
“I used to have this event, which I should probably bring back, but I ran out of room in my backyard called the CEO barbecue, where we would bring all the CEOs for the portfolio. And then we would just like put like very famous people around them. So we had lik…”
Horowitz: Nothing at a16z Compares to the Trauma of Running Loudcloud
“The first company I founded, Lovecloud, which then became Opsware, was so difficult that I never, I like in life since then, like we like we've had difficulties building the firm, whatever, but like they never got like a rise out of me that could compare to, y…”
Horowitz: Paid in Full Foundation pays hip-hop pioneers $100K annual pensions
“So I have this charity that I created with my wife called the Paid in Full Foundation which basically, you know, is kind of this idea on a whim, but we give pensions to the old hip-hop guys. So, you know, they got a 100,000 dollars a year, and then we have thi…”