The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Many startups hire big company executives, only to realize there’s a mismatch. Let’s zoom in on one of the areas-HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE: Size mismatch We’ve organized the key ideas into several key topics in our full summary, including: why building a great workplace should be a core business goal, what to look out for when hiring people, why training is important to startups (and how to get started), things to look out for in scaling and managing your company. Horowitz shares his perspective and advice on several aspects of building and running a business. The correct sequence of priorities for any business should be: people, products, then profits. We’ll now take a look at some of these ideas in 2 parts: Building a Business While his experiences are in technology companies, the insights are applicable to most businesses.

Horowitz then moves on to explain the key lessons learnt about building and running a business, using anecdotes from his experiences. He shares how he went from an employee to entrepreneur, built Loudcloud (together with ex-CTO of Netscape, Andreessen), fell to nothing, and struggled to rebuild Opsware that was eventually sold to HP for $1.65 billion. We’ve captured the highlights of this journey in our full 14-page book summary. In the book, Horowitz shares his personal journey to give us a glimpse of what really goes on behind the scenes of running a business. In “The Hard Thing about Hard Things”, he shares his experience as an entrepreneur, CEO and venture capitalist, and offers practical tips and advice for dealing with the “hard things” in business that have no clear answers. In this summary, we’ll outline what’s covered in the book, and share some of the business and management tips.įor the full details, examples and tips, do get a copy of the book, or get a detailed overview with our complete book summary bundle.Īs a CEO, some of the hard things you have to face include: building something from nothing, running out of cash & facing bankruptcy, laying off people or firing executives/friends, keeping people motivated during a crisis, finding solutions where there seems to be none, and rebuilding a business after it collapses. The author, Ben Horowitz, is one of the most respected and experienced entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. The hardest thing is, there are no fixed formulas you can follow. Owning a business or being a CEO may seem enviable, but in reality, it’s full of challenges.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz