A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business but only Ben Horowitz is
brutally honest about how hard it is to run one. In The Hard Thing About Hard Things Ben
Horowitz cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and
experienced entrepreneurs draws on his own story of founding running selling buying
managing and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom
for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a
devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their
businesses. A lifelong rap fan Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his
favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching
competitors from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash
in. His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise?from cofounding the early
cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz
venture capital firm both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic the
Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap he analyzes issues with
no easy answers through his trials including demoting (or firing) a loyal friend whether you
should incorporate titles and promotions and how to handle them if it's OK to hire people
from your friend's company how to manage your own psychology while the whole company is
relying on you what to do when smart people are bad employees why Andreessen Horowitz prefers
founder CEOs and how to become one whether you should sell your company and how to do it.
Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk and drawing from his personal and
often humbling experiences The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran
entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.
