The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

Ben Horowitz

Mar 2014 · Sold by Harper Collins

4.5

296 reviews

Ebook

304

Pages

Eligible

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About this ebook

Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup—practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover, based on his popular ben’s blog.

While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Ben Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he’s gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies. A lifelong rap fanatic, he amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs, telling it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.

Filled with his trademark humor and straight talk, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures, drawing from Horowitz's personal and often humbling experiences.

Ratings and reviews

4.5

296 reviews

Deda Sab

January 6, 2023

It was repetitive. The author spoke about his experience and generalized it. Instead of using they, he kept changing genders,which was off putting and annoying. I gave up at 76 and skimmed to the end, for life is too short and I highly doubt that the author would've added any more "important" pieces of information after that because if 76% of a wasn't informative, the last 24% would definitely follow the same bath.

Christian Steinruecken

May 17, 2016

The book discusses many difficult and important problems that a company can encounter, and gives plenty of insights and ideas how to address them. Most strikingly, it cautions the reader not to accept easy answers, but to think hard to find intelligent and innovative solutions.

6 people found this review helpful

Vishwanath Gopu Ramdas

August 12, 2016

From the trenches of making tech companies Horowitz writes the hard things about the hard things.. in a direct narrative.. should be a 2 credit course in our professional lives

38 people found this review helpful

About the author

Ben Horowitz is the cofounder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley–based venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs building the next generation of leading technology companies. The firm's investments include Airbnb, GitHub, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Previously he was cofounder and CEO of Opsware, formerly Loudcloud, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in 2007. Horowitz writes about his experiences and insights from his career as a computer science student, software engineer, cofounder, CEO, and investor in a blog that is read by nearly ten million people. He has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Fortune, the Economist, and Bloomberg Businessweek, among others. Horowitz lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Felicia.

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