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

Ben Horowitz grew up in Berkeley, California, and graduated with a master’s degree in computer science in 1990. Five years later, he went to work for Netscape as a product manager. There, he met his future business partner, Marc Andreessen. In 1999, Horowitz co-founded LoudCloud with Andreessen. It was an early example of software as a service (SAAS) for enterprise computing using cloud hosting. Horowitz assumed the role of president and chief executive officer (CEO). He then took the company public in 2001. Because of the volatility in the tech financial sector at the time, Horowitz and his partners sold the hosting services associated with LoudCloud to Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 2002. They retained the enterprise software known as Opsware, eventually selling this business to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2007 for $1.6 billion.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things consists of the lessons that Horowitz learned during this period of his life. His time at Netscape, LoudCloud, and Opsware coincided with the financial crisis created by the dot-com bubble. Consequently, the value of Horowitz’s companies fluctuated wildly as he scrambled to keep his businesses from going bankrupt. Having learned how to successfully run a startup company, Horowitz paired with Andreessen to provide financing and guidance for new launches through their venture capital firm; Andreessen Horowitz was founded in 2007 with $300 million in capital. The firm is now worth $2.7 billion, and Horowitz continues to be an influential voice in the high-tech industry.