The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz, 2014

Learn how a founder kept his company alive through a crash, near bankruptcy and a lost customer, and what it taught him about leading when there are no easy answers.

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14 parts, about 25 minutes to read.

Why read it

Tells the story of building and selling a company through the dot com crash, with layoffs, near bankruptcy and a rebuild from nothing
Offers concrete practice for hard moments: how to lay people off, give blunt feedback and tell the whole company the truth about bad news
Explains peacetime and wartime leadership, and the Struggle, when reality crushes a founder's vision and self doubt sets in

Who it is for

Founders and first time chief executives under pressure
Managers who must lay people off or deliver bad news
Readers weighing whether to sell a company they built

What the summary covers

No Recipe for Hard Things1 min
Fear, Family and Netscape2 min
Loudcloud: Boom, Then Bust2 min
Selling Loudcloud to Survive2 min
Opsware: Rebuilding From Nothing3 min
When Things Fall Apart2 min
Layoffs, Lead Bullets and Excuses2 min
Take Care of the People2 min
Measures, Debt and Politics2 min
Leading Without a Map2 min
Peacetime and Wartime1 min
There Are No Rules1 min
Some Experience Required2 min
Embrace the Struggle1 min

Recommended by

Mark ZuckerbergCofounder of Facebook and CEO of Meta
Ben's experience and expertise make him one of the most important leaders not just in Silicon Valley but in the global knowledge economy.
Larry PageCofounder of Google
Ben's book is a great read — with uncomfortable truths about entrepreneurship and how to lead to a company.
Dick CostoloFormer CEO of Twitter
Ben's advice has been invaluable to me over the past few years.
Peter ThielCofounder of PayPal, Palantir and Founders Fund
Ben Horowitz knows no recipe guarantees success, and with The Hard Thing About Hard Things, he has written the first true guide for protecting a startup from self-sabotage.

About the author

Ben HorowitzCofounder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and of Opsware
- Born in London and raised in Berkeley, California.
- Born on January 13, 1966.
- Holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from Columbia University and a master's degree in computer science from UCLA.
- Began his career as an engineer at Silicon Graphics in 1990.
- Ran several product divisions at Netscape Communications.
- Was vice president and general manager of America Online's ecommerce platform division, overseeing the flagship Shop@AOL service.
- Cofounded Loudcloud in September 1999 with Marc Andreessen, Tim Howes and In Sik Rhee, and took it public on March 9, 2001.
- As Opsware's CEO he saw its share price fall from a $6 offering price to $0.35 before the company was sold to HP at $14.25 a share.

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