May 18, 2017
Imagine your startup is down to its last bit of cash, your investors won’t follow on, you’re sure you’re going bankrupt, and everyone tells you to give up. What do you do? You decide to take your company public--it’s dubbed by BusinessWeek as “The IPO from Hell.” That’s just one of many cold-sweat moments Ben Horowitz has experienced first-hand in his career.
Ben took that beleaguered company public and eventually sold it to HP for $1.65B in one of the most impressive turnaround stories in history. He went on to co-found the prestigious Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz. His blog and his book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” are essential reading for tech entrepreneurs, and are an honest look at entrepreneurship from his personal experience.
I interviewed him live at UCLA. He shared some really deep leadership insights that can be translated to any industry, so while he's not a manufacturing entrepreneur, I wanted to share it with you this week. I was curious to hear about what he’s learned through his rollercoaster journey as an entrepreneur. We talk about his love for rap music and the technology trends he’s most excited about. He gives plenty of advice to the students in the audience to prepare them for meaningful careers. We spent a lot of time talking about leadership, making hard decisions, and how to build the right culture in your company. And as we learn, decision-making and culture go hand-in-hand in pursuit of success.
The views expressed on The Art of Manufacturing podcast are those of the guests, and not our sponsors or partners.
For more information, photos, and links, check out the show notes at http://makeitinla.org/benhorowitz.