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Marc Andreessen explains why startups are an “irrational act” “The biggest thing people don’t understand about what it’s like to be a startup founder is it gets very romanticized. Even whey they fail, it still gets romanticized about what a great adventure it was. But the reality of it... is most of what happens is people telling you no, and then they usually follow that with ‘you’re stupid.’ No, I will not come to work for you. No, I’m not going to buy your product.” Marc explains why: “When you’re a founder, you cannot let on that this is happening because it will cause people to think that you’re weak and they’ll lose faith in you. So you have to pretend you’re having a great time when you’re dying inside. Just misery.” Why do it then? “For most of these people - on a risk-adjusted basis - it’s probably an irrational act. They could probably be more financially successful on average if they just got like a real job in a big company. But some people just have an irrational need to do something new and build something for themselves and some people just can’t tolerate having bosses.” Video source: Lex Fridman (2023)show more

Startup Archive

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70,007 views • 11 months ago •via X (Twitter)

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10 Comments

Dr. Julie Gurner11 months ago

The is everyone who owns a business, and not exclusive to start up founders.

Startup Archive11 months ago

💯

Mobile Scanner1 year ago

Scan any documents, convert images into text, PDF files, etc. 👍

Matt Acker11 months ago

Scar tissue is a great credential

Alex Recouso11 months ago

💯

Prashan Agarwal (prashan.sui)11 months ago

The odds look wild until the one yes arrives. I feel founders bet on the moment when skill and timing are perfect. Upside has no cap, pain does. That math keeps us in the game.

aiSportsPicks11 months ago

put it on my grave

Dante O. Cuales, Jr.11 months ago

Love how he always keeps it real. Starting a company looks glamorous from the outside but most of it is just grit, risk and a lot of late nights nobody sees.

Pareash 🇮🇳11 months ago

embracing the irrationality is part of the journey. it's not just about financial success, but the drive to create something meaningful. founders often find purpose beyond the paycheck, thriving on challenges and autonomy. that's why we keep building despite the odds.

Yara AI11 months ago

💯

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Marc Andreessen on why we shouldn’t encourage people to be entrepreneurs “The idea of being an entrepreneur has been a romanticized concept. There used to be TV shows talking about how fun it was. And people ask questions, ‘How do we encourage more people to be entrepreneurs?’ And my answer was always: no, we shouldn’t do that. People shouldn’t be encouraged to do something that painful. They should do it because they really want to do it. In fact, they should do it because they can’t not do it.” Marc continues: “It’s tremendously painful. Most of the experience of being in business as a startup is being told no. You need all these things: employees, financing, customers. Then you go around all day long asking people for those things and they tell you no. Half the time they don’t even respond. And then just when you think you get it working, a new competitor emerges and just starts punching you square in the face. The minute you think your product is working, there’s a problem in it, and you have to do a recall. It’s just this constant rolling horror story.” Video source: Chris Williamson (2024)

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Startup Archive

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Startup Archive

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Steve Jobs on leadership In the clip below, Steve argues: “The greatest people are self-managing. They don’t need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they’ll go figure out how to do it… What they need is a common vision, and that’s what leadership is. Leadership is having a vision, being able to articulate that so the people around you can understand it, and getting consensus on a common vision.” Borrowing from his tagline for the original Mac, Steve continues: “we wanted people who were insanely great at what they did… and the neatest thing that happens when you get a core group of ten great people is that it becomes self-policing as to who they let into that group. So I consider the most important job of someone like myself to be recruiting.” This observation on the importance of getting the first ten people right is a refrain you constantly hear from the very best founders. As Patrick Collison put it: “A large part of the reason why the first ten people you hire are so important is because you’re not just hiring those first ten people. You’re actually hiring 100 people, because you should think of each of those people as bring along another ten people with them.” The best leaders recruit “insanely great” people and align them around a common vision.

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Steve Jobs on what separates the successful founders from unsuccessful ones Steve is asked what the factors of success and common pitfalls are for young entrepreneurs. He responds: “I get asked this a lot, and I have a pretty standard answer. A lot of people come to me and say, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur.’ And I go, ‘Oh, that’s great, what’s your idea?’ And they say they don’t have one yet. And I say I think you should go get a job as a busboy or something until you find something you’re really passionate about, because it’s a lot of work.” Steve continues: “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You pour so much of your life into this thing, and there are such rough moments in time that most people give up. I don’t blame them. It’s really tough, and it consumes your life. I mean, if you’ve got a family and you’re in the early days of a company, I can’t imagine how one could do it. I’m sure it’s been done, but it’s rough because it’s pretty much an 18-hour-a-day job, 7 days a week for a while. So unless you have a lot of passion about this, you’re not going to survive. You’re going to give it up.” He concludes: “You’ve got to have an idea or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about. Otherwise, you’re not going to have the perseverance to stick it through. And I think that’s half the battle right there.”

Steve Jobs on what separates the successful founders from unsuccessful ones Steve is asked what the factors of success and common pitfalls are for young entrepreneurs. He responds: “I get asked this a lot, and I have a pretty standard answer. A lot of people come to me and say, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur.’ And I go, ‘Oh, that’s great, what’s your idea?’ And they say they don’t have one yet. And I say I think you should go get a job as a busboy or something until you find something you’re really passionate about, because it’s a lot of work.” Steve continues: “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You pour so much of your life into this thing, and there are such rough moments in time that most people give up. I don’t blame them. It’s really tough, and it consumes your life. I mean, if you’ve got a family and you’re in the early days of a company, I can’t imagine how one could do it. I’m sure it’s been done, but it’s rough because it’s pretty much an 18-hour-a-day job, 7 days a week for a while. So unless you have a lot of passion about this, you’re not going to survive. You’re going to give it up.” He concludes: “You’ve got to have an idea or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about. Otherwise, you’re not going to have the perseverance to stick it through. And I think that’s half the battle right there.”

Startup Archive

80,736 views • 7 months ago

Sam Altman: “Most people give up on things way too early” “Knowing when to quit and knowing when to give up on something, there’s no perfect answer to that. It’s really challenging to even get that approximately correct. But I think most people give up on things way too early.” Sam continues: “The mistake that most people make — particularly young entrepreneurs — is they try something, it does not immediately work, and after seven weeks, they say, ‘I tried this thing and it’s just not meant to be.’… The satirical version of this are people who are 23 and have started 14 startups because they give up on everyone before it could ever possibly be successful. These things are really hard. They take a really long time. There are a lot of critics. There are a lot of people who say: your thing sucks; it’s going to fail; it’s really stupid.” There’s also what Y Combinator calls “The Trough of Sorrow” where, as Sam describes, “no one even decides to say it sucks because no one cares at all. And that is at least as demotivating.” But this doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work. Sam explains: “Most of the founders that I have spent a lot of time with that have gone on to be super successful spent a very long time on their idea when a lot of other people would have given up. Either people said it sucks, or people said nothing about it at all. And a framework that I have for when to give up versus when to keep working is that it should be an internal, rather than an external, decision. If people aren’t using it or people are saying it’s bad, that alone is not a reason to give up. You want to pay some attention to that — they might be right. But the best entrepreneurs I know make an internal decision about when to give up or when to keep working on something. It’s basically: when you have run out of ideas, and something is not working, then it is a good time to stop.” Video source: Y Combinator (2016)

Sam Altman: “Most people give up on things way too early” “Knowing when to quit and knowing when to give up on something, there’s no perfect answer to that. It’s really challenging to even get that approximately correct. But I think most people give up on things way too early.” Sam continues: “The mistake that most people make — particularly young entrepreneurs — is they try something, it does not immediately work, and after seven weeks, they say, ‘I tried this thing and it’s just not meant to be.’… The satirical version of this are people who are 23 and have started 14 startups because they give up on everyone before it could ever possibly be successful. These things are really hard. They take a really long time. There are a lot of critics. There are a lot of people who say: your thing sucks; it’s going to fail; it’s really stupid.” There’s also what Y Combinator calls “The Trough of Sorrow” where, as Sam describes, “no one even decides to say it sucks because no one cares at all. And that is at least as demotivating.” But this doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work. Sam explains: “Most of the founders that I have spent a lot of time with that have gone on to be super successful spent a very long time on their idea when a lot of other people would have given up. Either people said it sucks, or people said nothing about it at all. And a framework that I have for when to give up versus when to keep working is that it should be an internal, rather than an external, decision. If people aren’t using it or people are saying it’s bad, that alone is not a reason to give up. You want to pay some attention to that — they might be right. But the best entrepreneurs I know make an internal decision about when to give up or when to keep working on something. It’s basically: when you have run out of ideas, and something is not working, then it is a good time to stop.” Video source: Y Combinator (2016)

Startup Archive

31,721 views • 1 year ago

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Camilla Araujo explains why people spend so much money on OF: “One person spent $1.4M in a year” “If you can convince someone that you’re in a relationship with Sophie Rain, they’re buying it. You know how much one person spent? Like $1.4 million in a year. You’re selling an illusion. You’re selling a relationship. You’re selling an experience. But the reason people do it is because it’s a drug. It’s addiction. It’s a serious thing. And it’s also the person. If you drop a link and you are Logan Paul, people are going to buy it because you’re Logan Paul. It’s because of who you are. People want to feel that experience with me.”

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Presidency | Rwanda

47,067 views • 1 year ago

Ben Horowitz on what makes the job of a startup CEO so difficult “The way to think about [the CEO job] is: You invent something the world may want, so you start a company. You hire every person you know who you think is good and respect. You raise money from people. You go sign up customers, and those customers depend on you to succeed. It’s a lot of pressure. But you don’t actually know what you’re doing. You’ve never been a CEO. You’ve never run a big organization.” Ben continues: “You know everyone’s depending on you. And all you do is work, so you don’t have any life outside of this, and your life is basically over if this company fails. And you don’t know [if your decisions] are the right thing to do — you only think it. And then you have people around you telling you, ‘No, it’s not the right thing to do.’ So how do you trust your eyes and trust what you think, then go do it? It’s a very difficult problem.” “This is where I see CEOs fail all the time,” Ben says. They think they know what the right thing to do is, but they don’t act on it. They hesitate because there’s “too much scary stuff” between you and making that decision (e.g. the pressure of it all, people telling you you’re wrong, etc.). Video source: a16z (2025)

Ben Horowitz on what makes the job of a startup CEO so difficult “The way to think about [the CEO job] is: You invent something the world may want, so you start a company. You hire every person you know who you think is good and respect. You raise money from people. You go sign up customers, and those customers depend on you to succeed. It’s a lot of pressure. But you don’t actually know what you’re doing. You’ve never been a CEO. You’ve never run a big organization.” Ben continues: “You know everyone’s depending on you. And all you do is work, so you don’t have any life outside of this, and your life is basically over if this company fails. And you don’t know [if your decisions] are the right thing to do — you only think it. And then you have people around you telling you, ‘No, it’s not the right thing to do.’ So how do you trust your eyes and trust what you think, then go do it? It’s a very difficult problem.” “This is where I see CEOs fail all the time,” Ben says. They think they know what the right thing to do is, but they don’t act on it. They hesitate because there’s “too much scary stuff” between you and making that decision (e.g. the pressure of it all, people telling you you’re wrong, etc.). Video source: a16z (2025)

Startup Archive

44,950 views • 1 year ago

Q: Why is it easier to start a hard company than an easy company? In the clip below, Sam Altman tells the class at Stanford: “It’s easier to start a hard company than an easy company. Most people—especially young people—want to pick something that doesn’t sound too ambitious. They say to themselves: ‘starting a company sounds really hard. I better pick the easiest possible company.’” But as Sam explains: “Starting a company is always hard and it’s about equally hard no matter what you do. If you start a hard company though and you inspire passionate people—for example, if you are working on general AI or supersonic airplanes or nuclear power—you’ll find a lot more people who are excited about that than another derivative idea.” He elaborates on this idea even further in a blog post from four years ago: “The most precious commodity in the startup ecosystem right now is talented people, and for the most part talented people want to work on something they find meaningful… An easy startup is a headwind; a hard startup is a tailwind. If people care about your success because you seem committed to doing something significant, it’s a background force helping you with hiring, advice, partnerships, fundraising, etc.” He continues: “Let yourself become more ambitious—figure out the most interesting version of where what you’re working on could go. Then talk about that big vision and work relentlessly towards it, but always have a reasonable next step. You don’t want step one to be incorporating the company and step two to be going to Mars. Be willing to make a very long-term commitment to what you’re doing. Most people aren’t, which is part of the reason they pick ‘easy’ startups. In a world of compounding advantages where most people are operating on a 3 year timeframe and you’re operating on a 10 year timeframe, you’ll have a very large edge.”

Q: Why is it easier to start a hard company than an easy company? In the clip below, Sam Altman tells the class at Stanford: “It’s easier to start a hard company than an easy company. Most people—especially young people—want to pick something that doesn’t sound too ambitious. They say to themselves: ‘starting a company sounds really hard. I better pick the easiest possible company.’” But as Sam explains: “Starting a company is always hard and it’s about equally hard no matter what you do. If you start a hard company though and you inspire passionate people—for example, if you are working on general AI or supersonic airplanes or nuclear power—you’ll find a lot more people who are excited about that than another derivative idea.” He elaborates on this idea even further in a blog post from four years ago: “The most precious commodity in the startup ecosystem right now is talented people, and for the most part talented people want to work on something they find meaningful… An easy startup is a headwind; a hard startup is a tailwind. If people care about your success because you seem committed to doing something significant, it’s a background force helping you with hiring, advice, partnerships, fundraising, etc.” He continues: “Let yourself become more ambitious—figure out the most interesting version of where what you’re working on could go. Then talk about that big vision and work relentlessly towards it, but always have a reasonable next step. You don’t want step one to be incorporating the company and step two to be going to Mars. Be willing to make a very long-term commitment to what you’re doing. Most people aren’t, which is part of the reason they pick ‘easy’ startups. In a world of compounding advantages where most people are operating on a 3 year timeframe and you’re operating on a 10 year timeframe, you’ll have a very large edge.”

Michael McGuiness

504,007 views • 2 years ago

Rob Dillingham on what it felt like to not play his rookie year “It’s hard to explain honestly, like for ya’ll if you had something you love to do, and you do it every single day and now you just can’t do it. You’re still working at it but you don’t get to perform. You’re going to feel something inside, it’s not towards people, it’s just life… experience teaches you, so I don’t really worry about… we’re here now and I’m going to make the best of it for sure”

Rob Dillingham on what it felt like to not play his rookie year “It’s hard to explain honestly, like for ya’ll if you had something you love to do, and you do it every single day and now you just can’t do it. You’re still working at it but you don’t get to perform. You’re going to feel something inside, it’s not towards people, it’s just life… experience teaches you, so I don’t really worry about… we’re here now and I’m going to make the best of it for sure”

Andrew Dukowitz

915,731 views • 9 months ago

Elon Musk on the first thing to do when starting a company “The goal with Tesla was really to try to show what electric cars can do because people had the wrong impression. We had to change people’s perception of an electric vehicle because they used to think of it as something that was slow and ugly with low range, kind of like a golf cart. That’s why we created the Tesla Roadster — to show that it can be fast, attractive, and long range… Until you actually have the physical object and they can drive it, it doesn’t really sink in for people.” Elon believe this principle is something all startup founders should take note of: “If you’re going to create a company, the first thing you should try to do is create a working prototype. Everything looks great on PowerPoint… But if you have an actual demonstration — even if it’s in primitive form — that’s much more effective for convincing people.”

Elon Musk on the first thing to do when starting a company “The goal with Tesla was really to try to show what electric cars can do because people had the wrong impression. We had to change people’s perception of an electric vehicle because they used to think of it as something that was slow and ugly with low range, kind of like a golf cart. That’s why we created the Tesla Roadster — to show that it can be fast, attractive, and long range… Until you actually have the physical object and they can drive it, it doesn’t really sink in for people.” Elon believe this principle is something all startup founders should take note of: “If you’re going to create a company, the first thing you should try to do is create a working prototype. Everything looks great on PowerPoint… But if you have an actual demonstration — even if it’s in primitive form — that’s much more effective for convincing people.”

Startup Archive

34,567 views • 6 months ago

Naval Ravikant’s checklist for starting a company “The most important thing is there are no formulas. At the end of the day, you have to do what you love, and you have to do it even though people tell you it’ll never work. But that being said, if there was a formula [for starting a company], I would put it something like this.” Naval started seven companies before AngelList and this is the checklist he recommends running through before starting a startup: 1. Pick a great cofounder. This is most important: “You can do a company on your own, but it’s like you can raise a child on your own, but you probably shouldn’t. You need someone who’s going to be there with you.” This has it’s own checklist. Your cofounder should be: a. Very high intelligence (”hopefully they make you feel dumb, or they’re not smart enough”) b. Very high energy (”They should be extremely hardworking. A founder is someone who never has to be motivated. You should not have to be telling them to do their job.”) c. Very high integrity. (”a smart, hardworking crook who’s going to cheat you is the worst kind of person to be paired up with.”) 2. Pick a very large market. “Notice I don’t talk about the idea. I think ideas are almost irrelevant… The more important thing is that you pick a large space that you’re knowledgeable and passionate about. And then you will figure out what the right thing to do within that space is.” You want to be able to say to investors: “This is a space where there’s a huge market. I’m really knowledgeable and passionate about it. Here’s the great person that I have doing it with me. And here’s the minimum viable product that we have built. That will show that we can test in the marketplace… You iterate until you get to product/market fit… And then you go and you raise money from people you trust. And you use that money to scale.”

Naval Ravikant’s checklist for starting a company “The most important thing is there are no formulas. At the end of the day, you have to do what you love, and you have to do it even though people tell you it’ll never work. But that being said, if there was a formula [for starting a company], I would put it something like this.” Naval started seven companies before AngelList and this is the checklist he recommends running through before starting a startup: 1. Pick a great cofounder. This is most important: “You can do a company on your own, but it’s like you can raise a child on your own, but you probably shouldn’t. You need someone who’s going to be there with you.” This has it’s own checklist. Your cofounder should be: a. Very high intelligence (”hopefully they make you feel dumb, or they’re not smart enough”) b. Very high energy (”They should be extremely hardworking. A founder is someone who never has to be motivated. You should not have to be telling them to do their job.”) c. Very high integrity. (”a smart, hardworking crook who’s going to cheat you is the worst kind of person to be paired up with.”) 2. Pick a very large market. “Notice I don’t talk about the idea. I think ideas are almost irrelevant… The more important thing is that you pick a large space that you’re knowledgeable and passionate about. And then you will figure out what the right thing to do within that space is.” You want to be able to say to investors: “This is a space where there’s a huge market. I’m really knowledgeable and passionate about it. Here’s the great person that I have doing it with me. And here’s the minimum viable product that we have built. That will show that we can test in the marketplace… You iterate until you get to product/market fit… And then you go and you raise money from people you trust. And you use that money to scale.”

Startup Archive

36,050 views • 1 year ago

🚨President Trump announced that there might be a high-level meeting with Zelenskyy as early as this weekend, but didn’t specify if he would participate, and once again reiterated that UA should hold elections right now (note: it’s against the constitution to hold elections during the martial law, also it’s simply not safe, and UA society is widely opposed to the idea). TRUMP: “They would like us to go to a meeting over the weekend, in Europe, and we’ll make a determination depending on what they come back with. We don’t wanna be wasting time. Sometimes you have to let people fight it out, and sometimes you don’t. But the problem with letting people fight it out is you’re losing thousands of people a week. It’s ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous.” Q: “And when you say that the European leaders want to have a meeting over the weekend, are you talking about with Zelenskyy or with them?” TRUMP: “With Zelenskyy and us.” Q: “And you said in an interview yesterday that you think it’s time for Zelenskyy to start accepting things. What things are you talking about?” TRUMP: “Well, I think he has to be realistic. And I do wonder about how long is it gonna be till they have an election. You know, for a democracy, it’s a long time. They haven’t had an election in a long time. There was a poll that came out, 82% of the people are demanding a settlement be made, Ukrainian people. They wanna see a settlement be made. I understand that. They’re losing thousands and thousands of people a week. They wanna see it ended. And I do say at what point, when do they have an election in Ukraine? That’s not casting aspersions on anybody, but they do have a massive corruption situation going on there… People are asking this question, ‘When do they have an election?’ Are they gonna have an election, or are they gonna just keep it going like this? So, I think it’s time to get that war settled, and I think it’s a war that can be settled. But it takes two to tango.”

🚨President Trump announced that there might be a high-level meeting with Zelenskyy as early as this weekend, but didn’t specify if he would participate, and once again reiterated that UA should hold elections right now (note: it’s against the constitution to hold elections during the martial law, also it’s simply not safe, and UA society is widely opposed to the idea). TRUMP: “They would like us to go to a meeting over the weekend, in Europe, and we’ll make a determination depending on what they come back with. We don’t wanna be wasting time. Sometimes you have to let people fight it out, and sometimes you don’t. But the problem with letting people fight it out is you’re losing thousands of people a week. It’s ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous.” Q: “And when you say that the European leaders want to have a meeting over the weekend, are you talking about with Zelenskyy or with them?” TRUMP: “With Zelenskyy and us.” Q: “And you said in an interview yesterday that you think it’s time for Zelenskyy to start accepting things. What things are you talking about?” TRUMP: “Well, I think he has to be realistic. And I do wonder about how long is it gonna be till they have an election. You know, for a democracy, it’s a long time. They haven’t had an election in a long time. There was a poll that came out, 82% of the people are demanding a settlement be made, Ukrainian people. They wanna see a settlement be made. I understand that. They’re losing thousands and thousands of people a week. They wanna see it ended. And I do say at what point, when do they have an election in Ukraine? That’s not casting aspersions on anybody, but they do have a massive corruption situation going on there… People are asking this question, ‘When do they have an election?’ Are they gonna have an election, or are they gonna just keep it going like this? So, I think it’s time to get that war settled, and I think it’s a war that can be settled. But it takes two to tango.”

Kateryna Lisunova

10,801 views • 6 months ago

Joe Rogan issues a HEARTFELT apology to Theo Von over his recent comments: “I apologized to Theo. He knows I love him and he said that and we laughed and we joked around about it and I apologized for the way I talked about this. But I felt like I needed to explain to other people too, to get what was going on in my mind out and it certainly wasn’t like covering for Israel and it wasn’t trying to paint him out like he’s damaged or treat him like a child.” “I just want him to be okay. And when you’re dealing with someone, or when you have had experience dealing with someone where it winds up going very badly, and then you’re just left with this feeling, like, what could I have done? You know, I didn’t do a good job of it, especially the Marcus King thing. That’s terrible what I did. I didn’t mean to.” “I was just trying to—you don’t think sometimes when you are in the middle of a podcast. You’re having a conversation, you don’t think about the impact that it’s gonna have. That’s one of the reasons why, you know, podcasts are so weird because like you’re in the middle of trying to be entertaining, but you’re also just having a conversation and I f*cked up because I felt so badly about it. It was like there’s got to be a way to address this where I just express myself and so that’s why we’ve never done this before.” “We’ve never done this kind of a thing after a podcast, but it was very important to me. He’s an awesome person, a great friend, and one of the most interesting and funny people I’ve ever met in my life. And I just felt terrible about it. And I told them I would never bring it up publicly again, but I think it is important to let people know that aspect of it.” “So I’m gonna call him and clear this with him and make sure he’s cool with me saying this, but I’m pretty sure he is gonna be. And that’s it… I’m a human and I’m flawed like all of us and I f*ck up and it’s probably not the last time. It’s definitely not. I’m going to f*ck up again. But my intention is never to hurt anybody, ever. And that’s why I mean I very rarely if ever even get upset at anyone other than like corrupt politicians. But I do my best to just try to be a good person, spread positivity.”

Joe Rogan issues a HEARTFELT apology to Theo Von over his recent comments: “I apologized to Theo. He knows I love him and he said that and we laughed and we joked around about it and I apologized for the way I talked about this. But I felt like I needed to explain to other people too, to get what was going on in my mind out and it certainly wasn’t like covering for Israel and it wasn’t trying to paint him out like he’s damaged or treat him like a child.” “I just want him to be okay. And when you’re dealing with someone, or when you have had experience dealing with someone where it winds up going very badly, and then you’re just left with this feeling, like, what could I have done? You know, I didn’t do a good job of it, especially the Marcus King thing. That’s terrible what I did. I didn’t mean to.” “I was just trying to—you don’t think sometimes when you are in the middle of a podcast. You’re having a conversation, you don’t think about the impact that it’s gonna have. That’s one of the reasons why, you know, podcasts are so weird because like you’re in the middle of trying to be entertaining, but you’re also just having a conversation and I fcked up because I felt so badly about it. It was like there’s got to be a way to address this where I just express myself and so that’s why we’ve never done this before.” “We’ve never done this kind of a thing after a podcast, but it was very important to me. He’s an awesome person, a great friend, and one of the most interesting and funny people I’ve ever met in my life. And I just felt terrible about it. And I told them I would never bring it up publicly again, but I think it is important to let people know that aspect of it.” “So I’m gonna call him and clear this with him and make sure he’s cool with me saying this, but I’m pretty sure he is gonna be. And that’s it… I’m a human and I’m flawed like all of us and I fck up and it’s probably not the last time. It’s definitely not. I’m going to f*ck up again. But my intention is never to hurt anybody, ever. And that’s why I mean I very rarely if ever even get upset at anyone other than like corrupt politicians. But I do my best to just try to be a good person, spread positivity.”

RedWave Press

2,265,417 views • 1 month ago

Ben Horowitz advice to CEOs “You want to be liked and respected in the long-run. Not the short-run.” “You have to be able to tell [your team] the truth in a way that you probably don’t tell most of your friends the truth,” the a16z co-founder explains. “Anthropologically, we want people to like us so we tell them what they want to hear. But on a company level or if your on the board of somebody’s company, you have to be able to tell them what they don’t want to hear. That’s the most important thing you’re going to say. And yes, they’re not going to like it when you say, but over time it can save the company.” Ben continues: “That’s what leadership is about. If everybody agrees with the decision, then you didn’t add any value, because they would’ve done that without you. The only value you ever add is when you make a decision that most people don’t like, and that’s where leadership comes in… That’s the thing that takes practice.” He gives Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as an example: “When Jensen talks about how you have to get to near-death to get yourself to do that, I think that’s true. It’s hard to build that [muscle of telling people what they don’t want to hear] if everything is going great.” Source: Lenny Rachitsky (Sep 2025)

Ben Horowitz advice to CEOs “You want to be liked and respected in the long-run. Not the short-run.” “You have to be able to tell [your team] the truth in a way that you probably don’t tell most of your friends the truth,” the a16z co-founder explains. “Anthropologically, we want people to like us so we tell them what they want to hear. But on a company level or if your on the board of somebody’s company, you have to be able to tell them what they don’t want to hear. That’s the most important thing you’re going to say. And yes, they’re not going to like it when you say, but over time it can save the company.” Ben continues: “That’s what leadership is about. If everybody agrees with the decision, then you didn’t add any value, because they would’ve done that without you. The only value you ever add is when you make a decision that most people don’t like, and that’s where leadership comes in… That’s the thing that takes practice.” He gives Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as an example: “When Jensen talks about how you have to get to near-death to get yourself to do that, I think that’s true. It’s hard to build that [muscle of telling people what they don’t want to hear] if everything is going great.” Source: Lenny Rachitsky (Sep 2025)

Startup Archive

25,394 views • 23 days ago

Marc Andreessen on the 5 personality traits of an innovator “When you’re talking about real innovators—people who actually do really creative, breakthrough work—I think you’re talking about a couple things:” 1. Very high in trait openness. “Just flat-out open to new ideas… And the nature of trait openness means you’re not just open to new ideas in one category—you’re open to many different kinds of new ideas… But of course, just being open is not sufficient because if you’re just open, you could just be curious and explore and spend your entire life reading, talking to people, but never actually create something.” 2. High level of conscientiousness. “You need somebody who’s really willing to apply themselves—typically over a period of many years to accomplish something great… For most of these people, it’s years and years of applied effort. You need somebody with an extreme willingness to basically defer gratification… Of course, this is why there aren’t many of these people—there aren’t many people who are high in openness and high in conscientiousness because to a certain extent, they’re opposed traits.” 3. High in disagreeableness. “If they’re not ornery, they’ll be talked out of their ideas… Because the reaction most people have to new ideas is ‘Oh, that’s dumb.’ So, somebody who’s too agreeable will be easily dissuaded to not pull on the thread anymore.” 4. High IQ. “They just need to be really smart because it’s hard to innovate in any category if you can’t synthesize large amounts of information quickly.” 5. Relatively low neuroticism. “If they’re too neurotic, they probably can’t handle the stress.” Source: Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D.

Marc Andreessen on the 5 personality traits of an innovator “When you’re talking about real innovators—people who actually do really creative, breakthrough work—I think you’re talking about a couple things:” 1. Very high in trait openness. “Just flat-out open to new ideas… And the nature of trait openness means you’re not just open to new ideas in one category—you’re open to many different kinds of new ideas… But of course, just being open is not sufficient because if you’re just open, you could just be curious and explore and spend your entire life reading, talking to people, but never actually create something.” 2. High level of conscientiousness. “You need somebody who’s really willing to apply themselves—typically over a period of many years to accomplish something great… For most of these people, it’s years and years of applied effort. You need somebody with an extreme willingness to basically defer gratification… Of course, this is why there aren’t many of these people—there aren’t many people who are high in openness and high in conscientiousness because to a certain extent, they’re opposed traits.” 3. High in disagreeableness. “If they’re not ornery, they’ll be talked out of their ideas… Because the reaction most people have to new ideas is ‘Oh, that’s dumb.’ So, somebody who’s too agreeable will be easily dissuaded to not pull on the thread anymore.” 4. High IQ. “They just need to be really smart because it’s hard to innovate in any category if you can’t synthesize large amounts of information quickly.” 5. Relatively low neuroticism. “If they’re too neurotic, they probably can’t handle the stress.” Source: Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D.

Startup Archive

94,522 views • 2 years ago