When I introduced our venture firm on this blog in July, I wrote extensively about the types of entrepreneurs and companies we want to fund: technical founders, brilliant and motivated entrepreneurs, product-focused companies, and so on. I got widespread head nods on most of the criteria. But many people were skeptical about the "founder-as-CEO" filter.…
My good friend Steve Blank does a great job of describing the metamorphosis a scalable startup needs to undergo to become a big company. During that metamorphosis, many startups hire executives from big companies to help scale the business. Some go on to do a good job. But I've seen more than a few of those…
My partner Ben and I have been active angel investors for years and now full-time venture capitalists for 9 months. But prior to that (and for most our lives), we've been entrepreneurs. Now that we've sat on both sides of the table—and have spent more time with other venture capitalists—my partner Ben has a few…
For those of you who have been keeping up with this blog, you’ll know that my partner Ben Horowitz has been very actively blogging—and folks are paying attention. His post on All Things Digital called The Case for the Fat Startup struck a nerve in the startup community, prompting my good friend Fred Wilson to write a counter-post…