Marc Andreessen Ben Horowitz Clubhouse on Founder Psychology

Podcasts · Startups, Technology

Created by Rishabh Srivastava

This summary was largely done for my own note-taking, sharing it just in case it adds more value to other people.

I have no affiliation whatsoever with anyone in this note. This is a summary largely taken for my own reference, and may contain errors :)

Context

Source URL: clubhouse

Why is it important: Has great insights about management and leadership for startups

Keywords

Startups, Venture Capital, Management, Company Building

Highlights

Peacetime vs Wartime in startups

When you’re building for X, but reality is very different from X, you’re in wartime

If you have a leaky boat, find the exact people you need and overpay them. It’s okay if it causes some disgruntlement in your team — because you won’t survive otherwise. But don’t do this in peacetime

How long can a company stay in wartime mode before it breaks in some way?

Steve Jobs always ran Apple this way. In wartime mode, the CEO needs to have visibility at a very very high granularity — you can’t go wrong. It takes a very specific kind of leader

You can run in wartime mode forever. But it’s all about how the leader works. Most wartime CEOs can’t become peacetime CEOs and vice versa

Do wartime CEOs tend to humiliate people in public? Should this be a part of the toolkit?

Humiliate is a strong word — but it’s important to keep people accountable and let them know when they’re not producing acceptable work. When used strategically, this can be an important part of the culture. You need to know when to do this though

Andy Grove when someone was late: “All I have in this world is time, and you’re wasting it”

The good of the company is more important than the good of the individual

Remote work

Is there a difference in outcomes between remote vs non-remote?

If you can’t tell people are working from home based on company velocity, remote doesn’t matter

Magnetic, charismatic CEOs used to have an advantage when working in office. But introverted and nerdy CEOs have now gained ground in a remote world

People who’re working the best in remote are those who overcommunicate on everything and have a lot of all hands meetings. People who are really leaning in and communicating + documenting well are now doing really well

Most tech companies have run really well throughout the pandemic

The world has fundamentally changed, and has shown that you can create great work while working from home

Introverts think than the in-person stuff is not necessary, and think that remote is the best way to work. But the extroverts prefer a more hybrid approach

Drawbacks of remote

The information you get before and after a sales meeting is often more valuable than the information you get in the meeting — this is a drawback of zoom, because there is no before and after a meeting

Two forms of tech projects that have never involved offices and are default remote

• Open-source
• Crypto

But both of these are focused at individuals and not companies. Selling to enterprises is much harder over zoom — specially if your competitors are showing up in person

“Don’t bring me a problem, bring me a solution” is a dangerous mindset

Knowing you have a problem is the first step in fixing it. You have to empower employees to bring problems to leaders. As a CEO, your goal should be to get bad news to reach you

You have to make it normal to get and give feedback. Make it frequent. Don’t do it just once a year or once a quarter. That makes people defensive and anxious. Make it a constant part of the culture

If you know every little thing that’s wrong, you can actually solve things

You can either do this by bumping into people and just talking to them in the office, or just by going on scheduled walks with them. [My note: Should find a remote equivalent for this, too]

Loneliness and isolation as a founder

Recognise that this is super normal. Most founders don’t want to admit this, but they really should. Founders think it signals weakness and that signalling weakness is dangerous

But that’s just bad thinking. Your job is to admit problems and realise that things can break – not just to put on a brave face

Startups are messy. Things break all the time. You’ll feel lonely and isolated. That’s normal. Have realistic expectations

When you let people down, all the people you’re letting down are people who trusted you – your employees, your investors, your partners. That’s a scary feeling

Setting up a trust bubble: an antidote to isolation

A space for people to talk about real shit, and it can’t leak. Set up a trust bubble where you work with people who you respect and trust, and share things with them. Be there for them when they need to share, and share liberally with them

There are a lot of outstanding CEOs whose companies don’t work. That’s okay

Way before the iPhone and the iPad, many people tried and failed to make ”pen computing” products work. They never took off, even though their founders were often phenomenal

That’s the nature of startups – you have a very high chance of failure

Star talent

Never recruit sales or marketing people from monopolies. They’re playing on easy mode. Hire them from #2 or #3 players or from successful startups

Great technical people are everywhere. Look for both experience working on magical projects (so they can bring their tacit knowledge with them) and for evidence of cool things they’ve done independently

How can underleveraged or undernetworked founders gain access to capital?

If you can create amazing products and have manifested amazing ideas, that’s a better calling card than anything else out there

In the old days, it took a lot of money to make a product. Now, you just need a laptop. If you have the gift of being able to create, you an attract a lot of capital. Just get good and share. Don’t worry too much about being under networked

Hard version of question: often, you can create amazing stuff but no one sees it. How do you punch into the right networks?

Technology is much less restrictive than other industries. Just show your work and keep trying to meet people. Most of the people in Silicon Valley are outsiders. It’s definitely harder if you don’t start with the right network, but you can definitely make it

Two tactical things you can do:

• Big tech companies are now so big that they’re hiring everywhere. You can go to work for one of the giants to network your way in from there. The people at the big tech companies are highly connected
• Book: “Never eat alone”. Ultimate networking book. Basic idea: flip the problem. Instead of trying to get into networks, help everyone else get into networks. Hold dinners and invite a cross section of people so they can know each other. You’ll be known as the person who helps people get into networks and will get a lot of introductions. A lot of young people have the exact same problem. Just organise groups for people like yourself at the start. You’ll start a gratitude circle

Industry specific

Crypto

Crypto may not have a single inflection point. Many smaller inflection points

Decentralised social could be at the cusp of something major because of concerns about censorship. No one has yet built something that’s as performant and usable as current social networks

Current concern about decentralisation is censorship. But in the future, it’ll enable permisionless innovation (you can built and monetise whatever you want)

Netscape moment (now that this thing exists, I can build something on top of it)

iPhone moment (high engagement consumer acceptance)

In crypto, we’re past the Netscape moment and are inching towards the iPhone moment

General Economy

The vast majority of economic activity is still not touched by modern technology. Healthcare, Manufacturing, Education

What unwritten rule about the world did you discover?

Ben Horowitz

People, by default, hire people like them. They basically profile themselves and define their own strengths — and hire people who look like them. If you want to a team that can do more than what just you yourself can do, you have to let go of this. This takes work and effort. Just being not sexist and not racist doesn’t work

Marc Andreessen

“All of the things in the world around you were designed and created by people who are no smarter than you” - Steve Jobs. Nothing that exists around us just magically happened, someone built it. You can build something too