The Investor's Shelf — one person

Ben Horowitz

T1FoundersRecommendationsTechnology and software

Co-founder of Opsware/Loudcloud; co-founder and general partner, Andreessen Horowitz

The Hard Thing About Hard Things is the primary operator's text on running a company under duress, and his blog posts are the source most later management writing on startups cites.

2 books of their own · 28 articles · 27 books they recommend

Books they wrote 2

The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
· 2014 · Subtitled 'Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers'
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What You Do Is Who You Are
What You Do Is Who You Are
· 2019 · Subtitled 'How to Create Your Business Culture'
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Letters

web.archive.org/web/20160304145132/www.bhorowitz.com/

Horowitz publishes no letter series and has no letter archive. His old personal blog, bhorowitz.com ('Ben's Blog', 2010-2016), now redirects to a16z.com/author/ben-horowitz/, and the blog itself survives only on the Wayback Machine. Newer written posts are on a16z.com.

Columns 10

Articles and essays 8

Blog posts 10

Blog

Ben Horowitz at Andreessen Horowitz

Books they recommend 27

Horowitz publicly shared a detailed reading list with Fast Company and has repeatedly cited specific books in interviews and his own writing. His tastes skew toward leadership under extreme conditions, military/revolutionary history, and management classics, and he is known for grounding business advice in figures like Toussaint Louverture and Genghis Khan. Recommendations surface in interviews, his books, and the Fast Company list.

Book recommendations listed on their Good Books profile 17

Business and Management 5

The Innovator's Dilemma
The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen aggregator only
source
High Output Management
High Output Management
Andrew Grove aggregator only
source
Only the Paranoid Survive
Only the Paranoid Survive
Andrew Grove aggregator only
source
No Rules Rules
No Rules Rules
Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer aggregator only
source
My Years with General Motors
My Years with General Motors
Alfred Sloan aggregator only
source

Biography and Memoir 5

Swimming Across
Swimming Across
Andrew Grove aggregator only
source
Lenin
Lenin
Victor Sebestye · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
My American Journey
My American Journey
Colin Powell · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
Writing My Wrongs
Writing My Wrongs
Shaka Senghor · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
Made in Harlem
Made in Harlem
Daniel R. Day · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Entrepreneurship and Startups 3

Zero to One
Zero to One
Peter Thiel aggregator only
source
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz aggregator only
source
The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries aggregator only
source

General History 2

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern Wo
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Jack Weatherford · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source
The Black Jacobins
The Black Jacobins
C.L.R. James · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Philosophy 1

Skin in the Game
Skin in the Game
Nassim Nicholas Taleb aggregator only
source

Sales and Marketing 1

Focus
Focus
Al Ries · not in an entry yet aggregator only
source

Superbook reading list 10

Business and Management 3

Only the Paranoid Survive
Only the Paranoid Survive
Andrew S. Grove
source
“He calls it "a great book on strategy" and repeatedly cites Grove as a formative influence on his management philosophy.”
High Output Management
High Output Management
Andrew S. Grove
source
“One of his core management recommendations; he credits Grove's frameworks as foundational to running teams.”
The Innovator's Dilemma
The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen
source
“A top recommendation on disruption and why successful companies fail to adapt.”

General History 2

The Black Jacobins
The Black Jacobins
C.L.R. James · not in an entry yet
source
“Horowitz calls its account of the Haitian Revolution a story of "a management and cultural genius better than anybody I've ever read about," central to his thinking on culture.”
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern Wo
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Jack Weatherford · not in an entry yet
source
“He called it unexpectedly "the most interesting book on the topic of how you think about inclusion."”

Biography and Memoir 2

Writing My Wrongs
Writing My Wrongs
Shaka Senghor · not in an entry yet
source
“He praises this memoir of a man who served 19 years in prison and became an author/MIT fellow.”
Who Is Michael Ovitz?
Who Is Michael Ovitz?
Michael Ovitz
source
“He calls it "truly rare to read a book this honest from a living legend," a favorite on power and dealmaking.”

Entrepreneurship and Startups 2

The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
source
“Included on his core entrepreneurship reading list.”
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Bu
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Peter Thiel
source
“He has praised Thiel's contrarian startup thinking; appears on his recommended list.”

Not yet given a topic 1

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Dail
Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
Nassim Nicholas Taleb · not in an entry yet
source
“He recommends it as a book about "the dynamics of how large-scale, highly random systems behave."”

Where they publish 4

Tags

andreessen-horowitzopswareloudcloudnetscapemarc-andreessenandy-groveventure-capitalenterprise-softwaretechnologymanagementcompany-culturefounder-ceoscrisis-leadership