Ben Horowitz

Ben Horowitz
Born	Benjamin Abraham Horowitz 13 6, 1966
Birthplace	London, England
Nationality	American
Occupation	Venture capitalist, author, entrepreneur
Known for	Co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), co-founder and former CEO of Opsware
Education	Columbia University (BA) University of California, Los Angeles (MS)
Children	3
Awards	Forbes Midas List (#33, 2025)
Website	[bhorowitz.com Official site]

Benjamin Abraham Horowitz (born June 13, 1966) is an American businessman, investor, author, and blogger who co-founded the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (commonly known as a16z) alongside Marc Andreessen in 2009. Before entering the venture capital industry, Horowitz built a reputation as a technology entrepreneur, co-founding the enterprise software company Opsware (originally Loudcloud), where he served as president and chief executive officer until Hewlett-Packard acquired the firm in 2007. Through Andreessen Horowitz, he has become one of the most prominent venture capital investors in Silicon Valley, with the firm managing billions of dollars in assets and backing some of the technology sector's most notable companies. Horowitz is also known for his writing, having authored The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers (2014), a widely read book on the challenges of running a startup, and What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture (2019). In 2025, he was ranked number 33 on the Forbes Midas List of top technology investors.

Early Life

Ben Horowitz was born on June 13, 1966, in London, England. His father is David Horowitz, a conservative political commentator and writer. The family later relocated to the United States, where Horowitz grew up. He was raised in part in Berkeley, California, an environment that exposed him to a range of political and intellectual perspectives from an early age.

Details about Horowitz's childhood and family background prior to his university years are limited in the public record. However, his upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area placed him in close proximity to Silicon Valley's burgeoning technology industry, a factor that would prove influential in shaping his career trajectory. His father's work as a writer and public intellectual also appears to have contributed to Horowitz's own interest in writing and communication, skills that would later distinguish him among technology executives and venture capitalists.

Education

Horowitz attended Columbia University in New York City, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating with the class of 1988. He subsequently pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he obtained a Master of Science degree in computer science.

His education combined a liberal arts foundation with technical training, a combination that would serve him in both his entrepreneurial and investing careers. At Columbia, Horowitz developed interests that extended beyond technology, including a notable appreciation for hip-hop music and culture, themes that would later appear in his writing and public speaking. His graduate work at UCLA provided the technical grounding necessary for a career in the software industry during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Career

Early Career at Netscape and AOL

After completing his graduate studies, Horowitz entered the technology industry. He joined Netscape Communications, the pioneering web browser company co-founded by Marc Andreessen, where the two men first established their professional relationship. At Netscape, Horowitz worked as a product manager, gaining experience in the fast-moving internet sector during the mid-1990s.

When America Online (AOL) acquired Netscape in 1999, Horowitz transitioned to AOL, where he served as a vice president. His time at Netscape and AOL provided him with firsthand experience in the dynamics of high-growth technology companies, the challenges of managing through acquisitions, and the complexities of the rapidly evolving internet industry. It was during this period that Horowitz developed the management philosophy that would later inform both his entrepreneurial ventures and his writing.

Loudcloud and Opsware

In 1999, Horowitz co-founded Loudcloud, a cloud computing infrastructure company, alongside Marc Andreessen, Tim Howes, and In Sik Rhee. The company aimed to provide managed internet infrastructure services at a time when the concept of cloud computing was still in its infancy. Loudcloud attracted significant venture capital funding and went public in 2001, although the company faced severe challenges as the dot-com bubble burst and the broader technology market experienced a dramatic downturn.

The period following the dot-com crash tested Horowitz's leadership extensively. With Loudcloud's hosting business under financial pressure, the company made a pivotal strategic decision to sell its managed hosting operations to Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 2002. Following the divestiture, the company reinvented itself as Opsware, an enterprise software firm focused on data center automation. Horowitz served as president and CEO of Opsware, guiding the company through a transformation from a struggling hosting provider to a software business with a viable product and market position.

The Opsware years were formative for Horowitz and would later serve as the primary source material for his first book. The experience of navigating a company through near-bankruptcy, pivoting its business model, managing layoffs, and rebuilding the organization shaped his views on entrepreneurship and executive leadership. Under his leadership, Opsware grew its enterprise software business to the point where it attracted acquisition interest from major technology companies.

In July 2007, Hewlett-Packard acquired Opsware for approximately $1.6 billion, representing a significant return for the company's shareholders and investors. The acquisition validated Horowitz's decision to pivot the company and provided him with both the financial resources and the credibility to pursue his next venture.

Founding Andreessen Horowitz

In 2009, Horowitz and Marc Andreessen co-founded the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, based in Menlo Park, California. The firm was established with a distinctive model that sought to differentiate itself from traditional venture capital firms. Andreessen Horowitz adopted an approach modeled in part on talent agencies, building a large team of operational staff, including executives in marketing, recruiting, and business development, to provide portfolio companies with hands-on support beyond capital alone.

The firm's first fund was raised in 2009, and it quickly grew in both size and influence. By January 2012, Andreessen Horowitz had raised $1.5 billion for its third fund in just three years, signaling the rapid scaling of its operations and investor confidence in the firm's approach. The firm made early and significant investments in companies across the technology sector, establishing a portfolio that would come to include some of the most notable startups of the 2010s.

Horowitz has served as a general partner at the firm since its founding, playing an active role in investment decisions, firm strategy, and mentoring portfolio company founders. His operational background as a former CEO has been cited as a distinguishing characteristic in his approach to venture investing, as he brings firsthand experience with the challenges that founders face in building and scaling companies.

Growth and Expansion of a16z

Under the leadership of Horowitz and Andreessen, the firm expanded well beyond its original focus on software and internet companies. Andreessen Horowitz broadened its investment thesis to encompass sectors including cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, biotechnology, healthcare, financial technology, and artificial intelligence.

By 2025, the firm had become one of the largest and most influential venture capital firms in the world. In a significant milestone, a16z raised over $15 billion in new venture capital funds, earmarked for investment across artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, biotechnology, health, infrastructure, and growth-stage companies. This fundraise underscored the firm's ambition to invest at scale across multiple technology verticals.

In October 2025, Horowitz made a notable hire for the firm, bringing on Raghu Raghuram, the former CEO of VMware, as Managing Partner and General Partner at a16z. The hire reflected Horowitz's emphasis on recruiting experienced technology operators into the venture capital firm's leadership ranks.

Horowitz has expressed a preference for keeping investing teams small and focused. In early 2026, he stated on the a16z podcast that investing teams should not be "too much bigger than basketball teams," advocating for a compact team structure even as the firm itself grew significantly in total headcount and assets under management.

Views on Artificial Intelligence

In the mid-2020s, Horowitz became an outspoken commentator on the development and implications of artificial intelligence. As AI companies commanded increasingly large valuations, Horowitz acknowledged the extraordinary market dynamics while expressing confidence in the underlying demand. He described the AI landscape as "a bit of a brave new world," noting that he had "never seen demand like this" in the technology sector.

On the question of AI's impact on employment, Horowitz pushed back against predictions of widespread job displacement. In February 2026, he argued that fears of an AI-fueled job apocalypse were "based on a flawed assumption," challenging the notion that artificial intelligence would eliminate work as it had been traditionally understood.

Speaking at Columbia Business School in September 2025, Horowitz shared his view that AI remained "in its infancy" and discussed the relationship between company culture and resilience in periods of rapid technological change. The firm's investment portfolio reflected this thesis, with a16z backing AI companies including Safe Superintelligence and other firms at the frontier of the technology.

Writing and Blogging

Horowitz has been a prolific writer throughout his career, maintaining a blog that has attracted a significant readership among technology entrepreneurs and business professionals. His blog posts, published at bhorowitz.com, cover topics including management, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and company culture.

In March 2014, Horowitz published his first book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers. The book drew extensively on his experiences running Loudcloud and Opsware, addressing the difficult decisions and emotional challenges that confront startup founders and CEOs. It covered topics such as laying off employees, demoting friends, managing one's own psychology during crises, and making decisions with incomplete information. The book became a bestseller and was adopted as recommended reading in many entrepreneurship and business programs.

A 2014 Bloomberg Businessweek article noted that The Hard Thing About Hard Things was "markedly absent" of women, an observation that highlighted the gender dynamics of Silicon Valley's technology and venture capital communities.

Horowitz's second book, What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture, was published in 2019. The book explored the concept of corporate culture through historical case studies, examining figures and movements ranging from the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture to the samurai bushido code, and applied their lessons to modern business management. Horowitz argued that culture is not defined by company perks or mission statements but by the decisions and actions leaders take, especially under pressure.

Personal Life

Ben Horowitz has three children. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Horowitz is known for his interest in hip-hop music, a theme that appears frequently in his writing and public presentations. He often incorporates rap lyrics and references into his blog posts and books, using them to illustrate management principles and business concepts. This practice has become a recognizable element of his public persona within the technology and business communities.

Horowitz has also been involved in philanthropic activities. A profile in Modern Luxury Silicon Valley highlighted his charitable giving and community involvement in the Bay Area.

A 2014 Fortune article identified Horowitz as part of Silicon Valley's "stealth power" — influential figures who shape the technology industry from behind the scenes through their investment decisions, advisory roles, and networks.

Recognition

Horowitz has received recognition for his contributions to the technology and venture capital industries. In 2025, he was ranked number 33 on the Forbes Midas List, the publication's annual ranking of the top technology investors globally. The Midas List is considered one of the most prominent benchmarks of success in the venture capital industry, and Horowitz's placement reflects the performance of Andreessen Horowitz's investment portfolio.

His first book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, received significant attention upon its publication in 2014 and has continued to be cited as a reference work on startup management and entrepreneurial leadership. The book's candid treatment of failure, uncertainty, and the psychological toll of running a company distinguished it from more optimistic business literature prevalent at the time.

Horowitz's blog has also earned recognition within the technology community as a source of practical advice for entrepreneurs and executives. His posts on topics such as hiring, firing, company culture, and wartime versus peacetime leadership have been widely circulated and discussed.

In September 2025, Horowitz was invited to speak at Columbia Business School, his undergraduate alma mater, where he discussed artificial intelligence, corporate culture, and innovation. His continued engagement with academic institutions reflects his standing in the technology and business communities.

Legacy

Ben Horowitz's career spans the arc of modern Silicon Valley, from the early commercial internet era at Netscape through the dot-com bust, the rise of enterprise software, and the emergence of venture capital as a dominant force in technology development. His experiences as both an operator and an investor have positioned him as a figure whose influence extends across multiple phases of the technology industry's evolution.

The founding of Andreessen Horowitz represented a significant development in the venture capital industry. The firm's model — combining capital with operational support, building large service teams, and actively recruiting former operators as investors — influenced how other firms structured their practices. The growth of a16z from its initial fund in 2009 to managing over $15 billion in new capital by 2025 illustrates the scale of impact the firm has achieved under the leadership of Horowitz and Andreessen.

Horowitz's writing has contributed to a body of literature on technology entrepreneurship that emphasizes the difficult, often unglamorous realities of building companies. The Hard Thing About Hard Things and What You Do Is Who You Are have been read by a generation of technology founders and managers, influencing how they think about leadership, culture, and decision-making under uncertainty.

His commentary on artificial intelligence in the mid-2020s, including his views on AI's potential and his skepticism of extreme employment displacement scenarios, has contributed to public and industry discourse at a time of significant technological transition. Through both his investments and his public statements, Horowitz has played a role in shaping how the technology industry and the broader public understand the implications of emerging AI technologies.

The Opsware experience — navigating a company through the dot-com bust, executing a business model pivot, and ultimately achieving a successful acquisition by Hewlett-Packard — remains a case study in technology entrepreneurship. It demonstrated the possibility of survival and recovery even in the most adverse market conditions, a narrative that Horowitz has shared extensively through his writing and speaking.