@StartupArchive_: Ben Horowitz on the ideal founding team for a startup Ben looks for two people on a founding team: 1. The inventor. “It…
Summary
Ben Horowitz discusses the ideal founding team for a startup, emphasizing the roles of the inventor and the entrepreneur, and the importance of having at least one world-class person in each role.
View Cached Full Text
Cached at: 07/30/26, 03:58 PM
Ben Horowitz on the ideal founding team for a startup
Ben looks for two people on a founding team:
-
The inventor. “It’s the inventor’s job to build a product that’s 10x better than anything that’s available to solve that problem.”
-
The entrepreneur. “The entrepreneur’s job is to take the market.”
When Ben and Marc Andreessen founded Opsware, Ben was the entrepreneur and Marc was the inventor.
“What helped us a lot was that - as an entrepreneur - I’ve got a master’s degree in computer science, so I understood invention. And I understood how to drive the company around continuous innovation. And that’s really, really important. And Marc, although he invented the browser and a lot of important things, he knows a lot about business, markets and competition.”
Ben continues:
“The best thing to do is to have two people who know how to do both, but at least one person who’s world-class in each. And that’s how you think about the founding team.”
Source: @UCBerkeley (Nov 2009)
Similar Articles
@StartupArchive_: Ben Horowitz shares 4 principles for choosing a cofounder The first and most important principle is to not let anxiety …
Ben Horowitz shares four principles for choosing a cofounder, emphasizing not letting anxiety drive the decision, avoiding friendships, working with respected long-time acquaintances, and equal equity splits.
@StartupArchive_: Vinod Khosla on the two most important things to get right when building a company The first thing for a startup to get…
Vinod Khosla advises startups to focus on radical innovation and building the right team with a culture of debate, rather than incremental improvements.
@StartupArchive_: Peter Thiel on the difference between the best founders and “professional CEOs” In his book Zero To One, Thiel wrote: “…
Peter Thiel shares insights on why founders are crucial for building great companies, contrasting them with professional CEOs and using Mark Zuckerberg's rejection of Yahoo's acquisition as an example.
@StartupArchive_: Peter Thiel on the type of company more startup founders should build Thiel first emphasizes his belief that when start…
Peter Thiel argues that founders should aim for monopolies, highlighting 'Complex Coordination'—integrating many pieces into something new—as an overlooked but powerful category, citing Apple, Tesla, and SpaceX as examples.
@StartupArchive_: Ben Horowitz to startup CEOs: “There’s always an answer” Ben recalls Business Week writing a cover story about his comp…
Ben Horowitz shares advice for startup CEOs facing media criticism and internal stress, emphasizing the need to believe there is always an answer.