Ben Horowitz: $46 Billion of Hard Truths

Key Hard Truths & Lessons for Founders

Here are some of the most salient lessons Horowitz discusses in the talk:

1. Success comes from many small decisions, not one big moment
   Progress is the result of stacking difficult but correct choices over time — even when each decision feels insignificant in isolation.

2. Leaders should run toward fear, not away from it
   The real muscle a CEO needs is decisiveness under pressure. Confronting difficult choices is how growth happens; hesitating in the face of fear usually leads to stagnation. 

3. Find people who make you great — don’t try to fix underperformers
   The role of leaders is not to polish everyone, but to surround themselves with high-leverage people who elevate the whole company. 

4. “Founder mode” has limits There is a danger in staying in the "founder mode" too long — sometimes growth demands that the company evolve beyond that mode, or bring in different leadership.  

5. You must normalize failure and own your failures as a CEO
   Leaders must accept that failure is part of the journey, learn from it, and manage how those mistakes impact the team and the company trajectory. 

6. Decisions around when to step aside or bring in fresh leadership are critical
   At times, founders may need to be replaced as CEO for the company’s next phase. Recognizing when that moment arrives is hard but necessary. 

Lenny's Newsletter

My Addiction

 Hello, my name is Michael and I'm an addict.

Not booze or drugs, but building software products. For the last several days I've been at it all day sunup to sundown and beyond. Some days no shower or shave, just time on the computer with no breaks at all.

It's like it was in the good old days when I was bulding TeleMagic, and other products before it. This addiction has eaten up huge hunks of my life when there was no social interaction... just head down inside the computer.

The worst of it is i'm using Cursor, which uses chatGPT to build the code. Back in the old days I coded in the real languages of COBOL or FORTRAN or Dbase II, or whatever, but now there's this entity between me and the results. It's that chatGPT, and it has a mind of its own, and at any time can hallucinate and go down a rabbit hole of its own imagining and can justify it all with complete technobabble and there we go with no rhyme or reason until somehow it finally gets its act together and the desired result is produced, much later.

I can see the future of software product building, and it's better than this right now, but I'm here in the present, and I'm as addicted now as I had been for so many years in the past. I thought it would be different this time around.

I'm building a wonderful product, but God help me... I want both a normal life of fresh air and sunshine, laughing with friends, AND a wonderful product. Is that too much to ask? Why this Sophie's Choice, why are they mutually exclusive?

Using SuperIntelligence to find SuperWisdom

Experimenting with using SuperIntelligence to achieve SuperWisdom, using the entire database in the iPhone app ToBeWise™ Pro and using this prompt: Summarize the content by stating 10 of the most wise truths.

Here's the result:

 

chatGPT made a parting comment: 

The ToBeWise™ database is heavy on business, startups, VC, and entrepreneurship, but also includes an equal sized collection of general wisdom of the ages from the ancient Greek philosophers through the modern era. 

A greatly expanded database of quotations on a wider variety of subjects is planned, so we'll keep you posted as that progresses. It will be interesting to see how the top ten evolve based not just on the content but also how the questions are asked. For fun, we can add personas and tone to wisdom.

This is an early step along the path to SuperWisdom.

What comes after SuperWisdom?  SuperEnlightenment? 

Maybe, but for now let's hope SuperWisdom can inspire our search for SuperIntelligence.

View the database online. 

Download the app ToBeWise™ Pro from the AppStore.

AI All Star Board of Advisors

Check out this Instagram post by Nick Sadler: 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLlMSPPIJQa/?igsh=MXVzazJnajZwYzhy

None of us alone is as smart as a few of the best of us, 

working together using the Mastermind principle!

Success of Bootstrapped vs. VC funded Startups

 Key Observations for Bootstrapped (Non-VC Funded) Startups:

• Long-Term Survival Advantage: Bootstrapped startups tend to demonstrate higher resilience over the long term compared to VC-funded ones. Approximately 38% of bootstrapped startups survive after 10 years, almost double the survival rate for VC-backed startups (20%).
• Faster Path to Profitability: Bootstrapped startups are more likely to achieve profitability in their initial years. They have a 55% higher chance of breaking even within two years compared to VC-funded startups.
• Focus on Sustainability: A significant majority (58%) of bootstrapped founders prioritize long-term sustainability. This focus likely contributes to their increased survival rates. 

General Startup Survival Rates (Including Both Funded and Bootstrapped):

• Year 1: Approximately 80% of startups survive their first year.
• Year 5: Around 50% of startups are still operating after five years.
• Year 10: About 30% of startups survive for a decade or more. 

Important Considerations:

• These statistics represent the survival rates of startups in general, which can vary significantly by industry and location.
• A startup being "profitable" doesn't automatically mean it's successful in terms of high growth or investment returns. Many bootstrapped startups thrive as sustainable "lifestyle businesses" that provide income and flexibility for the founders. 

In summary, while specific average/median lifespans for non-VC funded startups are not precisely given, the data suggests that bootstrapped startups, with their emphasis on sustainable business models and profitability, generally have a better chance of long-term survival compared to their VC-funded counterparts. 

(Gemini)

Daily Shots of Wisdom - integrating EZchecklist™ and ToBeWise™

One of the fun features of EZchecklist™ is the integration with ToBeWise™  

Every day I enjoy getting little shots of wisdom.  

Random quotes pop up every 30 minutes (or whatever frequency I've set in Controls tab). 

If I'm not feeling it, I click New and get another. If I like it, I Save.

Shown above are the quotes I've chosen over the last seven days. 

Startups for Love and Money

 

Available now on Amazon

 https://amzn.to/3G4vjrz

Paperback.

Ten bucks.