Ben Horowitz

Ben Horowitz

Ben Horowitz

Venture Capitalist and Andreessen Horowitz Co-Founder

Co-founder of a16z, one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture capital firms. His reading spans history, management, and risk.

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Ben Horowitz co-founded Andreessen Horowitz in 2009 with Marc Andreessen, building it into a leading venture capital firm managing billions in assets. Before that, he founded Opsware, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion. He's known for blending operational rigor with contrarian thinking.

21 Books Recommended by Ben Horowitz

Ranked by popularity across all reading lists on this site

High Output Management book cover
#4

High Output Management

by Andrew S. Grove

13 people recommended

Andy Grove, who built himself from nothing to run Intel, stopped what he was doing to teach us his magic. And not through some ghostwriter either — Andy wrote this book himself. What an incredible gift.

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Also recommended by: Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Brian Armstrong, Brian Chesky, Drew Houston, John Doerr, Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, Tobi Lutke, Justin Kan, Keith Rabois, Sahil Lavingia

Skin in the Game book cover
#5

Skin in the Game

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

11 people recommended

A book about the dynamics of how large-scale, highly random systems behave.

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Also recommended by: Ankur Warikoo, Naval Ravikant, Changpeng Zhao, Marc Andreessen, Vinod Khosla, Chris Dixon, Keith Rabois, Peter Mallouk, Ryan Shea, Derek Sivers

Only the Paranoid Survive book cover
#6

Only the Paranoid Survive

by Andrew S. Grove

9 people recommended

A great book on strategy.

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Also recommended by: Balaji Srinivasan, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jamie Dimon, Marc Andreessen, Vinod Khosla, Balaji S. Srinivasan, Charlie Munger

No Rules Rules book cover
#7

No Rules Rules

by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer

6 people recommended

A great book. I highly recommend it for anyone run a company, but especially those who want a culture that encourages long-term innovation.

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Also recommended by: Ankur Warikoo, Ray Dalio, Jim Collins, Satya Nadella, Peyush Bansal

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World book cover
#8

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

by Jack Weatherford

5 people recommended

Unexpectedly the most interesting book on the topic of how you think about inclusion.

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Also recommended by: Ankur Warikoo, Austen Allred, Lisa Ling, Tim Ferriss

Who Is Michael Ovitz? book cover
#9

Who Is Michael Ovitz?

by Michael Ovitz

5 people recommended

It is truly rare to read a book this honest from a living legend. The Hollywood superhero lets us peak behind his mask and understand his weaknesses and methods.

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Also recommended by: Gary Vaynerchuk, Marc Andreessen, Jason Calacanis, Keith Rabois

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#10

by

4 people recommended

Excellent [book] on branding, naming, and marketing.

Also recommended by: Ev Williams, Michael Hyatt, Derek Sivers

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#11

Swimming Across

by Andrew S. Grove

2 people recommended

A great book.

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Also recommended by: Keith Rabois

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#12

by

2 people recommended

A thrilling biography that provides great insight into how Communism works in practice.

Also recommended by: Marc Andreessen

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#13

Build

by Tony Fadell

2 people recommended

Delivers priceless advice for any young person who wants to build something great or change the world for the better.

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Also recommended by: Bill Gurley

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#14

The Black Jacobins

by C.L.R. James

2 people recommended

My favorite leadership book ever and one of the great stories in human history.

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Also recommended by: Christopher Hitchens

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#15

Toussaint Louverture

by Philippe Girard

Excellent.

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#16

My American Journey

by Colin Powell

Very, very interesting on leadership.

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#17

Writing My Wrongs

by Shaka Senghor

The memoir of a man who went to prison for 19 years, then became an author and MIT fellow.

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#18

My Years with General Motors

by Alfred Sloan

Very interesting particularly on scale issues.

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#19

Dapper Dan

by Daniel R. Day

An amazing entrepreneurial story covering everything from dice to fashion.

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#20

Black Spartacus

by Sudhir Hazareesingh

Perhaps the sharpest portrait yet of Louverture.

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#21

The Startup Community Way

by Brad Feld

Brand new knowledge.

Buy on Amazon →