
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

Zero to One
24 people recommendedI learned a lot reading it.
Also recommended by: Elon Musk, Eric Jorgenson, Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Kishore Biyani, Marc Andreessen, Rupert Murdoch, Sam Altman, Andrew Ng, Bryan Johnson, Brian Dean, Chris Dixon, Eric Weinstein, Keith Rabois, Lee Stranahan, Luis Von Ahn, Matt Mullenweg, Max Levchin, Nassim Taleb, Patrick Oshaughnessy, Ryan Petersen, Tom Bilyeu, Derek Sivers
A great book on strategy.
Also recommended by: Mark Cuban, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Drew Houston, Ev Williams, Marc Andreessen, Marc Benioff, Michael Bloomberg, Aaron Levie, Bill Gurley, Caterina Fake, Blake Scholl, Chris Dixon, Guy Kawasaki, Max Levchin, Steve Blank, Tim Oreilly

The Lean Startup
16 people recommendedGreat.
Also recommended by: Mark Cuban, Dustin Moskovitz, Kevin Systrom, Marc Andreessen, Sheryl Sandberg, Andrew Ng, Chris Dixon, Patrick Bet David, Jason Calacanis, Marty Cagan, Mike Maples Jr, Raoul Pal, Steve Blank, Tim Oreilly, Derek Sivers

High Output Management
13 people recommendedAndy 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.
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
11 people recommendedA book about the dynamics of how large-scale, highly random systems behave.
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
9 people recommendedA great book on strategy.
Also recommended by: Balaji Srinivasan, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jamie Dimon, Marc Andreessen, Vinod Khosla, Balaji S. Srinivasan, Charlie Munger

No Rules Rules
6 people recommendedA great book. I highly recommend it for anyone run a company, but especially those who want a culture that encourages long-term innovation.
Also recommended by: Ankur Warikoo, Ray Dalio, Jim Collins, Satya Nadella, Peyush Bansal

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
5 people recommendedUnexpectedly the most interesting book on the topic of how you think about inclusion.
Also recommended by: Ankur Warikoo, Austen Allred, Lisa Ling, Tim Ferriss

Who Is Michael Ovitz?
5 people recommendedIt 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.
Also recommended by: Gary Vaynerchuk, Marc Andreessen, Jason Calacanis, Keith Rabois
Excellent [book] on branding, naming, and marketing.
Also recommended by: Ev Williams, Michael Hyatt, Derek Sivers
A thrilling biography that provides great insight into how Communism works in practice.
Also recommended by: Marc Andreessen
Build
2 people recommendedDelivers priceless advice for any young person who wants to build something great or change the world for the better.
Also recommended by: Bill Gurley
The Black Jacobins
2 people recommendedMy favorite leadership book ever and one of the great stories in human history.
Also recommended by: Christopher Hitchens
Writing My Wrongs
The memoir of a man who went to prison for 19 years, then became an author and MIT fellow.
Dapper Dan
An amazing entrepreneurial story covering everything from dice to fashion.