Favorites from Ben Horowitz and Lars Dalgaard Talk

Attended a very quote-worthy talk by A16Z partners Ben Horowitz and Lars Dalgaard at GLIDE. Here are my favorites (paraphrasing some since I didn't take notes).

For those that don't know Lars Dalgaard, he is an uber passionate guy who founded one of the most successful enterprise software companies in recent years - SuccessFactors (acquired by SAP). It's easy to see why A16Z snagged him from SAP.

Lars:

His philosophy of life:

"Be legendary" every day and in everything you do.

"Be legendary" is Lars' way of saying give everything you've got to everything you do or "leave it all on the floor."

The types of entrepreneurs he likes:

founders who are on a mission

Entrepreneurs he won't listen to:

anybody who pitches their business as a "play" - e.g., "We're doing an eCommerce play"

Why people stay at a startup:

because they love their teammates

Raising VC for Success Factors:

I was turned down by 73 VCs...several called me an idiot

On why he kept going despite all the rejection:

I wanted to prove myself...to show that I could add something of value to the world.

Ben

How swearing can help you in business:

Ben cited an example of how he uses swearing to get his point across. A16Z's response time to entrepreneurs has been slipping, so he told his team:

We need to f$&kin’ make sure that we f$&kin’ tell these guys our f$&kin’ decision in no more than f$&kin’ two days.

I'm guessing that has a little more impact than something like this:

Hey guys let's make sure we get back to everybody in less than two days.

The role of luck in his career and at Opsware:

Ben spoke of luck and Peter Thiel's theory that you either view the world in terms of statistics and probabilities or in terms of calculus.

the statistics view says that you run a good process and hope for the best since outcomes are random

the calculus view says that the answer is out there you just need to find it...when it comes to luck I believe in the calculus view of the world

Why he uses rap lyrics in his writing:

Rap music gets the point across with an emotional connection. He was struggling with a blog post about company politics and how to communicate how a CEO needs to act to prevent politics. The words seemed kind of flat so he added this Rick Ross lyric to give it some punch:

Who the f@#k you think you f$&kin’ with
I’m the f%*kin’ boss