Ben Horowitz

Benjamin Abraham Horowitz (born June 13, 1966) is an American businessman, investor, blogger, and author. He was born in London, England, and raised in Berkeley, California. He is the son of Elissa Krauthamer and conservative writer and policy advocate David Horowitz. Horowitz’s great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. He earned a BA in Computer Science from Columbia College, Columbia University, in 1988, and an MS in Computer Science from UCLA in 1990.

Career

Horowitz began his career as an engineer at Silicon Graphics in 1990. In 1995, he joined Netscape as a product manager, eventually becoming Vice President for the Directory and Security Product Line. After Netscape was acquired by AOL in 1998, he served as Vice President of AOL’s eCommerce Division.

In September 1999, Horowitz co-founded Loudcloud, an infrastructure and application hosting services company, with Marc Andreessen, Tim Howes, and In Sik Rhee. Loudcloud went public in 2001 and later transformed into Opsware, an enterprise software company. Horowitz served as President and CEO of both Loudcloud and Opsware. In 2007, he sold Opsware to Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in cash.

Following the sale, Horowitz spent a year at Hewlett-Packard as Vice President and General Manager in HP Software, overseeing 3,000 employees and $2.8 billion in annual revenue.

Andreessen Horowitz

On July 6, 2009, Horowitz and Andreessen launched Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups and established growth companies in high technology. The firm began with an initial capitalization of $300 million and grew to manage $2.7 billion within three years.

Writing and Influence

Horowitz is the author of “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” and “What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture.” He is known for his insightful blog posts and thought leadership in the technology and startup communities.

Personal Life

Horowitz lives in Atherton, California, with his wife, Felicia Wiley Horowitz. They married in 1988 and have three children. In July 2024, Horowitz announced his intention to donate to Super PACs supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

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