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Ben Horowitz: How to Design a Culture That Is Actually Yours

By Ben Horowitz · Leadership · 1 min read

Amazon obsesses over wasting money. Apple does not. Horowitz explains why copying another company's culture will destroy yours.

Key Points

Your culture must come from who you are and what your company wants to be
What counts as a cultural violation at one company is irrelevant at another
Even small behaviors that take you off your identity matter

If you see somebody wasting money at Amazon, that's a big deal. Apple doesn't have that culture. They're building the premium product. They spend a lot of money.

Start With Who You Are

Horowitz: "A lot of it comes back to who you are. Amazon wanted to be the low-price leader. You're never going to have to comparison shop because it's always going to be cheapest at Amazon. So part of the culture necessarily was: we're not going to waste money. They did all kinds of things to set that."

Horowitz: "If you see somebody wasting money at Amazon, that's a big deal. Apple doesn't have that culture, doesn't have that product positioning. They're building the premium product, the most beautifully designed product. They spend a lot of money."

If you see somebody wasting money at Amazon, that's a big deal. Apple doesn't have that culture. They're building the premium product.

A Cultural Violation at One Company Is Nothing at Another

Horowitz: "If you waste money at Apple, that's probably not as big a cultural violation, because it's not fundamental to what they want to be and the strategy of the business."

Horowitz: "You really have to start with: who are we? Who do we want to be? And then if there's something that takes you off of that, even if it's little, it's important."

You really have to start with: who are we? Who do we want to be?

The Small Things That Are Not Small

Horowitz: "One of the things we want to be at a16z — we want to be very respectful and empathetic to the entrepreneurial journey. So in a normal place, if you're late for a meeting, it's probably not that big a deal."

Horowitz: "Here, if you're late, it's a very bad problem if it's with an entrepreneur. Because we do not want to be under any circumstances disrespectful in that regard. That's off-culture for us. Not for everybody."

If you're late to a meeting with an entrepreneur, that's a very bad problem. We do not want to be disrespectful in that regard. That's off-culture for us.