Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi: How to Run a $100 Billion Business

Ben Horowitz founded Loudcloud in the middle of the dot-com bust and sold it for $1.6 billion, then led Andreessen Horowitz from its founding to $46 billion in committed capital. Ali Ghodsi co-founded Databricks, stepped in as CEO during a crisis, and led it to a valuation of over $100 billion. In this episode of “Boss Talk”, Ben and Ali join a16z General Partners Sarah Wang and Erik Torenberg to share founder war stories, how to hire and make deals, how to keep culture intense without burning employees out, and why founders should raise their ambitions even higher. Follow Ali on X: https://x.com/alighodsi Learn more about Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/ Timecodes 00:00 Boss Talk returns 01:01 Why Ali became CEO of Databricks in 2016 09:45 From academic to CEO 16:00 Radical candor feedback and developing high performance 19:10 Scaling intensity and culture with Databricks’ ethos 31:55 The Microsoft deal strategy timing tactics 39:00 Fighting through setbacks and sealing the partnership 42:05 Building vs buying, how Databricks approaches acquisitions 54:55 Turning down acquisition offers and aiming for trillions 1:03:45 Key pivots luck and the Databricks founding team legacy Follow Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Follow Sarah on X: https://x.com/sarahdingwang Follow Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details, please see a16z.com/disclosure

Ali GhodsiguestErik TorenberghostBen HorowitzguestSarah Wanghost

Oct 15, 20251h 4mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: October 15, 2025
Duration: 1h 4m
Channel: a16z
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Ben Horowitz founded Loudcloud in the middle of the dot-com bust and sold it for $1.6 billion, then led Andreessen Horowitz from its founding to $46 billion in committed capital. Ali Ghodsi co-founded Databricks, stepped in as CEO during a crisis, and led it to a valuation of over $100 billion. In this episode of “Boss Talk”, Ben and Ali join a16z General Partners Sarah Wang and Erik Torenberg to share founder war stories, how to hire and make deals, how to keep culture intense without burning employees out, and why founders should raise their ambitions even higher. Follow Ali on X: https://x.com/alighodsi Learn more about Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/ Timecodes 00:00 Boss Talk returns 01:01 Why Ali became CEO of Databricks in 2016 09:45 From academic to CEO 16:00 Radical candor feedback and developing high performance 19:10 Scaling intensity and culture with Databricks’ ethos 31:55 The Microsoft deal strategy timing tactics 39:00 Fighting through setbacks and sealing the partnership 42:05 Building vs buying, how Databricks approaches acquisitions 54:55 Turning down acquisition offers and aiming for trillions 1:03:45 Key pivots luck and the Databricks founding team legacy Follow Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Follow Sarah on X: https://x.com/sarahdingwang Follow Erik on X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details, please see a16z.com/disclosure

SPEAKERS

Ali Ghodsi
guest
Co-founder and CEO of Databricks.
Erik Torenberg
host
Host at a16z who moderates and interviews tech leaders on the firm’s podcast programming.
Ben Horowitz
guest
Co-founder and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Sarah Wang
host
General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz focused on cloud/enterprise software investing.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of a16z, featuring Ali Ghodsi and Erik Torenberg, Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi: How to Run a $100 Billion Business explores databricks’ CEO playbook: pivots, culture, deals, and talent scaling Ghodsi explains why he became CEO in 2016: Databricks needed painful internal pivots to differentiate beyond free open source and commit to enterprise go-to-market.

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