First and most important, I thank my beautiful wife of twenty-five years, Felicia Horowitz. It is a little odd thanking her, because she has been so central to the story that she is more properly the coauthor. She has been my number-one supporter and her belief in me and in this book has meant everything. There would be no book without her, and there is no me without her. She is my partner in life and the love of my life, and I owe her everything that I have and everything that I am. I do not have the words to express the magnitude of gratitude that I feel. Felicia, I love you and I thank you.
I am extremely grateful to the countless people who helped me through all the difficult times and to the people who helped me articulate what all that was like. I hope this book pays some of that forward.
Next my mother, Elissa Horowitz, who always encouraged me to pursue anything that I wanted to do—from playing football to writing this book. She believed in me when nobody else did and understood me like nobody else ever could. Thanks, Mom!
I also thank my father, David, who convinced me that writing this book was a good idea and then put in long hours helping me edit it.
None of this would have been possible without my longtime business partner Marc Andreessen seeing things in me that nobody else did. Beyond that, it’s been amazing to work with him for the past eighteen years. He’s been a great inspiration to me in everything that I do. He was the primary editor of the first dozen blog posts that I wrote and a very helpful editor of this book. It’s a great privilege for me to work with someone of his caliber every day.
I thank my friend Bill Campbell for teaching me so many things about how to survive the hard times. So few people went through what he went through and almost nobody is willing to talk about it. Bill, thank you for your honesty and courage.
Michael Ovitz helped me rewrite the ending of the book and make it ten times better. Before that, he did everything imaginable to support me in my impossible quest—up to and including buying Opsware stock when nobody else would. He is a true friend.
To every employee who ever worked at Loudcloud or Opsware, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I still cannot believe that you believed in me as much as I believed in you. On that team, very special thanks to Jason Rosenthal, Mark Cranney, Sharmila Mulligan, Dave Conte, John O’Farrell, Jordan Breslow, Scott Kupor, Ted Crossman, and Anthony Wright for being part of this book. Hopefully, I didn’t get anything too wrong. Thank you, Eric Vishria, Eric Thomas, Ken Tinsley, and Peter Thorp, for helping me remember what happened. Thanks also to Ray Soursa, Phil Liu, and Paul Ingram for saving the company. Darwin forever! Thanks so much, Shannon Callahan. I still cannot believe that I laid you off. Thanks to Dave Jagoda for not letting me forget what matters.
I thank Tim Howes, my Loudcloud/Opsware cofounder and confidant. I do not know if we made all the right decisions, but I do know that our conversations kept me sane. Thank you for being there from start to finish.
Without Carlye Adler, my editor and coach, I am not sure that I would have even started this book, let alone finished it. Nobody was more jazzed when I wrote something good or sadder when I wrote something boring. Thank you, Carlye, for making this book so much better than it should have been.
Special thanks to Hollis Heimbouch for tracking me down on Facebook and getting me to write the book. I could not have asked for a better publisher. A thank-you to the entire team at HarperCollins.
Binky Urban is the top literary agent in the world, and I am so lucky to have had the chance to be her client. It is a great joy to work with the very best.
I thank my friends Nasir Jones and Kanye West for being so inspirational in their work and helping me articulate emotions that seemed impossible to express. I also appreciate them for letting this fan backstage.
Steve Stoute has been an outstanding friend throughout this process, helping me find my voice and letting me know that the work that I am doing is important.
Thanks to my oldest friend, Joel Clark Jr., for being a great friend for forty-three years and letting me tell the story of how we met.
Chris Schroeder helped me edit the book and maintained a crazy amount of enthusiasm while doing so. Chris blows me away with his interest in this work. Many times, he seems even more interested than I am.
Thank you, Herb Allen, for being a great friend and letting me write about you. I know that is not your favorite thing.
I thank all the partners and employees at Andreessen Horowitz who put up with my grouchiness and increased profanity as I wrote this. It would not have been possible without you. Thank you for making the dream of a firm for founding CEOs come true.
A special thank-you to Margit Wennmachers for believing that I had something to say and helping me find people who would hear it. I am so lucky to be working in the presence of such greatness.
Grace Ellis has been by my side throughout the process, handling every weird detail that one could imagine. During this time, I have yet to hear her complain about a single thing. Beyond that, she has given me great advice and been a great friend.
Thank you, Ken Coleman, for giving me my first job and being a fantastic mentor for nearly thirty years.
Thanks to my brother in-law, Cartheu Jordan Jr., for being an important character in this book and in my life. He is Branch Rickey to my Jackie Robinson.
Thank you, John and Loretta Wiley, for being so supportive of me in everything that I do.
Thanks to my brothers and sisters Jonathan Daniel, Anne Rishon, and Sarah Horowitz for shaping me. Love you always, Sarah.
I thank the late, great Mike Homer for his wisdom, help, and love. I thank Andy Rachleff for being a great gentleman and friend. Thank you, Sy Lorne, for keeping me out of trouble. Thank you, Mike Volpi, for being on the board of a very scary company.
Finally, thank you, Boochie, Red, and Boogie, for being the best children that I could imagine.