Brad Feld has been an
early stage investor and
entrepreneur for over 20
years. Prior to co-founding
Foundry Group, he co-founded
Mobius Venture Capital, and
prior to that, founded Intensity
Ventures, a company “that
helped launch and operate
software companies. He is also
the co-founder of TechStars.52
FELD THOUGHTS WITH BRAD FELDCOLUMNa hard six even though the definition is contested by pilots who think
non-pilots confuse planes with dice. In wartime, the odds are often very
against you. Sometimes you just have to get lucky.ANOTHER ONE THAT I LOVE IS: Peacetime CEO strives for broad based
buy in. Wartime CEO neither indulges consensus-building nor
tolerates disagreements.
Things during wartime are intense. Decisions have to be made
quickly. Many will be wrong, need to be overturned, and new decisions
have to be made. Sitting around arguing about what to do simply
doesn’t work. Get all the ideas out on the table, but then choose. And
then execute like crazy.FINALLY: Peacetime CEO sets big, hairy audacious goals. Wartime CEO
is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by
consultants who have never managed a fruit stand.
Your big hairy audacious goal in wartime is not to die.As an investor, I’m involved in
some companies operating in
peacetime and others in wartime.
There’s a lot of emotional
dissonance during the day as I
go back and forth between them.
I’ve learned how to be calm in
both modes and deal with my
emotions outside the context of
interacting with CEOs, founders,
and leaders. But, Ben’s metaphor
of peacetime vs. wartime has
been so incredibly helpful to
me as an investor in identifying
what mode I’m in that I should
probably get him some sort of a
gift as a thank you.I
read Ben Horowitz’s The
Hard Thing About Hard
Things last weekend. This
is the third time I’ve read it. It gets
better each time. If you are a CEO
and you haven’t read it, buy it right
now and read it next weekend.
There are endless gems in
the book, many of them from
Ben’s own experience. My favorite
of all time, that stays with me
through all the work I do, is his
distinction between “peace time”
and “war time.”
I think the first time he wrote
about this was in his post in 2011
titled Peacetime CEO/Wartime
CEO. There has been plenty of
commentary on the web about it,
which really only says a CEO has
to be effective in both wartime and
peacetime to be successful.BEN HAS AN INCREDIBLE RANT IN
THE POST THAT STARTS OFF WITH:
Peacetime CEO knows that
proper protocol leads to winning.
Wartime CEO violates protocol in
order to win.
The rant is worth reading
every single word, but I want to
highlight and comment on a few of
my favorites.THE FIRST ONE IS: Peacetime CEO
always has a contingency plan.
Wartime CEO knows that some-
times you gotta roll a hard six.
Our fans know about rolling