Scott Weiss
Scott Weiss
Scott Weiss is a venture capitalist at the Silicon Valley firm Andreessen Horowitz, joining in April 2011 as the firm’s fourth general partner. A native of Sarasota, Florida, he founded and was CEO of IronPort Systems, which Cisco acquired in 2007 for $830 million. Weiss has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Florida and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
CountryUnited States of America
connect greet standing
As CEO, I had a standing 30-minute meeting every Monday to greet and connect with new hires.
brightest home
For me, the brightest years at IronPort were without a doubt the darkest years at home.
reminded stay sweating
I don't like sweating the details, and I'm pretty disorganized. To be a better leader, I need to stay on top of these shortcomings, and being reminded really helps.
admitting company failure hard helps learning methodical open thinking
Nothing helps make a leader more approachable than admitting your struggles, screw-ups and behind-the-scenes thinking on hard calls. If the leader makes this a priority, the whole company will be more open and methodical learning from failure.
basis hear regular spots
It's important for a leader to hear about his blind spots on a regular basis so working on them is periodically top of mind.
affects developing directly essence extremely good healthy hiring operation overall practices reflects success
Developing a good, healthy culture is extremely important at a startup. Culture reflects the essence of a startup's operation because it directly affects the success of a company's hiring practices and overall strategy.
legitimate scale shot
As a first-time CEO, I wasn't sure if I would scale to run IronPort long-term. But I wanted a legitimate shot at it.
board business contribute member needs showing success
Being on a board is not just about showing up for the meetings. A board member needs to materially contribute to the success of the business.
currently experts recruit
The experts typically know where the other best-in-the-world talents are currently working and can help you recruit them in with a credible intro.
fully guarded patent rookie spend
One of the rookie mistakes first-time entrepreneurs often make is to be too guarded about their idea - in fact, many will actually spend their first $25,000 on patent lawyers without ever fully vetting their product.
forget founders hungry muscle notion product talk
At Andreessen Horowitz, we talk about the notion of being 'too hungry to eat.' That's to say, we often see startups that are so entrenched in the product that the founders forget they need muscle to grow.
authentic founder list low might product sounds telling
At the core, coaching authenticity is complicated - some might say impossible. Telling someone to be authentic sounds pretty low calorie, especially to a founder plowing through a list of product and operational goals. But it's important.
amazingly drive fast frequently generous love means moment money parking slow time work
Be generous with your time and money - it has an amazingly fast payback. Be in the moment with everyone you love - and this frequently means tuning out work completely. And drive slow in parking lots.
email former investors list open people relevant source
When my co-founder and I first had the idea for IronPort, an email security company, we triangulated a list of the 20 most relevant people in email - former CEOs, open source technologists, investors and thought leaders.