a16z founder Ben Horowitz explains how startup CEOs should think about delegation

“You only get leverage if the person that you hire can do it better than you can. As long as you feel like you’re better than them at it, you’re just going to keep second guessing them and you’re not going to get any leverage.”

Ben argues that your next hire should always be the person who gets you the most leverage. And he believes CEOs should seek leverage in “all spots”:

“As CEO, you can be the keeper of the vision and quality control over the top, but you can’t be the lead engineer forever. Larry Page - as great an engineer as he was - is not an engineer at Google. He just isn’t. And he can’t work on production products because it’s a full-time job… And if Larry can’t do it, you can’t do it either. I guarantee you. You’re going to have to give them all up.”

Full video: Stanford eCorner “Ben Horowitz: Nailing the Hard Things [Entire Talk]“ (Nov 2014)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Ben Horowitz insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Ben Horowitz"