Ben Horowitz lays out why 'the internet is just distributed Silicon Valley' is false, arguing that talent, pro-business laws/property rights, and a status-rewarding entrepreneurial culture must all combine, and that culture is the hardest and rarest ingredient. ✦ AI generated
Ben Horowitz · a16z Podcast · 2026-07-03 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 39:57
“the number one question we often get when we're visiting different countries is how do you recreate Silicon Valley locally, right?”
is is the culture such that young people the most capable young people willing to make the biggest contribution is do they get status social status reward is it cool to either start or join a new company um and almost no very few countries have that uh I would say that it's really really good in the US.
verbatim transcript · starts at 39:57
39:57think kind of a combination of everything in a way is is the culture such that young people the most capable young people willing to make the biggest contribution is do they get status social status reward is it cool to either start or join a new company um and almost no very few countries have that uh I would say that it's really really good in the US. It's um you know it's clearly good in
40:29China by the way. Uh although they've done a few things to mess it up, but in most countries you know like in a lot of ways like success is frowned upon. >> It's like oh you know and in a lot of you hear a lot of this in the political rhetoric. Oh the only way you could make a billion dollars is if you're a thief >> which is completely absurd. Um
40:48>> you know you just look at the people almost none of them are thieves. like they you can't steal a billion dollars is a real truth. But like that's just like it's a rhetoric that works because if you're you know if you're like how >> it's a great sour grapes idea, right? Like it's like how how did he get all that money? Oh, he's a thief. Okay, I go
41:05I'm not a thief. So like I feel much better about myself now. But but that's the you that's a lot of the thing and that's the thing that's so hard to replicate and it's so hard to build and it's so easy to destroy. Uh so it's you know something that I think we have to just be aware of how special that is and unique in the world and then we can try
41:26and help other people do it but we also have to try equally hard not to wreck it ourselves. >> Yeah, for sure. It's uh it's World Cup season and there was a great tweet where someone was like, "I think America thinks they could potentially win the World Cup." And like it's like maybe they can, maybe they can't, but like the fact that America thinks they can is a
41:44feature, not a bug. Yes, >> there's a reason >> amition is fantastic. >> There's a reason we all read our kids. You know that what is it? The little red jing. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. That's in America. You can believe you can. >> That's right. That's right. Amazing. That's a good note to end on. Thank you all.