Marc Andreessen says more C-suite leaders need to act like Elon Musk.
“I believe there are a lot of people who should be learning a lot more from him who cannot bring themselves to do it and to their own detriment,” Andreessen said during a recent episode of Stripe cofounder John Collison’s “A Cheeky Pint” podcast.
The A16z cofounder said that by observing Musk, he’s distilled the Tesla CEO’s actions into an unofficial playbook that looks far different from traditional corporate management texts, like the legendary General Motors CEO Alfred P. Sloan, after whom MIT named its school of management.
“Basically, number one, it’s only engineers,” Andreessen said. “Your company, people who matter in your company are the engineers, the people who understand the technical content of what you’re doing for technology companies. And then you only ever talk to the engineers. You never ever ever talk to mid-level management.”
Not everyone can do this method, Andreessen said, mentioning that Ben Horowitz, A16z’s other cofounder, views it as assuming “you have somebody like Elon who can hold the entirety of every engineering topic in their head all at the same time.” Andreessen said that doesn’t mean Musk is the only person who can do it.
“How many of those people exist who can possibly do that? And we know the answer is one, I believe the answer is 10 or a hundred or a thousand,” Andreessen said. “I don’t know if it’s a million. I tend to think we have more of those people than we think we do.”
Other parts of Musk’s playbook are more transferable. Andreessen said he encourages more founders to act like Musk by creating an all-encompassing “cult of personality” that radiates both inside and outside the company.
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“We’re not gonna spend any money on marketing. We’re not going to put any time into IR,” Andreessen said. “What we’re going to do is we’re going to put on the show of all time. And the company, and the stocks, and the books, and the videos, and the products, and the jobs are all a function of the cult of personality.”
Musk’s inseparability from his companies has been put to the test since the 2024 election. Protesters targeted Tesla dealerships worldwide to express their displeasure with his de facto leadership of the White House DOGE office. Tesla shares took a hit during Musk’s summer feud with President Donald Trump. Months later, Musk remains vastly more unpopular than he was before entering the White House.
Andreessen said that Musk’s aggressive legal strategy bears fruit, regardless of who ultimately wins in court.
“Anybody who goes up against us, we are going to terrorize, we are going to declare war,” he said. “And then, of course, as a consequence of declaring war, we’re not always going to win all the wars, but we’re going to establish massive deterrence. And so nobody will screw around with us.”
Musk’s polarization of the market is “very helpful” in terms of standing apart and finding like-minded employees, Andreessen said. The downside, he added, is that not everyone will look past their feelings about the Tesla CEO to learn from him.
“The thing you don’t want in any market is a lack of differentiation,” Andreessen said. “He 100% always has that. But as a consequence, I believe there are a lot of people who should be learning a lot more from him, who cannot bring themselves to do it, and to their own detriment.”
