SCOTT WEISS

Your happiness is at the intersection of your passions and learning from great people.

I wouldn't suggest that being resourceful has anything to do with doing something illegal or unethical, but I've definitely noticed a pattern of being 'creative.'

Whatever vocation you decide on, track down the best people in the world at doing it and surround yourself with them.

An approachable and authentic CEO is essential to fostering a high-performance, open communications culture.

It's really hard to break through the clutter and get the attention of the top investors, as they typically only look at deals that come in from a warm, credible referral. There's absolutely nothing more credible than getting an endorsement from a well-known subject matter expert who has already put their own money into your company.

While there's no substitute for real experience, I believe it helps to hear and share stories of resourcefulness in action - almost like case studies in school.

Trust leads to approachability and open communications.

The first day, week and month of an employee's experience carries a lasting impression.

Working at a big company sucks - avoid it. Smaller companies are 10 times better for learning.

Most companies don't have a good mechanism to give the CEO real, honest feedback.

As CEO, I had a standing 30-minute meeting every Monday to greet and connect with new hires.

For me, the brightest years at IronPort were without a doubt the darkest years at home.

As a decision maker, you rely on information being passed to you by the people who report to you. As the CEO, however, you cannot rely solely on this information. You also need to 'dip' down into your organization and learn directly from employees at all levels and virtually all skill sets.

Feedback for leaders is often nuanced and difficult to deliver. That said, hearing you are passive-aggressive from 10 different people described 10 different ways becomes hard to ignore.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

All great pitches have a few things in common: the founder/team is wicked smart, the idea is big and a breakthrough, and the market is potentially enormous.

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.

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.