Ben Horowitz, a venture-capital investor in Silicon Valley, is getting attention for his unusual approach to communicating business lessons, especially to tech entrepreneurs: rap lyrics. He says they provide a direct mode of expression that helps him "connect emotionally," often in far fewer words than it would normally take to explain a concept.
For example, he says that Rakim's "You're just a rent-a-rapper, your rhymes are minute-maid/I'll be here when it fade to watch you flip like a renegade" perfectly captures why he prefers founding chief executives to those hired to run companies.
The New York Times reports:
Mr. Horowitz’s use of rap connects two cultures that are rarely linked. African-Americans hold only 6.7 percent of computer jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and their representation among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs is even smaller.
Last fall, Mr. Horowitz’s posts led to an appearance before the Congressional Black Caucus. He talked to the group about how the Internet brings different cultures together and about the role African-Americans have played in social media and mobile technologies.
Silicon Valley “can leave a lot of people on the outside looking in,” said Jason Lee, a follower of the blog who helped organize the panel and is the son of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat and a caucus member.
Read more at the New York Times.
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