Ben Horowitz explains why he looks for courage in the startup founders he invests in

But the one that to me is just as important is then, does the founder have the courage to build the company? You know, courage. Aristotle said courage is the first virtue, and it's really, really important in leadership, is integrity, honesty, and so forth. Everybody kind of has them in certain situations, but that's not the question. The question is like, if it's going to cost you your company, do you have your integrity? If it's going to cost you your job, are you honest? If it's going to completely embarrass you in front of everybody, do you have it then? And the only way you have it then is if you have courage. And so courage ends up being the foundation for a lot of what we need in an entrepreneur. And I always say you need kind of two things. You need great intelligence and great courage. And I always found, as an entrepreneur, my courage was tested far more than my intelligence. And I think that's pretty universal. So that's something we really like to focus on.