The Power Law
Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption
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The Power Law
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Narrated by:
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Will Damron
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
It is no exaggeration to say that venture capital has been central to the greatest legal creation of wealth anywhere and has enabled much of the world we live in, yet we know surprisingly little about this strange tribe of financiers.
In The Power Law, Sebastian Mallaby turns his unprecedented access to the industry's central players into a riveting, character-driven account of venture capital and the world it has made. Most of the tech start-ups funded by Silicon Valley venture capitalists fail, but a very few hits succeed at such a scale that they will more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives venture capital, and the wider tech sector.
Mallaby make sense of the seeming randomness of success in venture capital, an industry that supposedly relies on gut instinct and personality rather than spreadsheets and data. We learn the unvarnished truth about some of the most iconic hits and infamous disasters in Silicon Valley history - from the comedy of errors that was the birth of Apple to the avalanche of venture money that fostered hubris at WeWork and Uber. And he shows how the power law now echoes around the world.
©2022 Sebastian Mallaby (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Power Law
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Piyush Patel
- 05-06-23
Brilliant, far-reaching history of VC
The book does an incredible job of synthesising the 1000s of VC deals completed over the last 5 decades, creating a compelling narrative of the entire VC industry.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Jiri
- 05-02-22
Must read for everyone in tech!
Incredible book. If you ever pitched or tried to woo VCs this a book you must read. It will explain why when you have a wrong background, wrong age, didn’t know right people and most importantly you are not in US, China or India will have very slim chance VCs will ever speak to you. Plus you can read / listen hear how VCs decide their bets and how they operate. It’s a an intriguing book that gave lot answers about things you didn’t know how to ask.
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- Chris
- 18-07-22
Its just betting, but with $Millions
I really loved this book. Yes its full of the greed of capitalists, then these people lost some and won some, If you listened to this via the App it was no doubt born out of tech investments. Something more governments should do, it would be of course with the taxpayers money - controversial..!!
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- ahmed Jamaleldeen Salih
- 28-08-22
Interesting Analysis
I love it, I couldn't stop listening
the authors provided astonishing insights on the invisible hands motivating invention based on a historical analysis of several breakthrough technologies that would have never changed the world without the intervention of capitalism
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- James
- 08-10-22
Brilliant
The stories excellently told given the number of characters and companies everything is working together exceptionally well just superb. As for the duration faultless. As you can guess I really enjoyed this got a lot from it recommended
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-02-23
Adventure Capital
Super interesting. The birth of the industry to modern day. The US is the heart of finance.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-12-23
Informative
Great geographical and historical context into the VC landscape. As a person of colour, one hopes when the story is told in decades to come, it reads slightly different
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- RStreet
- 12-10-22
One of my favourite books of the year so far.
I finished The Power Law today and think it’s one of my favourite books of the year so far. Really interesting and enlightening. The insights into how integral to the growth and development of some of the world’s biggest tech companies is linked to the backing of a few VC firms is pretty mind blowing. The author clearly explains the developments in VC and how investments are chosen and tracking through the interactions between VCs and founders. A good book and it inspired me to dig into VC history and VC companies a lot more.
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- Fred
- 01-04-22
Great insight to VC
So glad they picked Damron to narrate. Really suited the book. Only criticism I have of this fascinating book is its over focus on Sequoia. Otherwise this is a great investment of your time.
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- Amazon Customer
- 31-12-22
How Venture Capitalists shape the world into a better place
If you’re looking for an insider look into VC’s history & worldview this is the book for it. Thoroughly enjoyed it and opened my apetite to go down the rabbit hole for more on the subject.
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