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The Power Law
- Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Money & Finance, Banks & Banking
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Summary
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.
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What listeners say about The Power Law
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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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.
1 person found this helpful
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- M. Cameron
- 25-04-22
Excellent engaging book
I found this interesting from start to finish. It gives a great overview of venture capital and the how's and whys we have ended up with the current setup of venture funding. I'd highly recommend this book.
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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.