The Power Law

**A gripping fly-on-the-wall story of the rise of this unique and important industry based on extensive interviews with some of the most successful venture capitalists. - Daniel Rasmussen, *Wall Street Journal

• A must-read for anyone seeking to understand modern-day Silicon Valley and even our economy writ large. -Bethany McLean, The Washington Post

"A rare and unsettling look inside a subculture of unparalleled influence. **Jane Mayer

"A classic...A book of exceptional reporting, analysis and storytelling. Charles Duhigg

From the New York Times bestselling author of More Money Than God comes the astonishingly frank and intimate story of Silicon Valley s dominant venture-capital firms and how their strategies and fates have shaped the path of innovation and the global economy

Innovations rarely come from experts. Elon Musk was not an electric car person before he started Tesla. When it comes to improbable innovations, a legendary tech VC told Sebastian Mallaby, the future cannot be predicted, it can only be discovered. It is the nature of the venture-capital game that most attempts at discovery fail, but a very few succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives the VC business, all of Silicon Valley, the wider tech sector, and, by extension, the world.

In The Power Law, Sebastian Mallaby has parlayed unprecedented access to the most celebrated venture capitalists of all time the key figures at Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Accel, Benchmark, and Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Chinese partnerships such as Qiming and Capital Today into a riveting blend of storytelling and analysis that unfurls the history of tech incubation, in the Valley and ultimately worldwide. We learn the unvarnished truth, often for the first time, about some of the most iconic triumphs and infamous disasters in Valley history, from the comedy of errors at the birth of Apple to the avalanche of venture money that fostered hubris at WeWork and Uber.

VCs relentless search for grand slams brews an obsession with the ideal of the lone entrepreneur-genius, and companies seen as potential unicorns are given intoxicating amounts of power, with sometimes disastrous results. On a more systemic level, the need to make outsized bets on unproven talent reinforces bias, with women and minorities still represented at woefully low levels. This does not just have social justice implications: as Mallaby relates, China s homegrown VC sector, having learned at the Valley s feet, is exploding and now has more women VC luminaries than America has ever had. Still, Silicon Valley VC remains the top incubator of business innovation anywhere it is not where ideas come from so much as where they go to become the products and companies that create the future. By taking us so deeply into the VCs game, The Power Law helps us think about our own future through their eyes.

“Thoroughly magnificent. . . . Seriously great, and wildly important.” —Forbes

“A must-read for anyone seeking to understand modern-day Silicon Valley and even our economy writ large…Most people who write about Silicon Valley do so from the viewpoint of entrepreneurs who built companies with the backing of venture capitalists. Mallaby writes from the perspective of the venture capitalists themselves. He tells his story through an accumulation of smaller stories, each one phenomenally detailed and engaging.” —***Bethany McLean, The Washington Post

"A gripping fly-on-the-wall story of the rise of this unique and important industry based on extensive interviews with some of the most successful venture capitalists . . . Mr. Mallaby writes a fast-paced narrative. He also has a journalist’s eye for revealing details” —*Daniel Rasmussen, Wall Street Journal

“Sweeping and authoritative . . . tells an undercovered tale. . . . A worthy successor to More Money Than God.” —*Financial Times

“Well-researched book, leavened by lively portraits of leading figures.” —The Economist*

“How does the venture capital industry work its wonders? Is there a replicable formula for successful VC investing, or is it just a matter of being in the right place at the right time? And how secure is Silicon Valley’s dominance of the industry? Sebastian Mallaby’s absorbing new book, The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption seeks to answer these questions. . . . He brings his trademark mixture of exhaustive research and clear analysis to his most interesting subject so far.” —Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg

“As we face urgent man-made existential challenges from climate change to economic inequality, Sebastian Mallaby shows that the capitalists of Silicon Valley are shaping the future in ways few understand. In The Power Law he takes us inside their rarified world, showing the possibilities and shortcomings of their big egos and big bets. Mallaby's deep access enables us to get a rare and unsettling look inside a subculture of unparalleled influence.” —Jane Mayer, Chief Washington Correspondent, The New Yorker*

• “Absorbing.” —Reuters
   
  “The Power Law should be on every tech founder’s—and self-reflective VC’s—reading list . . . Go and buy The Power Law.  It is a fantastic account of how American venture capital has developed and some of the most important rules that govern it. Let’s use Mallaby’s brilliantly executed observations of VC as an opening for a long-overdue, ongoing debate and continue our scrutiny of the kingmakers’ world.” —Sifted
   
  “Mallaby writes with humor and historical sweep . . . His account is immensely enriched by interviews with most if not all of the rainmakers in venture capital.” —Prospect Magazine

“Venture capital has influenced the American economy for over half-a-century now, and finally we have a book of exceptional reporting, analysis and storytelling to bring that history to life. What makes Sebastian Mallaby’s The Power Law a classic is how deeply it takes us into VC's defining successes and failures—which are much harder to get anyone to talk frankly about. I’m not sure this is the book of VCs' dreams, but it’s what the rest of us have been waiting for.” —Charles Duhigg

“Returning to the rough and tumble of business, January also brings The Power Law (Allen Lane), in which author Sebastian Mallaby sets off into the world of venture capital and the strange bunch of financiers behind some of the most successful companies. It’s a tale of triumphs but also major failures, hubris and jaw-dropping eccentricity.” —Financial Times, Spring Preview

“Heavyweight and richly detailed, [The Power Law] is both a careening ride through the chaos of startup culture and a sober assessment of how the relationship between founders and their financiers has evolved.” —Strategy and Business

“A lucid, thoughtful, and entertaining account of high-wire capitalism at work.” —Publishers Weekly

“Indispensable.” —Kirkus

“In this fascinating study of venture capitalists, Sebastian Mallaby explains why they invest with the sole purpose of winning the jackpot while the rest of us are advised to invest cautiously. A compelling story of flesh-and-blood financiers, sprinkled with insights from which all economists could learn.” —Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England

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