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Book review: The Power Law

ishanjmukherjee.github.io · 9,406 words · saved by 1 readers

My notes below this review might seem long, but The Power Law contains a wealth of information that didn’t make it to this post. I also absorbed a large amount of tacit knowledge that’s hard to put into words. For example, I formed a general opinion of a number of players in the venture capital (VC) industry, a sense for what kind of help VC firms provide beyond capital, etc. I can recommend reading the book if the subject interests you. To balance the frank approval of the successes of venture capital, there are fairly many failure stories in the book. WeWork, Theranos and Uber are splashy examples, but there’s also the more “boring” failure story of pen-computer company GO, which was a bet on clearing a certain technological barrier that just didn’t pay off; Kleiner Perkins’ ill-advised cleantech bets and diversity hiring efforts; Andreessen Horowitz’s lackluster performance due to their insistence on hiring ex-entrepreneur partners; and Masayoshi Son’s Hail Mary investing style. Mal

The Power Law This post draws heavily from Sebastian Mallaby’s book The Power Law. The book balances a frank approval of the successes of venture capital with a number of its failure stories. WeWork, Theranos and Uber are splashy examples, but there’s also the more “boring” failure story of pen-computer company GO, which was a bet on clearing a certain technological barrier that just didn’t pay off, Kleiner Perkins’ ill-advised cleantech bets and diversity hiring efforts, Andreessen Horowitz’s lackluster performance due to their insistence on hiring ex-entrepreneur partners, and Masayoshi…

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