First published 2022
Sebastian Mallaby reveals how venture capital firms control Silicon Valley's fate through unprecedented access to legendary investors at Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Accel, Benchmark, and Andreessen Horowitz. He argues that innovation follows a power law where most ventures fail but rare massive successes compensate for all losses. Mallaby traces this pattern from Apple's chaotic beginnings to the money floods that inflated WeWork and Uber. He shows how VCs hunt for unicorns by betting on unproven entrepreneurs, often reinforcing bias against women and minorities. The book examines Chinese VC firms that learned from Silicon Valley but now surpass America in female leadership. Through extensive interviews with top venture capitalists, Mallaby demonstrates that the Valley succeeds not by generating ideas but by transforming them into world-changing companies. The book earned recognition as a Financial Times Business Book of the Year finalist and won praise from major publications for its insider perspective on an industry that shapes global innovation.
Genres: business, economics, non-fiction, technology, entrepreneurship
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-perspective, power-dynamics
Setting: Silicon Valley
Period: 21st-century
Paperback · ALLEN LANE