Book · 2022 · Venture capital
The Power Law
Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
- mentions
- 25
- people
- 7
- podcasts
- 5
- episodes
- 19
- recommendations
- 13
I'm very happy to recommend to you all Sebastian's new book, all of his old books as well, but the new book is The Power Law, Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future.
Tyler Cowen · Conversations with Tyler · Feb 2022 Listen at 1:05:02 What they say about it
- Book about venture capital“it's about venture capital”3
- Great book on venture“which is a great book”2
- Must read for founders and investors“must read if you're in the venture business”2
- Detailed research and firm histories“each chapter is about different firms”2
The best things said about it
It's absolutely fantastic book, must read if you're in the venture business, must read if you're on the entrepreneurial side.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Sep 2022 Sebastian did an insane amount of research for his book, which is a great book. He spent five years writing it, 250 people in our industry he interviewed, and we talked about all the legendary VC firms and what they learned.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Sep 2022 That is the, you know, as defined the power law, and you know you chose to name the book The Power Law, which is your success in venture is defined by your outlier hits period full stop.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Sep 2022 And so when I looked at the process and I read your book and I listened to it, I listened to a number of chapters over and over again. I plan on listening to it every year or two, maybe just to reinforce some of these thoughts.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Sep 2022 As we read in Sebastian's The Power Law, during bad years took their management fees and instead of taking them as management they took those fees and they invested them.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Sep 2022 So I recently reviewed a book called The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby and it's a book about venture capital and venture capitalists, and you know I have to say this was not a book that I was crazy about.
Where and when it comes up
How it comes up
Most mentions, by podcast
7 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby is a comprehensive history of venture capital that examines the legendary firms and high-stakes investments that shaped the modern tech economy. Jason Calacanis recommended the book on This Week in Startups as an educational resource explaining power law distributions, diversification, and time horizons in angel investing, noting that he required his investment team to read it. Alex Wilhelm also mentioned the book while promoting an angel-investing workshop. Tim Ferriss recommended Mallaby's work on The Tim Ferriss Show, mentioning that he had listened to excerpts and praising it as a great exploration of venture capital. Ben Gilbert discussed reading the book on Acquired, praising its deep historical coverage of the industry. Calacanis hosted author Sebastian Mallaby on This Week in Startups, where he lauded the five years of meticulous research and the hundreds of interviews behind the project, explaining that he frequently re-listened to chapters to guide the operations of his own firm. Across these podcast episodes, investors and hosts consistently praised the book as the definitive guide to understanding how venture capital operates, how outlier returns are generated, and the influential figures who built Silicon Valley.
Every mention
Jason Calacanis we're very excited because at long last we have sebastian maliby joining us to talk about his book the powe… 13
Recommended
“It'll explain, you know, the power law. It'll explain diversification. It'll explain the time horizon. It's called Angel. Or you can just read the power law and understand that like I don't know, 29 of 30 bets, 39 of 40 bets will return no capital”
Discussed
“yeah so you could take the book Angel you take the book The Power law yeah and you could say hey make me cliff notes”
Discussed
“as we read in Sebastian's uh the power law during bad years took their management fees and instead of taking them as management they took those fees and they invested them”
Discussed
“as we learned in the power law book he bought some shares lower and some preferred shares higher to blend his price”
Recommended
“sebastian did an insane amount of research for his book which is a great book he spent five years writing it 250 people in our industry he interviewed and we talked about all the legendary vc firms and what they learned”
Recommended
“we're very excited because at long last we have sebastian maliby joining us to talk about his book the power law which i have been calling your favorite bc's favorite book about vc”
Discussed
“one of the stories i'm obsessed with is this kind of the youth rebellion in which a generation of founders becomes profoundly skeptical of venture capital and just says we think they're vultures”
Recommended
“and so when i looked at the process and i read your book and i listened to it i listened to a number of chapters over and over again i plan on listening to it every year or two maybe just to reinforce some of these thoughts”
Discussed
“that is the you know as defined the power law and you know you chose to name the book the power law which is your success in venture is defined by your outlier hits period full stop”
Recommended
“this has been absolutely fantastic it's amazing i bought 25 copies of your book uh it's absolutely fantastic book must read if you're in the venture business must read if you're on the entrepreneurial side”
Recommended
“we have a great interview with sebastian maliby author of the power law coming up next week your favorite vc's favorite vc book coming up next week great book everybody should read it”
Book club
“we're super excited that we're gonna have sebastian maliby the author of the power law the book that every it's what did they call mfd fmf doom he was like your favorite rapper's favorite rapper”
Recommended
“i'm reading a book called the power law which i am yeah i'm almost done with it so i recommend to everybody um it's a good listen”
Tim Ferriss I'm listening to a book right now which I've read excerpts of but it's called the power law by Sebastian ma… 6
Discussed
“And then certainly that was in my particular case followed by reading the power law of venture capital in the making of the new future, which I didn't expect to learn as much from because I've spent 20 years surrounded by venture capitalists”
Recommended
“I'm listening to a book right now which I've read excerpts of but it's called the power law by Sebastian malib and it's about venture capital”
Recommended
“That's just part of a power law distribution. Great book, by the way. Power Law.”
Discussed
“do you think it's even more important and i know if you've run across this book by sebastian malibi called power law of course it was recently published”
Recommended
“sebastian maliby who also has a very good book on venture capital more recently i believe it's called the power law”
Discussed
“and he has written a new book, which I've not read, believe it's called The Power Law, which really delves into venture capital, and there are some striking similarities.”
Alex Wilhelm if you haven't read the power law you don't know what the power law is the prao principle go ahead and look… 1
Recommended
“if you haven't read the power law you don't know what the power law is the prao principle go ahead and look it up”
Ben Gilbert the power law by Sebastian Melody 1
Recommended
“the power law by Sebastian Melody”
Tyler Cowen Again, I'm very happy to recommend to you all Sebastian's new book, all of his old books as well, but the n… 1
Recommended
“Again, I'm very happy to recommend to you all Sebastian's new book, all of his old books as well, but the new book is The Power Law, Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future.”
Jennifer Szalai so i recently reviewed a book called The Power law by Sebastian malaby and it's a book about venture capita… 1
Critiqued
“so i recently reviewed a book called The Power law by Sebastian malaby and it's a book about venture capital and Venture capitalists and you know i have to say this was not a book that i was crazy about”
Molly Wood he talked about and this was actually in interestingly enough also in the power line Sebastian malibi's boo… 1
Discussed
“he talked about and this was actually in interestingly enough also in the power line Sebastian malibi's book talking about Benchmark uh feeling the pressure to become a bigger fund over the years”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker1
Discussed
“And I think if you even go further back kosa was at KP back in the in the Heyday right Y and if you read uh Sebastian malaby's book power law each chapter is about different firms”
Other mentions (14: passing, ad reads, own books)
Plugged
“Well, the power law, the book about venture capital, had come out in February of 2022.”
Passing
“We had a great episode with uh Steven who wrote the book the power law an outsider who wrote just about the power law.”
Passing
“it's the power law we had Sebastian from the book The Power law on this program you can look it up the power law for every one of these outliers”
Passing
“and I wrote a book about this it's and there's a book called The Power law people love to get educated about this stuff”
Passing
“if you haven't read the power law you don't know what the power law is the prao principle go ahead and look it up we talk about securing pra very important getting investor updates”
Passing
“if you haven't read the power law you don't know what the power law is the Poo principle go ahead and look it up”
Passing
“if you haven't read the power law you don't know what the power law is the prao principle go ahead and look it up”
Passing
“and that was famously what happened with Google if you remember from Sebastian's book The Power of law he recounts this very well known in Silicon Valley that Sergey and Larry said split it”
Passing
“that's one of the things that happened with Bill Gurley and they talk about in the power law and Benchmark talks about oh my God Masa Yoshi uh-san is coming in and taking Yahoo is taking Uber and putting these big chunks of capital in”
Passing
“and when they write the power law book two we just had the power law author what a great interview uh thanks for doing it with me well they're gonna have to write about somebody in the next book”
Passing
“we talked to the power law author sebastian maliby gets a little rock back on his heels a little bit about uh after all those years he spent talking to investors”
Passing
“i think yeah later this week we're gonna actually have sebastian malibi on to talk about the power law and he goes through a bunch of this history of the development of yc”
Passing
“uh molly's to keep uh doing these amazing founder interviews thanks for doing that uh with the launch accelerator classes and we're going to have the power law author sebastian maliby uh later this week”
Plugged
“He is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing columnist to Washington Post, and most importantly, he has a new excellent and very well-reviewed book out called The Power Law, Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future.”