The Power Law

Regular price
$30.00
Regular price
Sale price
$30.00
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 

Named a Best Book of 2022 by The Economist

“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.
  • Hurry, only 1 item left in stock!
The Power Law

FAQs

Can you order a book for me?

Of Course!

Whether it's an out of stock title, or an item we don't yet carry, email us: illumebooksnbpt@gmail.com

Please provide the title and author in your request.

Do you provide shipping?

We provide shipping using USPS to the United States only.

If you prefer to pickup your order in-person, please select "Pick Up" during checkout.

What is the return policy?

merchandise returns for store credit within 14 days. No returns on Illume Essence, art & unwrapped games. All returns at discretion of the bookseller.

Are all of your products available online?

While we do our best to offer as much of our inventory online as possible, the best way to see everything is to stop by! ✨

We have small rotations of home decor, our reading inspiration gallery (shop made and oh so shiny), chess sets, and more.

Curation and "Why Don't You Carry..."

Illume is an experience for readers that's meant to showcase a careful selection of titles much in the same way an art gallery would display an exhibition.

Titles are always shown "cover forward", and our inventory rotates to reflect current reader interests, shifting topics, and obscure finds. That said, we LOVE recommendations! Let us know what you're looking for, or what your favorite reads are. You may find them on the shelves soon!

Whether you're a stacked to the brim library connoisseur, or a minimalist looking for a rare gem... we hope you'll enjoy our open space, find a new treasure, and experience the cozy reading couch🤍