The Definitive History of VC with "Power Law" author Sebastian Mallaby | E1550
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2022
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Huge interview today. "Power Law" author Sebastian Mallaby joins the show to break down some of the most important moments in VC history and his lessons from writing the book, including: the youth revolt (14:18), KP vs Sequoia (27:02), what makes a legendary VC (38:40), and more!
(0:00) Jason tees up today's interview with "Power Law" author Sebastian Mallaby
(1:42) Sebastian explains how and why he wrote a book on the history of VC
(13:13) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://vanta.com/twist
(14:18) The virtuous cycle of luck early in a VC career, youth revolt in startups, Zuckerberg spurning Sequoia
(26:02) Embroker - Use code TWIST to get an extra 10% off insurance at https://Embroker.com/twist
(27:02) Tom Perkins and the Kleiner Perkins rise and fall vs Sequoia's sustained dominance, KP's Genentech investment
(37:18) Harmonic - Get $4000 off at https://harmonic.ai/twist
(38:40) What characteristics make a legendary VC?
(56:29) Why are institutional LPs allocating more capital to VC, what happened with China's interest in the industry? Other investable industries other than software
FOLLOW Sebastian: https://twitter.com/scmallaby
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood
BUY "Power Law": https://www.amazon.com/Power-Law-Venture-Capital-Making/dp/B094PSKDZV
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Okay, everybody. It's Thursday, quick intro, Sebastian Malibu, the author of the power law |
| 0:05.9 | is going to be on the pod. We do a deep dive into the history of venture capital, |
| 0:11.1 | all the great firms, all the great moments. Sebastian did an insane amount of research |
| 0:16.9 | for his book, which is a great book. He spent five years writing it, 250 people in our industry. |
| 0:23.6 | He interviewed and we talk about all the legendary VC firms and what they learned. It's important, |
| 0:29.2 | if you're a founder or you're a capital allocator for you to listen to this episode and |
| 0:33.2 | please buy his book as well. Stick with us. It's going to be a great episode. |
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| 1:38.5 | at harmonic.ai slash twist. All right everybody we're very excited because at long last we have |
| 1:46.2 | Sebastian Malibu joining us to talk about his book The Power Law which I have been calling |
| 1:50.4 | your favorite VCs favorite book about VC. Sebastian Malibu of course is a journalist and senior |
| 1:55.9 | fellow for international economics at the council on foreign relations, a Washington Post columnist |
| 2:00.2 | since 1999 worked for the economist. He's written other books as well that are just you know I mean |
| 2:06.1 | this is sort of a triumph of research and access and is as we will talk about in our interview |
... |
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