Sebastian Mallaby

Sebastian Mallaby

Journalist, Author

Sebastian Mallaby is a British American journalist and the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His book The Power Law is a definitive history of the venture capital industry.

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Books Written
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Books Recommended

Books by Sebastian Mallaby

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future by Sebastian Mallaby

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future

by Sebastian Mallaby

star4.5

Mallaby traces the rise of Silicon Valley venture capital from Arthur Rock and Kleiner Perkins through Sequoia, Benchmark, a16z, and Tiger, arguing that the power-law distribution of startup returns is what makes the VC model work and what distinguishes it from other forms of finance. Drawing on unprecedented access to leading partners, he shows how VC's contrarian, hands-on, portfolio-of-outliers approach produced companies like Apple, Cisco, Google, and Facebook, and how that playbook is now being exported globally.

businessventure capital

Most Recommended by Sebastian

The books Sebastian Mallaby references, cites, and recommends most frequently.

Zero to One by Peter Thiel

Zero to One

by Peter Thiel

star4.5

Thiel argues that true innovation means creating something entirely new, not copying what exists. Competition is for losers, monopoly through unique value is how lasting companies are built.

businesstechnology
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

by Ben Horowitz

star4.5

Horowitz shares hard-won lessons from running a startup through near-death crises. There is no formula, leadership means making impossible decisions when there are no good options.

business
The Innovators by Walter Isaacson

The Innovators

by Walter Isaacson

star4.1

Isaacson traces the digital revolution from Ada Lovelace to the internet age. The key insight: the greatest breakthroughs came from collaboration between visionaries, not lone geniuses in isolation.

technologyhistory
The Everything Store by Brad Stone

The Everything Store

by Brad Stone

star4.5

Stone chronicles Bezos's relentless, customer-obsessed drive to transform Amazon from online bookstore into global commerce and cloud empire. Visionary brilliance meets ruthless execution.

businesshistory
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs

by Walter Isaacson

star4.2

Isaacson portrays Jobs as a study in contradictions - visionary and cruel, obsessive and brilliant. His core thesis: Jobs' relentless pursuit of perfection and control over end-to-end products reshaped entire industries.

historybusiness

Influence Map

Who Sebastian draws from, and who draws from Sebastian — aggregated across every book in this collection. Counts show the number of citation links, not the depth of each one.

Sebastian cites most often

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