Financial Forum Issues: Sebastian Mallaby on The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future

Innovations rarely come from “experts.” When it comes to improbable innovations, a legendary tech venture capitalist 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; very few succeed, and on 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 such Chinese partnerships 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.

Agenda

12 p.m.: Welcome Remarks: James Kelly, director, Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis OR Sris Chatterjee, chair, Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis

12:03 p.m.: Speaker Introduction: David Cowen, president and CEO, Museum of American Finance

12:08: p.m.: Presentation: Sebastian Mallaby

12:45 p.m.: Audience Q&A

1 p.m.: Closing Remarks: David Cowen

About the Speaker
Sebastian Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. An experienced journalist and public speaker, Mallaby contributes to a variety of publications, including Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, where he spent two years as a contributing editor. He is the author of five books, most recently The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future.

Mallaby’s interests cover a wide variety of domestic and international issues, including central banks, financial markets, the implications of the rise of newly emerging powers, and the intersection of economics and international relations. His previous book, The Man Who Knew: The Life & Times of Alan Greenspan, was the winner of the 2016 Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and the 2017 George S. Eccles Prize in economic writing. More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite was the recipient of the 2011 Loeb Prize and a New York Times bestseller.

Advance registration is required. The first 100 guests to register will receive a complimentary e-copy of the book. This event is co-sponsored with the CFA Society New York, the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, and the Museum of American Finance.