Books by Sebastian Mallaby

“Mallaby favors the idea that venture capital has been a force for good. Ordinary finance was backing the probability of beating the market by a point or two. Venture capital, right from the beginning, was about backing 10 horses, nine of whom you know are going to fall before the final hurdle, but one is going to strike enormously rich. It was originally called ‘adventure’ capital. It’s about taking these huge risks, in the hope that at least one of them will do exceptionally well. So it requires, as he makes clear, a particular type of person, with a particular mindset, in order to make this happen. It’s a pro-venture capital book. The subtitle is ‘the art of disruption’ and there has been a lot of criticism about whether disruption is really what we want. But in the case of some of the companies backed by the venture capitalists, he’s saying it was the necessary spark for wider capitalism. It’s a very nicely told story, I think.” Read more...

The Best Business Books of 2022: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award

Andrew Hill, Journalist