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Breaking into Venture
An Outsider Turned Venture Capitalist Shares How to Take Risks, Create Power, and Build Life-Changing Wealth
Venture capitalists are a small, elite group quietly funding and shaping the technology that runs the world — and almost no one outside the club understands how they actually operate. Breaking into Venture pulls back the curtain.
Whether you're an aspiring investor, a founder, or a career-focused professional, this is a guide to how this historically exclusive and lucrative industry really works. Through my own stories — the mistakes, the hard lessons — alongside insights from other investors who came in from unexpected backgrounds, the book lays out nine fundamental principles for success in VC: how to access great opportunities, how to decide which ones to pursue, and how to add value once you're in.
I wrote it to democratize a world that too often stays closed — to show the ropes to people who aren't already part of the "in crowd," aren't already wealthy, and don't even know where Sand Hill Road is.
In a bold act of democratizing access to one of the most enigmatic but influential corners of our economy, Baum Gates brings us a remarkable and delightful insider's guide to venture capital.
Diane GhersonSenior Lecturer at Harvard Business School · former Chief Human Resource Officer of IBM
Praise for Breaking into Venture
The mission of this book is to make it easier for people with new and different perspectives to find their way in a historically exclusive and homogeneous industry. Allison breaks down complex and opaque concepts in a way that is accessible to anyone.
Angela Lee
Professor of Venture Capital at Columbia Business School and founder of 37 Angels
The inner workings of venture capital can be ambiguous and complex. This book demystifies the industry powering the technology behind our everyday lives and equips the reader with principles that can apply to anyone looking to invest, raise money for a new idea, or build a career in technology.
Mala Singh
Chief People Officer, Electronic Arts
I never understood the full meaning of ‘venture capital’ until reading Allison's honest account of what it takes to identify and invest in transformative businesses long before they become household names.
Michael KoenigsExecutive Producer at Disney-ABC · host of ABC's More in Common