A Financial Times Summer Book of 2019 'The addictive stories of four incredible women who did things their own way and rewrote the code of a whole industry' Emerald Street Described as 'the book that the world needs right now' (Adam Fisher, author of Valley of Genius), Alpha Girls is perfect for fans of Hidden Figures, Lean In and The Social Network. Silicon Valley has long been at the forefront of innovation, but it is renowned for its archaic sexist culture. Alpha Girls is the unforgettable story how a group of talented women achieved success in a tech world run by 'bro-grammers' through sheer grit and determination. Despite the instrumental role they played in building some of the foremost companies of our time, these women have been written out of history - until now. In Alpha Girls, award-winning writer Julian Guthrie reveals their untold stories. *Magdalena Yesil who arrived in America from Turkey with $43 to her name and would go on to help Marc Benioff build Salesforce. *Mary Jane Elmore - one of the first women in the United States to make partner at a venture capital firm. *Theresia Gouw, who helped land and build companies including Facebook, Trulia, Imperva and ForeScout. *Sonja Hoel, the first woman investing partner at Menlo Ventures who invested in McAfee, Hotmail, Acme Packet and F5 Networks as well as founding an all-women's investment group and a national nonprofit for girls. These women, juggling work and family, shaped the tech landscape we know today while overcoming unequal pay, actual punches, betrayals and the sexist attitudes prevalent in Silicon Valley. Despite the setbacks, they would rise again to rewrite the rules for an industry they love.

“An incisive history of the venture-capital industry.” —New Yorker “An excellent and original economic history of venture capital.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “A detailed, fact-filled account of America’s most celebrated moneymen.” —New Republic “Extremely interesting, readable, and informative...Tom Nicholas tells you most everything you ever wanted to know about the history of venture capital, from the financing of the whaling industry to the present multibillion-dollar venture funds.” —Arthur Rock “In principle, venture capital is where the ordinarily conservative, cynical domain of big money touches dreamy, long-shot enterprise. In practice, it has become the distinguishing big-business engine of our time...[A] first-rate history.” —New Yorker VC tells the riveting story of how the venture capital industry arose from America’s longstanding identification with entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Whether the venture is a whaling voyage setting sail from New Bedford or the latest Silicon Valley startup, VC is a state of mind as much as a way of doing business, exemplified by an appetite for seeking extreme financial rewards, a tolerance for failure and experimentation, and a faith in the promise of innovation to generate new wealth. Tom Nicholas’s authoritative history takes us on a roller coaster of entrepreneurial successes and setbacks. It describes how iconic firms like Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia invested in Genentech and Apple even as it tells the larger story of VC’s birth and evolution, revealing along the way why venture capital is such a quintessentially American institution—one that has proven difficult to recreate elsewhere.

"Women In Venture" features more than 100 women making investment decisions in venture capital around the world. Forget everything that you have read before and hear the real stories, not manicured by the media, about women who achieved success in this male-dominated industry. They tell us how they worked with men hand in hand to get where they are; how male friends and mentors helped them to achieve their dreams and become better selves; they tell us what it takes to be a venture capitalist. There has never been a stronger collection of wisdom from women who are at the top of the venture capital world. Imagine watching several episodes of David Letterman's "My Next Guest" show with your favorite characters. Funny, controversial, always sharp and intelligent, they tell about their adventures, challenges, and lessons learned. This is what this book is. Whether you agree or disagree with their personal beliefs and opinions, you won't stay indifferent to what they have to say. The author, Renata George, surveyed hundreds of people on social media to find out who their favorite women VCs are, whom she then interviewed to discuss their experience in venture capital industry in a raw and honest way. The book profiles women VCs of all generations: from first women investors to the brand new names in the venture capital arena, women who manage famous venture capital franchises and who have just raised their first fund.

Today, there are over 200,000,000 women business owners around the world. Many of these entrepreneurs are not doing business as usual, nor are they simply leaning in. Rather, they are tapping into feminine capital—the unique skills and sensibilities that they have cultivated as women—to create enviable successes. Drawing on four decades of award-winning research, Feminine Capital reveals how women are harnessing different approaches to doing business. Barbara Orser and Catherine Elliott detail the pillars of feminine capital and offer new insight into the ways that gender can influence entrepreneurial decision-making. They find that leveraging feminine capital can help women to create distinctive brands, build new markets, and drive profits—all while leveling the playing field in business. In doing so, women are changing our social and economic landscape, one venture at a time. Dispelling myths and misperceptions that can undermine women-owned ventures, this book takes a fresh look at how female entrepreneurs can leverage their skills, knowledge, and values. Case studies of women entrepreneurs bring key concepts and lessons to life, while learning aids, diagnostic tools, and checklists help readers to construct innovative business models, refine start-up plans, and hone growth strategies.

Explanations to the inner workings of one of the least understood, but arguably most important, areas of business finance is offered to readers in this engaging volume: venture capital. Venture capitalists provide necessary investment to seed (or startup) companies, but the startup is only the beginning, there is much more to be explored. These savvy investors help guide young entrepreneurs, who likely have little experience, to turn their businesses into the Googles, Facebooks, and Groupons of the world. This book explains the often-complex methods venture capitalists use to value companies and to get the most return on their investments, or ROI. This book is a must-have for any reader interested in the business world.

“A hero’s tale of what’s possible when we unlock our potential, continue the search for knowledge, and draw on our lived experiences to guide us through the darkest moments.”—Stacey Abrams From a Black, gay woman who broke into the boys’ club of Silicon Valley comes an empowering guide to finding your voice, working your way into any room you want to be in, and achieving your own dreams. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FORTUNE In 2015, Arlan Hamilton was on food stamps and sleeping on the floor of the San Francisco airport, with nothing but an old laptop and a dream of breaking into the venture capital business. She couldn’t understand why people starting companies all looked the same (White and male), and she wanted the chance to invest in the ideas and people who didn’t conform to this image of how a founder is supposed to look. Hamilton had no contacts or network in Silicon Valley, no background in finance—not even a college degree. What she did have was fierce determination and the will to succeed. As much as we wish it weren’t so, we still live in a world where being underrepresented often means being underestimated. But as someone who makes her living investing in high-potential founders who also happen to be female, LGBTQ, or people of color, Hamilton understands that being undervalued simply means that a big upside exists. Because even if you have to work twice as hard to get to the starting line, she says, once you are on a level playing field, you will sprint ahead. Despite what society would have you believe, Hamilton argues, a privileged background, an influential network, and a fancy college degree are not prerequisites for success. Here she shares the hard-won wisdom she’s picked up on her remarkable journey from food-stamp recipient to venture capitalist, with lessons like “The Best Music Comes from the Worst Breakups,” “Let Someone Shorter Stand in Front of You,” “The Dangers of Hustle Porn,” and “Don’t Let Anyone Drink Your Diet Coke.” Along the way, she inspires us all to defy other people’s expectations and to become the role models we’ve been looking for. Praise for It’s About Damn Time “Reading Arlan Hamilton’s It’s About Damn Time is like having a conversation with that frank, bawdy friend who somehow always manages to make you laugh, get a little emo, and, ultimately, think about ­­the world in a different way. . . . The book is warm, witty, and unflinching in its critique of the fake meritocracy that permeates Silicon Valley.”—Shondaland

Book Overview1. Entrepreneurs and Startups2. Doctors, Nurses, and Health Professionals3. Pharma, Biotech, Device Companies4. Patients and Consumers5. Employers, Insurers, Regulators6. Gadgets, Apps, Technology7. Behavior, Design, and Translation8. Big Data, Measurement, and Metrics9. VCs and Other Investors10. Innovation---Health matters.“When you have your health, you have everything,” wrote memoirist Augusten Burroughs. “When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all.”Health can also be very expensive, and reducing costs isn't easy, since as Stanford health policy expert Victor Fuchs famously observed, “Every dollar of waste is income to some individual or organization.”One key challenge healthcare faces today is figuring out how to maintain health and deliver better care for patients while somehow keeping in check the overall costs associated with these activities.The good news is that there is now the massive potential for healthcare transformation. Data-driven analysis has called into question many traditional healthcare assumptions, and permits us to view the challenges in a fresh light. For instance, there seems to be little correlation between healthcare cost and quality—and great care can be delivered at lower cost if we can improve the alignment of incentives among patients, payers, and providers.Key drivers of healthcare change are the intense economic pressure of healthcare costs, the impact—to be determined—associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and the advent of inexpensive and widely accessible technologies; together these have created a platform for industry transformation the likes of which has not been seen since the dawn of modern surgery.And it's about time. Technology has been used to optimize and redefine virtually every key industry except healthcare. Manufacturing has gone from human assembly lines to robotics; banking has gone from tellers to home banking; travel has gone from agents with brochures to Travelocity; and yet the practice of medicine, in many ways, hasn't changed in decades.Many of today's most passionate entrepreneurs are trying to bring the dazzle and real promise of technology innovation to the challenges of healthcare, resulting in an explosion of companies focused on everything from wearable sensors and weight-loss apps to big data analytics and GPS-tagged hospital equipment—the “internet of things.”These emerging tools and promising technologies—which collectively comprise “digital health”—offer a promising path forward, and entrepreneurs and innovators are forging forward seeking to make a real difference in a field which we all need but which is sorely in need of its own tender loving care if it is to flourish in tomorrow's world.As Hippocrates once said, “Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.” And technology—if judiciously applied—may be just the tonic to help reinvigorate the health of our healthcare industry.The key challenge faced by would-be disruptive technologists is not only recognizing potentially useful analogs from other industries, but also understanding the ways in which health remains fundamentally different.Amid the clamor to disrupt healthcare, we should also take care to preserve and augment what may be right about medicine—the doctor/patient relationship for example, or the drive of inquisitive physicians, especially within academic centers, to continuously push and challenge the limits of what is known and what is possible.In Tech Tonics—a distillation of our writing and thinking over the last several years—we introduce the reader to the fascinating digital health space, including a ground-level view of the landscape, the structural challenges, the players, and the progress.

“An incisive history of the venture-capital industry.” —New Yorker “An excellent and original economic history of venture capital.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “A detailed, fact-filled account of America’s most celebrated moneymen.” —New Republic “Extremely interesting, readable, and informative...Tom Nicholas tells you most everything you ever wanted to know about the history of venture capital, from the financing of the whaling industry to the present multibillion-dollar venture funds.” —Arthur Rock “In principle, venture capital is where the ordinarily conservative, cynical domain of big money touches dreamy, long-shot enterprise. In practice, it has become the distinguishing big-business engine of our time...[A] first-rate history.” —New Yorker VC tells the riveting story of how the venture capital industry arose from America’s longstanding identification with entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Whether the venture is a whaling voyage setting sail from New Bedford or the latest Silicon Valley startup, VC is a state of mind as much as a way of doing business, exemplified by an appetite for seeking extreme financial rewards, a tolerance for failure and experimentation, and a faith in the promise of innovation to generate new wealth. Tom Nicholas’s authoritative history takes us on a roller coaster of entrepreneurial successes and setbacks. It describes how iconic firms like Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia invested in Genentech and Apple even as it tells the larger story of VC’s birth and evolution, revealing along the way why venture capital is such a quintessentially American institution—one that has proven difficult to recreate elsewhere.

ÔThis exciting second volume of cutting-edge research on venture capital takes up where volume one leaves off, bringing greater depth to topics covered in the first volume (such as angel investing) and adding new topics and insights. It poses interesting questions such as Ð Is venture capital in crisis? Are new models of early investing needed? Ð and offers carefully researched answers. Landstršm and Mason provide insightful commentary and skillfully pinpoint the contributions of a talented set of researchers. Both scholars and practitioners of venture capital will want to read this book.Õ Ð Harry J. Sapienza, University of Minnesota, US ÔThe second edition of the Handbook of Research on Venture Capital provides an important guidepost for venture capital researchers. As Landstršm and Mason point out, the nature of venture capital has changed dramatically over the last ten years. The asset class as a whole has failed to return principal and the old model is under tremendous strain. The contributors nicely highlight many of these changes, especially how venture capital has scaled beyond the US. For those of us active in venture capital research, the chapters raise many interesting research questions that deserve further attention.Õ Ð Andrew Zacharakis, Babson College, US This Handbook charts the development of venture capital research in light of the global financial crisis, starting with an analysis of the current venture capital market and the changing nature of the business angel market. Looking at governance structures, the performance of venture capitalists in terms of investments, economic impact and human capital, and the geographical organization of business angels and venture capital global ÔhotspotsÕ, this book also analyses the current state of venture capital research and offers a roadmap for the future.