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  • 2019
  • Book

VC: An American History

By: Tom Nicholas
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

An exploration of venture financing in America, from its origins in the whaling industry to the rise of Silicon Valley, that shows how venture capital (VC) created an epicenter for the development of high-tech innovation. The VC industry arose from the United States’ long-running orientation toward entrepreneurship and a faith in low-probability but substantial financial payoffs. Whether the investment opportunity is a whaling voyage setting sail from New Bedford or the newest startup in Silicon Valley, VC is not just a model of finance that has proven difficult to replicate in other countries, it is a state of mind exemplified by an appetite for risk-taking, a bold spirit of adventure, and an unbridled quest for improbable wealth through investment in innovation.

Keywords

Innovation; Venture Capital; Innovation And Invention; Entrepreneurship; History; United States

Citation

Nicholas, Tom. VC: An American History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019.
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About The Author

Tom Nicholas

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

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More from the Author
  • When Institutions Fail: HIV/AIDS in the 1980s By: Tom Nicholas and Christian Godwin
  • How History Shaped the Innovator's Dilemma By: Tom Nicholas
  • Status and Mortality: Is There a Whitehall Effect in the United States? By: Tom Nicholas
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