Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2019
  • Book

VC: An American History

By: Tom Nicholas
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

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. (Chinese Edition: 风投 看懂巨头的投资倾向 汤姆·尼古拉斯 著 中信出版社, Beijing: CITIC Press, 2020.)
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Purchase

About The Author

Tom Nicholas

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • July 2022
    • Faculty Research

    A Soul and a Service: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance

    By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko
    • February 2022
    • Quarterly Journal of Economics

    Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century

    By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas and Stefanie Stantcheva
    • January 2022 (Revised March 2022)
    • Faculty Research

    Chinese Restriction, Violence, and Exclusion in the United States

    By: Tom Nicholas, Boyang Han and Tomas Rosales
More from the Author
  • A Soul and a Service: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko
  • Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century By: Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas and Stefanie Stantcheva
  • Chinese Restriction, Violence, and Exclusion in the United States By: Tom Nicholas, Boyang Han and Tomas Rosales
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College