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Beginner's Mind
Blueprints for Builders and Investors
Hosted by Christian Soschner
From pre-seed to post-IPO, every company—especially in deep tech, biotech, AI, and climate tech—lives or dies by the frameworks it follows.
On Beginner’s Mind, Christian Soschner uncovers the leadership principles behind the world’s most impactful companies—through deep-dive interviews, strategic book reviews, and patterns drawn from history’s greatest business, military, and political minds.
With over 200 interviews, panels, and livestreams, the show ranks in the Top 10% globally—and is recognized as the #1 deep tech podcast.
With 35+ years across M&A, company building, board roles, business schools, ultrarunning, and martial arts, Christian brings a rare lens:
What it really takes to turn breakthrough science into business—how to grow it, lead it, and shape the world around it.
🎙 Expect each episode to deliver:
- Founder & Investor Blueprints: How breakthrough technologies scale from lab to IPO
- Historical & Biographical Frameworks: Timeless playbooks from the world's great builders
- Leadership & Communication Mastery: Tools to inspire, persuade, and lead at scale
Whether you're building the next biotech success, investing in AI, or leading a climate tech company through hypergrowth—this podcast gives you the edge.
Listen in. Apply what matters. Build companies that last.
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Beginner's Mind
#92: Sebastian Mallaby - The Power Law - A Brief History of Venture Capital
How did Venture Capital evolve? When did it start? Get the answers right here in the book The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby.
⭐ In this episode, we talk about:
• Storytelling Methods and a Writers Work Process
• What is Venture Capital – From the Writers Perspective
• How Did Silicon Valley Evolve into the Center of the Innovation World?
• The 3 Most Crucial Moments in the Development of Venture Capital
• The Future of the European Tech Eco-System
• And much, much more
⭐ EPISODE Links:
Today’s speaker is Sebastian Mallaby.
Youtube
📚 Book mentions in the episode:
The Power Law
📖 Memorable Quotes:
(09:39) “In a Content Creators Economy where a lot of people spend a lot of time creating, it is worthwhile to spend 5 years writing a book”
(12:46) “Do Venture Capitalists create innovation, or do they just show up for it?”
(18:51) “Europe is fundamentally full of great engineers. It is a great market. Why wouldn’t it rival the United States if it got the right Venture Capital to take the risk.”
(23:10) “The European culture is not as risk-friendly as the US. But it’s changing fast.”
(27:45) “Genentech was the beginning of staged investments.”
⏰ Timestamps:
(00:00) Speaker and Book Intro
(02.25) Storytelling Methods and a Writer's Work Process
(08:00) Development of the Methodology – From Nelson Mandela to Venture Capital
(10:33) What is Venture Capital – From the Writer's Perspective
(16:00) How Did Silicon Valley Evolve into the Center of the Innovation World?
(19:39) Why Cover the Majority of the Stories about the US and Asia and very few stories about Europe?
(27:41) The 3 Most Crucial Moments in the Development of Venture Capital
(29:45) How Sequoia got into the hot tub with Atari
(32:00) Softbank – Everybody Needs a 100 Million
(39:00) Alibaba
(43:45) The Future of Venture Capital
(47:15) The Future of the European Tech Eco-System
⭐ Please support this podcast by checking out our partners: https://linktr.ee/lsg2g
Sebastian Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An experienced journalist and public speaker, Mallaby contributes to a variety of publications, including Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, where he spent two years as a contributing editor. He is the author of five books, most recently The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future.
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