The Venture Mindset

How to Make Smarter Bets and Achieve Extraordinary Growth

By: Ilya Strebulaev, Alex Dang

Narrated by: Will Damron

Inspired by venture capitalists’ unique mindset, this is a transformative playbook for delivering extraordinary results in modern organizations, from a Stanford professor and a technology executive.

Behind life changing companies like Amazon, Google, Moderna, SpaceX, and Zoom are Venture Capital investors. VCs are known for their extraordinary ability to spot emerging trends, identify disruptive startups, attract talent, and bring new industries into being.

Ilya Strebulaev has spent the last two decades at Stanford studying VCs’ counterintuitive approaches to decision-making, and the reasons behind the success and failure of corporate innovation efforts. Alex Dang, a senior leader at McKinsey and Amazon, has seen up close the impact VCs’ thinking and mechanisms can have on a business’ success. Together in The Venture Mindset, they present nine distinct principles that can help anyone looking to transform their business and achieve extraordinary results, no matter the industry.

The Venture Mindset is a new mental model where failure is a must, ideas are rejected in their myriads in search of a single winner, due diligence is put on its head, dissent is encouraged, plugs are pulled, and time horizons are extended. It is fundamentally different from the mindset found throughout the rest of the business world. This mindset helps leaders to develop a strong pipeline of ideas, make smarter, quicker decisions, and deliver more value at scale. It’s a must read for any leader looking to stave off irrelevance and win big in the uncertain world of business today.

*Includes a downloadable PDF of charts and graphics from the book

Gushing

Gushing with juicy information & tactics for start up companies. Will re listen it was that good

Basic VC concepts

Good introduction to how and why VCs operate the way they do. I wish they went in a little more depth on these topics

Great audio book

I really enjoyed this audio book. Many great insights, well written, and with a good narrator. If you are interested in VC, or more broadly in investing in innovation, this a top choice.

Great book

Great book. I understand now why my decisions are based on outcomes five years in the future.

Excellent content!

Venture excellence with incredible stories illustrating intuition and patience - look for unexpected links - a must read for MBAs