The Exponential Center is leading an ambitious program to capture and share the stories of pioneering venture capitalists and their partnerships with disruptors and innovators that extend from idea to IPO and beyond. The companies they have created together have led to new industries and jobs, generated tremendous wealth, and changed the way we live. Through a variety of activities that capitalize on the Museum’s core strengths, the center will explore what the industry does, how it works, and what happens when venture capitalists and entrepreneurs join forces to create a company.
We are actively adding oral histories of key players in venture capital to the Museum’s renowned collection. Video interviews and transcripts are available to researchers and for events and educational programs designed to share key insights about the industry. See the full list of CHM venture capital oral histories.
We have also expanded our venture collection to include the investment banking community. Explore the full list of CHM investment banking oral histories.
Through a partnership with the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the Exponential Center has received copyright ownership of 38 noteworthy oral histories of pioneering venture capitalists that will be preserved and made accessible online. This collection is particularly noteworthy in that it includes some of the very earliest venture capitalists, such as Walter Curley of JH Whitney and Paul Wythes of Sutter Hill, both of whom are deceased. See the full list.
The Exponential Center is pursuing oral histories that capture the full scope of a venture firm’s evolution and impact by interviewing founders and key partners. To explore the relationship between iconic companies and their funders, the center also conducts joint oral histories with investors, entrepreneurs, and executives.
Events onsite and online reach audiences across the US and around the world. Past venture capital events at the Museum explored Reid Hoffman’s concept of blitzscaling, the early years of the industry, post-mortems of failures, and generations of change in the industry.
To provide the rich context necessary for an in-depth understanding of venture’s history and impact, the Exponential Center is actively adding unique artifacts and documents related to the venture capital industry to CHM’s collections. They include key documents, photos, videos, and ephemera, such as: founding charters, original names and initial logo designs, pitch decks, business plans, product plans, early product prototypes, key deals, public offering documents, and advertisements.
Apple’s 1977 Private Placement Memorandum.
Collections are made available to the media, authors, researchers, and the general public and are used to create compelling exhibits as well as provide context for events and live programs at CHM.
The Exponential Center’s inaugural Distinguished Fellow was Sebastian Mallaby, whose new book, The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, to be published by Penguin in March 2022, is aimed at a broad audience and explores venture capital’s role throughout history.
Born in Britain, Mallaby is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who has served as a columnist for the Washington Post and Financial Times. His work has appeared in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the Atlantic and he has been a guest on radio shows such as NPR’s Morning Edition, Marketplace, and Planet Money. Previous books include The Man Who Knew (2016), More Money Than God (2010), and The World’s Banker (2004). Mallaby’s year-long fellowship concluded in July 2019.
Read more about the Venture Capital Initiative.
