The First Venture Capitalist: Georges Doriot on Leadership, Capital, and Business Organization

by Udayan Gupta

This remarkable book chronicles the ideas of a great teacher, George Doriot, whose decades long career at the Harvard Business School inspired a generation of venture capitalists and Wall Street titans of a bygone era.

George Doriot was a remarkable individual who achieved success as a teacher, a businessman, and a general in the US Army. Some of his students at the Harvard Business School kept their notes from his course in their desk drawer throughout their business careers. Even if they did not go that far, they never forgot the man or his teachings; nor did the employees of the many companies which he launched as the president of American Research & Development Corporation. This is the first book about George Doriot, and it is a perfect first book: it is in the form of a source book, drawing from the many facets of Doriot's career as seen by many different people, and sometimes in Doriot's own words. All the texts are interesting and highly readable. 

 

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2011

Reviews

[Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the man who set out the ground rules of the business of Venture Capital, helped to make the military more efficient by orders of magnitude, and founded INSEAD business school, all in one lifetime.

I found myself thinking of Robert Coram's Boyd the Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War on numerous occasions throughout this book, and wishing for a bit more of Coram's style.

The author does a strong job of communicating Doriot's values and outlook on life, and it would have been wonderful to have additional insight into his flaws, and/or shortcomings.