pero los inversores que comprenden la ley potencial hacen el menor número de inversiones posible.

But this “spray and pray” approach usually produces an entire portfolio of flops, with no hits at all. This is because venture returns don’t follow a normal distribution overall. Rather, they follow a power law: a small handful of companies radically outperform all others. If you focus on diversification instead of single-minded pursuit of the very few companies that can become overwhelmingly valuable, you’ll miss those rare companies in the first place.

Asset allocation, where to park your money and how to divide it up, is the single most important skill of a successful investor.

Asset allocation, where to park your money and how to divide it up, is the single most important skill of a successful investor. And as we will learn from the masters, it’s not that complicated! Low-cost TDFs might be great for the average investor, but you are not average if you are reading this book!

Portfolio theory begins with the premise that all investors are like my wife—they are risk-averse. They want high returns and guaranteed outcomes. The theory tells investors how to combine stocks in their portfolios to give them the least risk possible, consistent with the return they seek. It also gives a rigorous mathematical justification for the time-honored investment maxim that diversification is a sensible strategy for individuals who like to reduce their risks.

First, only invest in companies that have the potential to return the value of the entire fund.

we studied the venture capital industry and we came across a potential problem with our approach. Historically, all the returns in venture capital had been concentrated in a tiny number of firms and consistently by a small number of the same firms. Of the more than eight hundred venture capital firms of the day, only about six had delivered great returns for their investors. As we dug deeper, we uncovered an excellent reason for this: The best entrepreneurs will only work with the best venture capital firms.

And the smartest investors know just when to enter the market — except for when they don’t!

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

You should focus relentlessly on something you’re good at doing, but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future. For the startup world, this means you should not necessarily start your own company, even if you are extraordinarily talented. If anything, too many people are starting their own companies today. People who understand the power law will hesitate more than others when it comes to founding a new venture: they know how tremendously successful they could become by joining the very best company while it’s growing fast. The power law means that differences between companies will dwarf the differences in roles inside companies. You could have 100% of the equity if you fully fund your own venture, but if it fails you’ll have 100% of nothing. Owning just 0.01% of Google, by contrast, is incredibly valuable (more than $35 million as of this writing).

"Keep discouraging venture debt."

— email from a founder

Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.

Primera, invierte sólo en compañías que tengan el potencial de recuperar el valor del fondo completo.

every single company in a good venture portfolio must have the potential to succeed at vast scale.