What I learned from reading Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital by Spencer Ante.
It wasn't until the second half of the 20th century that venture financing became a professional, large scale industry.
And the man who led that transformation was George Doriau.
I can't recall exactly when I first came across the name of General George Doriau, but I do know that in 2002, when I looked into the spare literature on the history of venture capital, his name kept popping up.
I found a bunch of newspaper and magazine profiles, a chapter on him in a book or two, and a short film, but no full length biography.
He is the founder of the modern VC industry, but there's been remarkably little written about him.
He is the first person who basically ran an institutional venture capital fund, and he played a lead role in getting the VC community to see itself as a real industry.
The venture capital industry began to take shape after World War Two on the northeastern seaboard when in 1946, Dorio became president of the first public venture capital firm, Boston based american research and development corporation.
The famous inventor Charles F.
Keetering predicted ARD would go bust in five years, but Dorio proved him wrong over the next 25 years, as his firm financed and nurtured more than 100 startups, many of which became huge successes that pushed the frontiers of technology and business.
ARD companies led the way in developing computers, atom smashers, medical devices, and new machines that desalinated brackish water.
Dorio even backed George Hw bushs first company, Zapata Offshore.
He was very important because he was the first one to believe there was a future in financing entrepreneurs in an organized way.
The more I researched Dorios life, my fascination with an idea transformed into a fascination with the man behind the idea.
Dorio was one of the most charismatic characters I have ever come across.
Though I have never met the man, I fell under his spell.
That was an excerpt from the book that I'm going to attempt to talk to you about today, which is creative capital, George Dorio and the birth of venture capital, and is written by Spencer E.
Ante.
And the reason I say I'm going to try to, I'm going to attempt to try to talk to you about this book today is because this book produced, prompted so many disparate thoughts and ideas in my mind while I was reading it.
I'm going to try to tie together, but I might not succeed.
I might be all over the map today, so hopefully you stick with me.