In the bestselling vein of “Hidden Figures”, ALPHA GIRLS is reporter Julian Guthrie’s powerful account of five women pioneers in the field of venture capital who bucked the system and found ways to survive and thrive in the cutthroat, high-stakes, male-dominated world of Silicon Valley

ALPHA GIRLS
The Women Who Challenged Silicon Valley’s Male Culture and Pioneered the Future
by Julian Guthrie
Currency, May 2019

The closed-doors investment decisions made by venture capitalists have the power to fund new startups and shape our economy, our technology, and our world. They have enabled the very existence of many of the world’s most profitable companies. Known for their risk-taking and prescient investments, the VC community has reaped tens of billions of dollars and has become the envy of Wall Street. Yet thanks to the « bro-grammer culture » that rules the VC world, it is a cabal that is almost a foreign country for women. A mere 6 percent of general partners at VC firms are women; roughly 80 percent of VC firms have never had a woman general partner. But there are a few. Armed with unprecedented access to the secretive VC universe, Guthrie uncovers one of the great untold stories of the digital era. Against all odds, a small cadre of women–pioneers who Guthrie calls the « alpha girls »–have determinedly made their way despite harassment, second-class citizenship, and men stealing the credit and the rewards, to become powerhouses of the finance world.

Julian Guthrie spent 20 years writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she won numerous awards. Her writing has been nominated multiple times for the Pulitzer Prize. She is the author of three nonfiction books: “The Grace of Everyday Saints”, T”he Billionaire and the Mechanic”, and “How to Make a Spaceship”.