Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Pall: Both the music industry and venture capital follow power-law dynamics

Alex Pall · The Chainsmokers’ Journey from DJs to VCs · Invest Like The Best · Jun 24, 2025 · at 49:18

Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers and Mantis VC discusses how the power-law hit dynamics of the music business directly map to venture capital investing.

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“It's a power log in music. Like, you build a career off of, like, a couple of huge songs, hopefully, and then there's lots of hopefully other, lots of great music, but, you know, only very few artists will, like a Drake, you know, will just constantly deliver smash songs for 1015 years, or Bruno Mars, probably the most notable one from a percentage basis but, like, you have to learn from each song, and iterate, and grow, and be comfortable with that, and it's like, You know, venture is very much the same thing. You're gonna hopefully back a couple of extraordinary companies, but most of your companies won't go on to be super successful, and you can't, like, lose sight of that, like, think you're a terrible investor.”

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