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This book relies predominantly on a number of primary materials: Georges Doriot’s voluminous notes on American Research and Development Corporation’s operations and meetings; the annual reports of American Research and Development, European Enterprise Development, and Canadian Enterprise Development; U.S. military documents from the Library of Congress and National Archives; and manuscript collections, oral histories, letters, diaries, memoirs, newspaper and magazine stories, newsletters, pamphlets, DVDs, VHS cassettes, interviews, and personal observations of Doriot’s homes and workplaces.

Several sources merit special mention. First and foremost, this book could not have been written without the personal papers of Georges Doriot, which are housed at the M.I.T. Entrepreneurship Center Library (and on loan from the French Library and Cultural Center of Boston). Doriot was an extraordinary record keeper who seemingly documented every moment of the history of American Research and Development. The papers comprise more than twelve hundred pages from eight different books. I owe considerable thanks to my first research assistant, Tess Oliver, for her diligence in corralling these papers and sending them to me. They helped jump-start my research, serving as a touchstone throughout the entire process.

I also owe a special thanks to Roanne Edwards and Elaine Uzan Leary of the French Library for introducing me to many of the men and women who knew General Doriot. Roanne, in particular, was a huge help and inspiration in the beginning of this journey, and generously shared with me many of her contacts.

Besides Doriot’s papers, the most important source of information were the dozens of interviews I conducted with the people who worked at American Research and Development, the entrepreneurs who were financed and nurtured by the firm, the men who studied under Doriot at Harvard Business School, and the large circle of Doriot’s friends and colleagues. I conducted interviews with these individuals between October 2005 and July 2007: James Aisner, Vernon Alden, Steven Anders, Harlan Anderson, Gordon Bell, Brian Brooks, George H. W. Bush, Philip Caldwell, Patricia A. Clark, Charles Coulter, Wilbur Cowett, Alexander d’Arbeloff, Arnaud de Vitry, Nicholas DeWolf, Catharine-Mary Donovan, William Elfers, Sumner Feldberg, Frederick Frank, Art Goldstein, Richard H. Groves, Jean Gueroult, F. Warren Hellman, Winston Hindle, Molly Hoagland, Ralph P. Hoagland, Ray Hoagland, Daniel J. Holland, Francis Hughes, Eileen P. Jacobs, Claude Janssen, Ted Johnson, Michael Koerner, Arnold Kroll, Josh Lerner, David L. Luke, Derek Mather, Dina McCabe, Robert McCabe, Parker G. Montgomery, James F. Morgan, Gib Myers, Kenneth H. Olsen, Thomas J. Perkins, Eveline Poillot, Marie-Helene Poillot, Isabelle Pounder, James P. Robinson, Andrew G. C. Sage II, John A. Shane, Robert Shapiro, Jack Shields, James M. Stone, Lewis H. Strauss, Gerald D. Sutton, Janet Testa, Marvin Traub, Jimmy Treybig, Donald T. Valentine, Charles P. Waite, William Welsh, and Peter Wilson.

I spoke to every one of these people at least once, and some of them I interviewed two, three, or more times. Without their cooperation, this book would not have been possible. I owe an especially deep gratitude to Robert McCabe, one of Doriot’s closest friends. Bob stepped up from the beginning, answering every one of my phone and e-mail queries, as well as opening many doors within the Doriot network.

I also would like to give a special, warm thanks to Marie-Hélène Poillot and Eveline Poillot, the surviving members of the Doriot family. Eveline is Georges Doriot’s niece, and Marie-Hélène is her daughter. The Poillots were very supportive from the start of the project, and were gracious hosts to my wife and me when we visited Paris for a week to research the roots of Doriot and his family. They invited us to visit them at Doriot’s ancestral home in Courbevoie, where Eveline still lives today. There, she gave us a tour of the home, hosted an outstanding lunch featuring a rack of lamb, and shared scrapbooks, photo albums, and other family memorabilia. Afterward, they continued to lend a helping hand whenever I needed it, answering questions and providing me with many family letters, documents, and photos, which were crucial elements of my research.

During our trip to Paris, we also met with two other individuals who deserve special mention: Arnaud de Vitry and Claude Janssen. Arnaud and Claude were also surrogate sons of Doriot. They both were extremely supportive of the project, inviting us into their homes and sharing many wonderful stories. Afterward, they both continued to answer every question I threw their way, whether by e-mail or phone.

I owe a debt of gratitude to several other research assistants who scoured through various collections of papers scattered across the country. The papers of Lewis Strauss, which are housed at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, proved an invaluable window into Doriot’s first two decades in the United States. Many thanks to Dwight M. Miller for discovering a treasure trove of letters in the Strauss papers. Kudos to Jason Godin, a PhD student at Texas A&M University, for digging up some jewels in the archives of the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas. And thanks also to Monica Corbin, who translated the Poillot family letters and other French-language materials.

The files of Deans Wallace B. Donham and Donald K. David at the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library provided another invaluable source on Doriot’s teaching career, from the 1920s all the way up until the late 1950s. I owe a big thanks to Rachel Wise and Laura Linard of the Baker Library reference staff for pinpointing the relevant files in a mountain of material.

The papers of Georges Doriot housed in the manuscript collection of the Library of Congress provided an extraordinarily detailed account of Doriot’s military career, during and after World War II. Spanning six linear feet and containing eighteen boxes, including one box of classified material (which I was able to declassify), the register contained a total of thirty-six hundred items. Many, many thanks to Manuscript Division staff members Lia Apodaca, Jennifer Brathovde, Jeffrey Flannery, Joe Jackson, Patrick Kerwin, and Bruce Kirby for helping me navigate through this collection during my weeklong stay.

The papers of Ralph Soda were another critical source. One of the most well-known journalists of his generation who broke stories about Iran Contra and other government scandals for the Gannet News Service, Soda was commissioned in 1988 by the trustees of Doriot’s estate to write a biography of Georges Doriot. Soda never finished the project, and he died in 2004. But some of the research that Soda did for the book survived in his estate. Many thanks to Soda’s close friend Robert Dubill, former executive editor of USA Today and the executor of Soda’s estate, for sending me a large box of papers filled with these materials.

Several items in Soda’s Doriot papers deserve special mention. Soda’s interviews and notes on Doriot’s early years were especially valuable, as well as copies he made of Doriot’s pocket diary and hundreds of private journal entries, which Doriot referred to as “reveries.” Moreover, I was able to access hundreds of classified, secret, and confidential government documents, mostly from the U.S. military, that Soda declassified from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Soda’s hard work saved me countless hours of toiling in government archives, and his insights into Doriot’s character were illuminating.

Another important source was the Ken Olsen papers, which are housed at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. I believe I am the first person to access this collection. For that honor, I owe a special thanks to Daniel B. Tymann, the college’s vice president for Advancement of Science and Technology. When I called Dan, he immediately offered to help, and followed through by combing through the collection and sending me a dossier of letters, interviews, photos, and other primary materials.

A videotape of a 1995 reunion of members of the Military Planning Division of the Office of the Quartermaster General hosted by the Lemelson Center at the Smithsonian Institution provided another critical source of firsthand recollections of many World War II veterans no longer with us today. Many thanks to Dr. Stephen Anders, the Command Historian of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Center and School in Fort Lee, Virginia for sending me a copy of the tape and a slew of other relevant files and materials on the history of the Quartermaster Corps.

Although in writing this book I consulted dozens of books, reference volumes, and research papers, I wish to cite a few sources that stood out. Sustaining the Venture Capital Firm by Patrick R. Liles provided an indispensable overview of the history of American Research and Development. The First Venture Capitalist, a collection of interviews, newspaper articles, essays, and lectures by Doriot, and commentaries on Doriot, edited by Udayan Gupta, provided a superb introduction to the ideas and world of Doriot. I especially relied on The Ultimate Entrepreneur: The Story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation by Glenn Rifkin and George Harrar, for a vivid retelling of the rise of Digital. The Manufacturing Class Notes of Georges F. Doriot supplied an important window into Doriot’s legendary class at Harvard Business School.

The academic literature on venture capital was surprisingly sparse, but I found two research papers that were especially insightful: “Organizing Venture Capital: The Rise and Demise of American Research and Development Corporation, 1946–1973,” by David H. Hsu at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Martin Kenney at the Department of Human Community Development of the University of California at Davis; and “Creating Modern Venture Capital: Institutional Design and Performance in the Early Years,” by Caroline Fohlin of Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Economics. Another academic source that provided essential background and context was the unpublished dissertation of Martha Louise Reiner of the University of California at Berkeley’s Department of Economics, “The Transformation of Venture Capital: A History of Venture Capital Organizations in the United States.”

On the publishing end of things, I would like to thank my agent Christy Fletcher for her steadfast support of this project. Without her persistence, this book would never have seen the light of day. Christy was willing to take a chance on a first-time author, and I am forever grateful to her for that vote of confidence. I would also like to thank my editor Jacqueline Murphy. Before I started this project, I had been warned by many authors to not expect any editing from my “editor.” Book editors are all about selling and marketing, friends and colleagues told me. Jacque, however, is keeping alive the tradition of book editing, striking the perfect balance between providing helpful feedback while not micromanaging the manuscript. Jacque delivered excellent advice that sustained me through a long and complicated task. I am also grateful to my colleagues at BusinessWeek: Jon Byrne, especially, for approving my book leave; Steve Adler, Frank Comes, and Dan Beucke for backing me all the way; and Steve Hamm, Steve Baker, Heather Green, Peter Elstrom, Peter Burrows, Arik Hesseldahl, and Catherine Holahan who kindly offered their counsel and supported me in so many ways.

My parents, Leslie Schoengold and Dr. Hermenegildo Ante, and my two sisters, Nicole and Allison, were always encouraging and inquisitive. I owe extra thanks to my father, who taught me a love of learning and of books, which goes back to the time when I was around seven years old and he bought me the entire collection of the 15th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. My grandparents expressed enthusiasm throughout the project, which lifted my spirits. I trace my love of words and language in large part to the epic games of Scrabble I played with my grandmother when I was a youngster. Big props also go to my close friends Jamie Bernardin, Marc Ench, Darren Gordon, Alan Siegel, and Steven Taub, for making me laugh and keeping me sane during the inevitable spells of doubt and darkness that accompany the writing of a first book.

I owe the biggest thanks to my lovely wife, Erin, for bringing her sensitivity, thoughtfulness, and intelligence to this story. I constantly bounced ideas off of her and she always offered a constructive and helpful suggestion. And whenever I needed to spend an extra day or two cranking out some copy, she would always help me carve out the time and space to get the job done. Finally, I want to thank my beautiful daughter, Justine, who was nice enough to let me keep my computer and voluminous research notes in her bedroom while I finished the book. I will never forget when I put her on my lap and she started banging away at the keyboard.