Murder at First Principles with Ben Wiener

ABOUT

From venture capitalist Ben Wiener comes a rollicking debut novel that artfully blends business strategy with murder mystery, and keeps you guessing to the very end.

Addie Morita, a frustrated young crime researcher, finally gets her big career break when a serial killer targets her successful former classmates from an elite San Francisco Bay Area college. Addie must match wits with both the taunting killer and the intimidating Special Agent assigned to the case, racing to decipher key clues buried in a famous startup strategy book — before it’s too late.

Murder at First Principles is the debut Startup Fiction novel by successful venture capitalist Ben Wiener. Written as a murder mystery, the plot is designed to enlighten and entertain, introducing readers to Hamilton Helmer’s iconic work, 7 Powers, and its seven market-proven strategies for sustained competitive advantage. Every suspect in this story is hiding something — strap yourself in and try to uncover their secrets while discovering the secret “powers” innovative businesses harness to create persistent differential returns.

Ben Wiener is a venture capitalist and author. He founded and manages Jumpspeed Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund, and he has authored two full-length novels, Murder at First Principles and Fever Pitch. His motivation for writing is to "enlighten and entertain." In addition to his novels he has published a number of short stories and humor essays.

Ben devotes much of his energy to investing and reading. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and has invested in a few dozen startups since 2014, in almost all cases providing their very first capital. He is also an obsessive reader, reading as many as 100 books per year. Ben strongly believes his dedication to reading has made him a better investor, writer and person.

Ben grew up in Allentown, PA and graduated (with honors) from Columbia Law School. He clerked on Israel's Supreme Court for Justice Yitzhak Zamir and practiced corporate law in New York City and Tel Aviv. He moved permanently to Israel with his young family and co-founded his first startup in 1999. He worked for a variety of startups and larger companies before founding Jumpspeed Ventures in 2014.

Ben lives, works, invests, runs, reads and writes in Jerusalem, Israel.

Join Founder and CEO, Jacques Velleman, for this entertaining conversation with Ben on how seven market-proven strategies for sustained competitive advantage become a novel.