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Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure
Kaplan, a well-known figure in the computer industry, founded GO Corporation in 1987, and for several years it was one of the hottest new ventures in the Valley. Startup tells the story of Kaplan's wild ride: how he assembled a brilliant but fractious team of engineers, software designers, and investors; pioneered the emerging market for hand-held computers operated with a pen instead of a keyboard; and careened from crisis to crisis without ever losing his passion for a revolutionary idea. Along the way, Kaplan vividly recreates his encounters with eccentric employees, risk-addicted venture capitalists, and industry giants such as Bill Gates, John Sculley, and Mitchell Kapor. And no one - including Kaplan himself - is spared his sharp wit and observant eye.
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1995
About the author
Jerry Kaplan
25 books56 followersKaplan is widely known as a serial entrepreneur, technical innovator, bestselling author, and futurist. He co-founded four Silicon Valley startups, two of which became publicly traded companies. His best-selling non-fiction novel "Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure" was selected by Business Week as one of the top ten business books of the year, was optioned to Sony Pictures, and is available in Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese. Kaplan has been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, Red Herring, and Upside, and is a frequent public speaker.
Kaplan is currently a Fellow at The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. He also teaches Philosophy, Ethics, and Impact of Artificial Intelligence in the Computer Science Department, Stanford University. He holds a BA (1972) from the University of Chicago in History and Philosophy of Science, and an MSE (1975) and PhD (1979) in Computer and Information Science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Computational Linguistics, from the University of Pennsylvania.
Kaplan is currently a Fellow at The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. He also teaches Philosophy, Ethics, and Impact of Artificial Intelligence in the Computer Science Department, Stanford University. He holds a BA (1972) from the University of Chicago in History and Philosophy of Science, and an MSE (1975) and PhD (1979) in Computer and Information Science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Computational Linguistics, from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 17, 2013
A 25 year old account of a corporate startup that skirmished with the biggest, baddest corporate cultures of the late-80's - early 90's. Markedly applicable to the tablet explosion based on ARM chips of today.
Large scale financing through venture capitalists and corporate legal arrangements was elucidated.
Direct revelations of Bill Gates as a corporate monopolist. Windows lovers will shrug this off as "just business", but I think that the corporate monopolies have kept innovation in technology lagging behind by at least 20 years. Issues of intellectual property rights and copyrights as are being applied in today's courts in cases between Oracle-Google, Apple-Samsung, and others are mentioned.
This is remarkably well written, fast paced, to the point on each topic, and yet brief in overall length. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the background financial-corporate-technological activities ongoing today. This is still extremely relevant in 2013.
Large scale financing through venture capitalists and corporate legal arrangements was elucidated.
Direct revelations of Bill Gates as a corporate monopolist. Windows lovers will shrug this off as "just business", but I think that the corporate monopolies have kept innovation in technology lagging behind by at least 20 years. Issues of intellectual property rights and copyrights as are being applied in today's courts in cases between Oracle-Google, Apple-Samsung, and others are mentioned.
This is remarkably well written, fast paced, to the point on each topic, and yet brief in overall length. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the background financial-corporate-technological activities ongoing today. This is still extremely relevant in 2013.
June 27, 2012
A rare look inside the rise (and failure) of a high-profile, venture-backed technology company.
Here's an awesome summary stolen from a review at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/review/RA1JC7MQ...
"I bought this because I read an interview with Mark Andreesen (co-inventor of the browser) in which he shared kind words for Kaplan's memoirs. Having seen the Netscape debacle from its inception to its consumption by AOL, I take Mark as a reliable source on startups and corporate deals.
Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure has much to recommend. Andreesen points out (and I paraphrase) that no one will tell you the real secrets of how their business succeeded; these have to be learned from observing failures and reading between the lines. Jerry Kaplan's GO Corporation was a failure -- a collosal one. At the end of GO's life, its staff were not surprised to see it go... away. The watercooler scuttlebut focused on how unusual it was that GO survived as long as it did -- considering it had no products, no market (and no marketing), constant financial troubles and, to complete the drama: Bill Gates in the role of surreptitious competitor.
Jerry Kaplan describes in diary-like detail how he and fellow industry visionary Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus) conceived the idea of portable, pen-based computers in a spontaneous moment of shared epiphany during a private jet flight. Here was an idea seemingly out of nowhere: no one had thought of pen computers up to this point. None existed, and none were being developed -- a market vacuum of seemingly unimaginable proportions. The sad irony of Jerry's tale is that when GO was finally absorbed by AT&T and immediately beheaded, only the proportions of this unimaginable market remained. The market itself and the products to drive it never materialized.
Kaplan gives a harrowing behind-the-scenes account of how startup venture capital is *really* enjoined -- and its not what you think. In another moment of divine inspiration, he conceives of and perfoms a one-man show for the bored and now-napping investors who have agreed to giving Kaplan his 15 minutes of fame -- or at least a shot at it. Things are almost too good to be true when the meeting turns out to be a slam-dunk. With a few exchanged words and surprised handshakes all-around, GO Corporation is created and Jerry, Mitch, and their investors start down the Yellow Brick Road.
As in the fabled story of Oz, bad apples appear quickly and threaten to poison the troupe. Some of GO's early supporters are seeking to improve their minds. Some are looking for a community with a heart. And our Jewish Dorothy sings too much and is easily distracted while searching for a way to get home.
GO seemed doomed from the... well, from the get-go. Although I admire Jerry's vision, ambition, and personal commitment (Jerry turns out to be a pretty likeable guy), his company's business plan was a disaster waiting to happen -- at least in retrospect. Always afraid of running out of money, the group scrambled to make deals with anyone and everyone who would talk to them. They committed to hardware platforms they had never seen. Relied on software developers who had no interest in developing their applications. Pursued only one major customer and then never developed anything for them. And meanwhile took big-bucks from some household names on Wall Street -- $75 million of them, to be exact. These were not "rounds of financing," mind you. They were more like desperate attempts to sign with anyone who would assure them of making the next payroll.
Startup makes the VC commandos look like Las Vegas high rollers. The logical outcomes of a startup's business plan and the reality of its day-to-day operations are not considered when VC's "throw the dice." Oh, I know they go to great lengths to prepare press releases in which they ennumerate the "logical" reasons for creating a company -- but Kaplan shows that, behind the scenes, this information plays no part. Investors are not even marginally informed on the daily realities of the businesses in which they invest -- which explains a lot of the funding that continues to happen for silly ideas. And Jerry & Mitch's idea was not silly.
While GO played cat & mouse with every investor, software, and hardware company they could think of -- they spent an enormous effort on ignoring their "customers." Since they never had any customers, perhaps this seemed like a reasonable approach at the time. From the perspective of today's CEO, it seems impossible that a $75 million company would even attempt to get off the ground without a serious marketing and CRM program. GO's concerns focused more on getting boxes and circles to come out pretty on the screen (is there a business application for this feature?) and on fixing their stupefyingly awful handwriting recognition software. A small concession here is the fact that one has anything better than a stupefyingly awful handwriting recognition program -- even today. This odd collusion of a misfocused attention span and an obsession for technical "goodies" almost resulted in GO's pen computer displaying the enormous image of a very embarrasing term during an important "spontaneous" customer demo of the handwriting recognition capabilities. (Lesson: Never let a customer try something you have not tried yourself.)
Another glaring error that one can see from this tome is GO's almost cult-like insistence that a non-standard platform was the way to go. They alone could turn the tide! We've been hearing that since Altair first put a machine with keyswitches on the cover of BYTE magazine. And who has succeeded in creating a platform out of nowhere? Clearly Microsoft, with invaluable "assistance" from Xerox PARC and Steve Jobs and incredible naivete on the part of IBM. Yes, Virginia, you can create a platform out of nothing -- if you can zap yourself back to the early 80's and talk IBM into giving you DOS for free.
In reality, the three biggest components of Microsoft's operating system (a simplified mouse-based GUI, shared interface libraries for applications, and Ethernet networking) were all invented at PARC, not at Microsoft. If you haven't already guessed it, the pen computer wasn't invented by Microsoft, either. A 1988 email from Bill Gates shows that, at that time, he was already planning a standardized machine with a higher-resolution screen -- to be produced en masse by "the Japanese." I don't have to tell you this email was circulated interntally the day after Bill saw a demo of GO's prototype. They could have joined the ranks of the enemy right then (being "acquired" by Microsoft today and quitely going out of business isn't even headline news anymore), but GO's insistence on riding out "The Perfect Storm" lead to a grisly end for the end for the company that set off with such bright hopes. Groupthink, in this case, did not pay.
In the end, the GO experiment never benefitted anyone but millionaires Redmond -- at least insofar as the advance of pen computing was concerned. Nearly everyone GO touched attempted to steal something from them, although none was any more successful than GO in turning them into real products. In other words, despite Bill's "fast track" development, unlimited checkbook, and propensity to "borrow" heavily from others' work, the ubiquitous pen computer imagined by two buddies over a tray of airline food has still not arrived as the real millenium approaches. Today's best laptops far exceed the target price of GO's imagined device (a price that even Gates agreed with) but still don't have any reasonable inputs other than a keyboard. No one has even come up with a good mobile mouse yet; we're still stuck with primitive tiny trackballs and little eraserhead things -- or worse, miniature touchpads. Who thought of those? Long before any of this drivel was up for grabs at finer stores everywhere, two visionaries tried to build a computer that was actually better than the ones we have today. My hat's off to them for their efforts -- and for having the guts to divulge the catastrophic business decisions that ultimately led to Microsoft's Comdex announcement of the Tablet PC, albeit without the people who "made it so."
Startup is peppered with a Warhol-esque array of dignitaries from the early days of personal computing, which means it sometimes reads like Valley of the Dolls. Save those chapters for bedtime. You might also find that keeping up with all the names and relationships can be difficult in later chapters if names like Manzi, Gasseé, and Cannavino don't conjure up a whole host of memories for you (these are then CEO's of Lotus, Apple, and IBM).
A valuable business book for any serious entrepreneur or new CEO, regardless of industry, and written in an engaging personal style, Jerry Kaplan's Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure is a page-turner that could change your company forever -- if, as Andreesen suggess, you read between the lines. Highly Recommended."
Here's an awesome summary stolen from a review at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/review/RA1JC7MQ...
"I bought this because I read an interview with Mark Andreesen (co-inventor of the browser) in which he shared kind words for Kaplan's memoirs. Having seen the Netscape debacle from its inception to its consumption by AOL, I take Mark as a reliable source on startups and corporate deals.
Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure has much to recommend. Andreesen points out (and I paraphrase) that no one will tell you the real secrets of how their business succeeded; these have to be learned from observing failures and reading between the lines. Jerry Kaplan's GO Corporation was a failure -- a collosal one. At the end of GO's life, its staff were not surprised to see it go... away. The watercooler scuttlebut focused on how unusual it was that GO survived as long as it did -- considering it had no products, no market (and no marketing), constant financial troubles and, to complete the drama: Bill Gates in the role of surreptitious competitor.
Jerry Kaplan describes in diary-like detail how he and fellow industry visionary Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus) conceived the idea of portable, pen-based computers in a spontaneous moment of shared epiphany during a private jet flight. Here was an idea seemingly out of nowhere: no one had thought of pen computers up to this point. None existed, and none were being developed -- a market vacuum of seemingly unimaginable proportions. The sad irony of Jerry's tale is that when GO was finally absorbed by AT&T and immediately beheaded, only the proportions of this unimaginable market remained. The market itself and the products to drive it never materialized.
Kaplan gives a harrowing behind-the-scenes account of how startup venture capital is *really* enjoined -- and its not what you think. In another moment of divine inspiration, he conceives of and perfoms a one-man show for the bored and now-napping investors who have agreed to giving Kaplan his 15 minutes of fame -- or at least a shot at it. Things are almost too good to be true when the meeting turns out to be a slam-dunk. With a few exchanged words and surprised handshakes all-around, GO Corporation is created and Jerry, Mitch, and their investors start down the Yellow Brick Road.
As in the fabled story of Oz, bad apples appear quickly and threaten to poison the troupe. Some of GO's early supporters are seeking to improve their minds. Some are looking for a community with a heart. And our Jewish Dorothy sings too much and is easily distracted while searching for a way to get home.
GO seemed doomed from the... well, from the get-go. Although I admire Jerry's vision, ambition, and personal commitment (Jerry turns out to be a pretty likeable guy), his company's business plan was a disaster waiting to happen -- at least in retrospect. Always afraid of running out of money, the group scrambled to make deals with anyone and everyone who would talk to them. They committed to hardware platforms they had never seen. Relied on software developers who had no interest in developing their applications. Pursued only one major customer and then never developed anything for them. And meanwhile took big-bucks from some household names on Wall Street -- $75 million of them, to be exact. These were not "rounds of financing," mind you. They were more like desperate attempts to sign with anyone who would assure them of making the next payroll.
Startup makes the VC commandos look like Las Vegas high rollers. The logical outcomes of a startup's business plan and the reality of its day-to-day operations are not considered when VC's "throw the dice." Oh, I know they go to great lengths to prepare press releases in which they ennumerate the "logical" reasons for creating a company -- but Kaplan shows that, behind the scenes, this information plays no part. Investors are not even marginally informed on the daily realities of the businesses in which they invest -- which explains a lot of the funding that continues to happen for silly ideas. And Jerry & Mitch's idea was not silly.
While GO played cat & mouse with every investor, software, and hardware company they could think of -- they spent an enormous effort on ignoring their "customers." Since they never had any customers, perhaps this seemed like a reasonable approach at the time. From the perspective of today's CEO, it seems impossible that a $75 million company would even attempt to get off the ground without a serious marketing and CRM program. GO's concerns focused more on getting boxes and circles to come out pretty on the screen (is there a business application for this feature?) and on fixing their stupefyingly awful handwriting recognition software. A small concession here is the fact that one has anything better than a stupefyingly awful handwriting recognition program -- even today. This odd collusion of a misfocused attention span and an obsession for technical "goodies" almost resulted in GO's pen computer displaying the enormous image of a very embarrasing term during an important "spontaneous" customer demo of the handwriting recognition capabilities. (Lesson: Never let a customer try something you have not tried yourself.)
Another glaring error that one can see from this tome is GO's almost cult-like insistence that a non-standard platform was the way to go. They alone could turn the tide! We've been hearing that since Altair first put a machine with keyswitches on the cover of BYTE magazine. And who has succeeded in creating a platform out of nowhere? Clearly Microsoft, with invaluable "assistance" from Xerox PARC and Steve Jobs and incredible naivete on the part of IBM. Yes, Virginia, you can create a platform out of nothing -- if you can zap yourself back to the early 80's and talk IBM into giving you DOS for free.
In reality, the three biggest components of Microsoft's operating system (a simplified mouse-based GUI, shared interface libraries for applications, and Ethernet networking) were all invented at PARC, not at Microsoft. If you haven't already guessed it, the pen computer wasn't invented by Microsoft, either. A 1988 email from Bill Gates shows that, at that time, he was already planning a standardized machine with a higher-resolution screen -- to be produced en masse by "the Japanese." I don't have to tell you this email was circulated interntally the day after Bill saw a demo of GO's prototype. They could have joined the ranks of the enemy right then (being "acquired" by Microsoft today and quitely going out of business isn't even headline news anymore), but GO's insistence on riding out "The Perfect Storm" lead to a grisly end for the end for the company that set off with such bright hopes. Groupthink, in this case, did not pay.
In the end, the GO experiment never benefitted anyone but millionaires Redmond -- at least insofar as the advance of pen computing was concerned. Nearly everyone GO touched attempted to steal something from them, although none was any more successful than GO in turning them into real products. In other words, despite Bill's "fast track" development, unlimited checkbook, and propensity to "borrow" heavily from others' work, the ubiquitous pen computer imagined by two buddies over a tray of airline food has still not arrived as the real millenium approaches. Today's best laptops far exceed the target price of GO's imagined device (a price that even Gates agreed with) but still don't have any reasonable inputs other than a keyboard. No one has even come up with a good mobile mouse yet; we're still stuck with primitive tiny trackballs and little eraserhead things -- or worse, miniature touchpads. Who thought of those? Long before any of this drivel was up for grabs at finer stores everywhere, two visionaries tried to build a computer that was actually better than the ones we have today. My hat's off to them for their efforts -- and for having the guts to divulge the catastrophic business decisions that ultimately led to Microsoft's Comdex announcement of the Tablet PC, albeit without the people who "made it so."
Startup is peppered with a Warhol-esque array of dignitaries from the early days of personal computing, which means it sometimes reads like Valley of the Dolls. Save those chapters for bedtime. You might also find that keeping up with all the names and relationships can be difficult in later chapters if names like Manzi, Gasseé, and Cannavino don't conjure up a whole host of memories for you (these are then CEO's of Lotus, Apple, and IBM).
A valuable business book for any serious entrepreneur or new CEO, regardless of industry, and written in an engaging personal style, Jerry Kaplan's Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure is a page-turner that could change your company forever -- if, as Andreesen suggess, you read between the lines. Highly Recommended."
Shelved as 'abandoned'
February 16, 2020I've rarely bounced off of a book so quickly. Silicon Valley has metastasized into a grotesque caricature of the mild excess that this book depicts and celebrates, making this self-obsessed narrative seem small and unpalatable.
Read
June 23, 2021Fascinating for multiple reasons: (spoilers?)
It shows how industry buzz which seems important can fizzle to nothing. Does anyone even remember the Newton, let alone it's competitor the EOS, which is described in this book? Both devices were way ahead of their time. They were trying to be iPhones at a time when the technology supported little more than a Palm Pilot.
By far the most fascinating part of the book was his description of how Bill Gates practically stalked them and tried to copy what they were doing, thinking that they could emerge as important competitors. Those stories make this book worth reading.
It shows how industry buzz which seems important can fizzle to nothing. Does anyone even remember the Newton, let alone it's competitor the EOS, which is described in this book? Both devices were way ahead of their time. They were trying to be iPhones at a time when the technology supported little more than a Palm Pilot.
By far the most fascinating part of the book was his description of how Bill Gates practically stalked them and tried to copy what they were doing, thinking that they could emerge as important competitors. Those stories make this book worth reading.
March 5, 2019
My first book about startups, and it gave me some ideas about what could happen in your journey building your own business, especially dealing with big companies. I understood that there might not be good partnership between a huge company and a small one. Either they go separate ways, or the big company just absorb the other one.
July 6, 2017
Great book to read if you want to understand Survivorship Bias in the business/startup world. You can have the world's best talent, the world's best investors, a good product, big customers - and still fail.
November 1, 2018
Fun and motivating read when you are building your own startup!
March 4, 2020
Started this after wathcin the General Magic movie, which is a documentary about General magic, a startup which tried to market a handheld computer resembling a modern smartphone, back in the early 90s.
I don't remember how I ended up reading the book after it (probably some suggestion online?), but I regretted it.
What starts off as a very interesting story, quickly descends into a groundhog day of sorts with descriptions of round upon round of funding, of cash running out, of investors etc.
I guess it may be of interest to someone looking to see what a tech startup entails in terms of negotiations, funding and back-stabbing, but as far as it goes it's a pretty standard (dare I say boring?) story that has been told many times before.
Of particular interest, to be fair, is the awful way that Microsoft and IBM treated GO - it sheds some light into their practices and at points those are infuriating. But this is not enough to save the book.
Personally (and this is reflected in the score I give the book) I wanted to read more, much more about the company itself, its internal workings, the market it operated in and, of course, the product. However somehow Kaplan doesn't talk at all about those aspects! I finished the book and I only had a very vague idea of what the product was - seriously, who launches a startup, passionate and all, and then forgets to describe in some detail what the company made?
So it depends on what you're after, I guess. It may be worth your time, it may not.
I don't remember how I ended up reading the book after it (probably some suggestion online?), but I regretted it.
What starts off as a very interesting story, quickly descends into a groundhog day of sorts with descriptions of round upon round of funding, of cash running out, of investors etc.
I guess it may be of interest to someone looking to see what a tech startup entails in terms of negotiations, funding and back-stabbing, but as far as it goes it's a pretty standard (dare I say boring?) story that has been told many times before.
Of particular interest, to be fair, is the awful way that Microsoft and IBM treated GO - it sheds some light into their practices and at points those are infuriating. But this is not enough to save the book.
Personally (and this is reflected in the score I give the book) I wanted to read more, much more about the company itself, its internal workings, the market it operated in and, of course, the product. However somehow Kaplan doesn't talk at all about those aspects! I finished the book and I only had a very vague idea of what the product was - seriously, who launches a startup, passionate and all, and then forgets to describe in some detail what the company made?
So it depends on what you're after, I guess. It may be worth your time, it may not.
August 23, 2023
This book is a unique treat. It provides the start to finish first hand account for a founder of an ambitious hardware startup in the late 80s/ early 90s. The author wears his heart on his sleeve and goes into detail on the mistakes and troubles his company, The GO corporation, dealt with. I see many parallels with Go corporation as I do with the current startup i work at.
December 15, 2020
Interesting history on Go Corp, which I knew very little back then. I have heard of the Apple Newton. Despite all these failure, it did leave a sense pen-based or tablet computers will be a device of the future. It took another 16 years before the Apple iPad that finally bring tablet computing to live.
July 27, 2019
An honest take. Different from most founding stories of companies
August 22, 2019
This book vividly tells how big fishes eats away small ones. It was actually a lesson for all entrepreneurs. Hardship faced by Promoters of startups is clearly mentioned in the books.
November 7, 2020
It’s interesting read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2021
Great story about a startup in the late 80's. Classic.
March 31, 2021
Amazing story, with a small amount of take-aways
July 23, 2022
Started my fascination for startups, long before I was part of one. A great story of a startup way before its time, but with the strong personal bonds that come from being committed to a mission
May 1, 2020
Jerry Kaplan kept a detailed diary between 1988 and 1994 with the intention of writing a book about his experiences, and this allowed him to write a book that reads more like a professionally written novel than a business case study. Kaplan replays important conversations, meeting, demonstrations, and emotions as if they had just happened. As a personal account, occasionally he tells of things that were going on in his life such as his father's death or his marriage.
The book contains many details of the business dealings GO had with many other companies, investors, developers, the press, etc. This was very interesting and enlightening to read. I imagine many things are different today, as GO shut down just before the Internet took off, so it will be interesting to get some more up-to-date accounts. Fortunately I have such books available; they aren't likely to be as lively as "Startup", however.
The book contains many details of the business dealings GO had with many other companies, investors, developers, the press, etc. This was very interesting and enlightening to read. I imagine many things are different today, as GO shut down just before the Internet took off, so it will be interesting to get some more up-to-date accounts. Fortunately I have such books available; they aren't likely to be as lively as "Startup", however.
May 4, 2021
see real people moving here and there, too much flight scenes and pitches and there's one thing I can say: It's one hell of a ride.
I think this book speaks for itself, J. Kaplan has written it simply and meaningfully. Sometimes it's too techy but on the other hand, it's real life, with all its ups and downs and good deals, bad ones, enemies, friends and the future, dreams, visions, it's really one hell of a ride, the moment you close the book, it doesn't feel like it's the end.
It was the beginning.
Look at us now with all the technology we use.
Anyway, would I recommend this book? I'm not sure.
I think this book speaks for itself, J. Kaplan has written it simply and meaningfully. Sometimes it's too techy but on the other hand, it's real life, with all its ups and downs and good deals, bad ones, enemies, friends and the future, dreams, visions, it's really one hell of a ride, the moment you close the book, it doesn't feel like it's the end.
It was the beginning.
Look at us now with all the technology we use.
Anyway, would I recommend this book? I'm not sure.
February 22, 2008
I like this book very much, giving us big picture of how hard it is to establish your own company. Start-up company is either a hell of joyride OR a joyride to hell. Appreciate all the effort he made from the beginning till the end to raise his "child" called GO. I learn one important thing if I want to make my own someday: find a great idea, communicate it to right people, then make sure the product can be sold!
March 26, 2008
when you startup an activity, result may not always success. I guess, Kaplan would have learnt lot of lessons to fight with competition and big market players.
Again book ends with a sad part, But, to emphasise on startup - it ends with another startup business. if you would like to understand business dynamics and why lot of merging happening... Good to start from this book.
Again book ends with a sad part, But, to emphasise on startup - it ends with another startup business. if you would like to understand business dynamics and why lot of merging happening... Good to start from this book.
September 3, 2013
At this point the pen computer concept is a bit dated. However there are some themes covered in this book at never age: making a great product, making deals with investors and connecting with customers. Kaplan weaves a tale of his startup from concept to the its last soul-crushing days. I found this book informative and entertaining.
November 13, 2019
This was a great book and highly recommended!
Really interesting to have an insider's view of a company from conception to merger / running out of cash / crash. Since moving to Israel and working primarily with start-up companies, this book really spoke to me and even moved me as the company was going through its ups and down.
Really interesting to have an insider's view of a company from conception to merger / running out of cash / crash. Since moving to Israel and working primarily with start-up companies, this book really spoke to me and even moved me as the company was going through its ups and down.
October 22, 2007
My appreciation of this book skyrocketed when I got to meet Caplan in person. Obviously, he is the sort of big swinging dick that you have envisioned, but it was great to see it in the flesh.
February 19, 2008
"Detailed, but well written, story of the rise and fall of Go and pen computing. Especially interesting to read about old acquaintances from Apple days."
March 31, 2008
Reads like a novel!
March 15, 2009
Dated by now, but still fascinating.
June 29, 2010
I was surprised at how relevant the book remains, which came out in 1995. If you want to see how tech competition works (or, in this case, doesn't work), this book is worth reading.
February 9, 2014
This book is a well written account of the startup process as it normally ends....in failure. If you were ever curious about the startup process, this is a great source.
December 18, 2012
Including almost every aspects an entrepreneur need to know about what to expect during the adventure.
May 13, 2014
A real thrill.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews