Randall E. Stross

I don't mind learning the negative as well as the positive, when it comes to historical figures, but this book was so geared toward the negative that it made me tired. Eventually I started to wonder what the author was leaving out, in order to show Thomas Edison in the worst possible light. I hate when I feel like I can't believe what I'm reading.

Fascinating account of venture capital success during the hysterical dot-com bubble. I am not impressed with the arrogant actors in the Benchmark venture capital firm, but rather the stories of the companies invested in:

* Webvan by Louis Borders was Amazon Prime before Amazon even caught up with Borders on books! What a missed opportunity. How exactly did it fail? I would like a book-length treatment on that alone.
* I used to wonder why news media sat on the sidelines while internet media show more ate their lunch, as if they missed the fact they were the information companies and not dead tree distributors. I see here that Knight Ridder was right there with the rest of the visionaries. How exactly did they not become AOL or Yahoo!? I would like a book-length treatment on that alone.
* There is a lot of detail here on the success and impact of Priceline and eBay. Very interesting. show less

I listened to the Audible audiobook version, narrated by Grover Gardner. I grew up with simplistic stories of the famous inventor. Reality, however, appears to be different. This biography is far from a hagiography, and shows that the reality is not as grand as the legend.

Picked up this book to better understand the software industry and the art of startup investing. The drama of building a startup over the course of a 3 month period and pitching investors gave the book a great sense of drama. I also liked that Stross explored the question of why Y Combinator has funded very few female founders. For aspiring startup founders, the sections on preparing a 2 minute pitch about your company will be particularly helpful. The book was well narrated by René show more Ruiz.

Two areas where the book was lacking. I would have liked more discussion of the business side of startups (there was one great story of startup sales to be fair). Further, I found it surprising that there was no real discussion of "bootstrapping startups" (i.e. software companies that grow completely without investor money). show less