The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World - Hardcover

Stone, Brad

4.04

7,127 ratings by Goodreads

9780316396813: The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316396818 ISBN 13: 9780316396813

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2017

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ONE OF AMAZON'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017 A look deep inside the new Silicon Valley, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Everything Store.

Ten years ago, the idea of getting into a stranger's car, or walking into a stranger's home, would have seemed bizarre and dangerous--yet today it is as common as ordering a book online. Companies like Uber and Airbnb have redefined the way we live. And while they have become pervasive in our day-to-day lives, they are not universally celebrated. They are the result of a generation of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who used technology to upend convention and disrupt entire industries. Led by Travis Kalanick of Uber and Brian Chesky of Airbnb, these are the upstarts, founders with an overabundance of self-confidence and a limitless drive that pushed them to rewrite the rules, better and sometimes for worse. Now with a new epilogue and updated throughout, The Upstarts takes us deep into the origins--and controversy--of these new titans of business.

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Review:

An Amazon Best Book of February 2017: Brad Stone has a gift for unwrapping the mythology around a company's origins and making its actual origins—and growth and flubs and pivot points—far more fascinating than the mythology ever could be. In The Upstarts, Stone tackles the genesis of Airbnb and Uber, two companies that have woven themselves into the daily lives of people around the globe in less than ten years. Too many books spotlight a company's wise decisions and business victories, making success seem almost inevitable. In contrast, Stone gives Uber's and Airbnb's mistakes as much room on the page as its scrappy triumphs, allowing a far more complex story to build. Interwoven among the highlights and lowlights are innovation incubators, dirty tricks, desperation among VC investors to not miss the Next Big Thing, competitors' bright ideas, and the strikingly different personalities of the two companies' young leaders. But this is a book without an ending, because Airbnb and Uber are still evolving, making their long-term effect on their industries hard to predict. Timely, clear-eyed, and crisply written, The Upstarts is a must for readers seeking insight into how ideas and eventually businesses can succeed or fail in a technology-rich landscape. —Adrian Liang, The Amazon Book Review

About the Author:

Brad Stone is senior executive editor of global technology at Bloomberg News and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. He has covered Silicon Valley for more than 15 years and lives in San Francisco.

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