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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | In eBOYS, Randall Stross takes us behind the scenes and inside the heads of the gutsy entrepreneurs who are financing the hottest businesses on the Web. The six tall men who started Benchmark, Silicon Valley's most exciting venture capital firm, put themselves at the cutting edge of the new economy by backing billion dollar start-ups like eBay and Webvan. The risks were enormous--but the rewards have proven to be staggering. Within two years, eBay's net worth grew from $20 million to more than $21 billion, while each Benchmark founding partner saw his own personal net worth soar by hundreds of millions of dollars.
For two roller-coaster years, Stross had total access not only to Benchmark's executives but to the companies they financed. He was a fly on the wall as fortunes were made in an instant, snap decisions got locked in, and new ventures took off--and sometimes crashed. Here are the testosterone-pumped conversations, round-the-clock meetings, and gutsy deals that launched the eBoys and their clients into the stratosphere of mega-wealth. Written like a novel but absolutely true, eBOYS brings to vivid life the glory days of the greatest business adventure of our time.
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| | Product Details | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 60 reviews |
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 a must-read for anyone in the startup world Oct 08, 2006
As someone in the startup industry, hearing the VC point of view was very interesting. Add to that a refresher course on several of the important industry-shaping deals and an entertaining down-to-earth delivery style, and you got a certain winner on your hands.
Highly recommended, you will not put this down. I sure didn't.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Hubris meets Homoeroticism Oct 06, 2005
I give this book 4 stars for its inadvertently hysterical comedy. Everything you need to know to understand how the tech bubble formed and why it burst so dramatically is here--not in the story the author tells, but in the pseudo-macho, we-are-the-masters-of-the-universe, lets-measure-each-other's-penises subtext that runs throughout.
This is cultural history at its best. Not unlike the sex-ed books of the '50s and '60s that give us fascinating glimpses of the contemporary oppression of women, this book accidentally paints the late '90s silicon valley as the hotbed of homoeroticism that it was. The characters are greedy, hubris-filled, and completely blinded by the slightest scent of money--and the author worships their every move and utterance, seeing them as they see themselves: as gods among mere mortals.
There's not much here for the businessman, but plenty for the cultural historian.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
A good read with some good lessons Jan 26, 2005
I doubt "eBoys" was intended to read as a period piece, but it certainly does in the post-technology bubble world. There are a couple things that come across loud and clear: first, these venture capitalists were not blind to the bubble that was forming; second, if they wanted to stay alive and relevant in their field, they needed to keep financing new companies and unwillingly participate in furthering the bubble.
The story is well-told and gives you an insider's view of how at least one venture capital firm makes the decision of who gets funding and who doesn't. It also serves as a cautionary tale about how even the most sophisticated investors get sucked into bubble mentality.
A valuable read for investors, entreprenuers, and aspiring venture capitalists.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Amazing. Eboys + The Perfect Store = future billionaire. Jan 18, 2005
I stand corrected on my earlier review of "The Perfect Store" -- Eboys has now usurped the title of "quite possibly the best book I've ever read." O.k. so I tend to exaggerate after I read a really great book, but this is definitely in my top 10 books of all time... and I'm a voracious reader (500+ easy... at age 28).
Informative, educational, entertaining, instructive, and incredibly motivating and inspiring -- for all those with an insatiable entrepreneurial spirit like the one I have, Eboys can be thought of as an entrepreneurial bible... or maybe hymnal would be more appropriate. I read the book and now I'm listening to the Audible audiobook... simply awesome... again! This is a must-have book for any budding Bill Gates, Micheal Dell, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, or PIERRE OMIDYAR out there. Heck I even sent Benchmark the executive summary for my business even though they don't invest in my industry... I was just that impressed with those guys.
Read it. Save it. Refer to it. You'll be glad you did.
not profound, but not prosaic either Oct 01, 2004
Broad overview of the netherworld of venture capitalists as well as short take on eBay, the unlikely "profitable" internet company that learned how to scale its technology and augment its customer base with the help of Benchmark. As other reviews will corroboarte, it's this book's ebullient writing that salvages it from a more tepid rating.
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