Review
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"Readers will find plenty of food for thought in Brad Stone’s
The Upstarts, the most detailed investigation yet into the early
years of these Silicon Valley prodigies. It’s an entertaining and
well-crafted account... a careful character portrait of both Uber
and Airbnb. Read it and you will be able to judge them for
yourself." (FT)
"A fun, briskly told narrative… Mr. Stone’s reporting is
excellent. The Upstarts is not the end of the story but an
excellent history of the beginning." (The Wall Street Journal)
"Excellent... an unusually gripping business book. " (The Times)
"Stone brings a big dose of truth serum to the marvels and
machinations of the sharing economy and its founders.... 'The
Upstarts' is rich with inside details." (Forbes)
"Technology writer Brad Stone chronicles [Uber and Airbnb's]
swift rise to the corporate stratosphere, juxtaposing visionary
zeal with the often deep impacts they've left in their wakes...
The book is a timely reminder that pushing the digital realm into
the physical can disrupt communities as well as the competition."
(Nature)
"A richly researched and highly readable narrative that provides
additional layers of in by weaving in contrasting stories of
competing companies that failed." (Walter Isaacson, New York
Times Book Review)
"A colourful and enjoyable read ... Compelling." (i)
"In The Upstarts, Brad Stone has vividly captured the cultural
and economic upheaval brought about by the latest generation of
Internet superpowers. His book is a magnificent expose of how
companies like Uber and Airbnb came to be, the people that
profited and lost out along the way and the ramifications that
this technology will have on the world for decades to come. Stone
remains the preeminent chronicler of the Internet Age and a
master storyteller." (Ashlee Vance, author of Elon Musk: How the
Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future)
"[Stone] amply illustrates that for every tech champion there is
a forgotten crowd of decapitated competitors, pissed-off
investors, defenestrated founders and unrewarded early employees
... where Stone really succeeds is in providing the reader with
the visceral experience of the start-up enterprise." (Antonio
Garcia-Martinez Washington Post)
"A fascinating account of the founders and leaders of each
company, each of whom have moulded the companies into their own
images in many ways... [Stone's] telling is especially artful.
These books are great primers for aspiring entrepreneurs as well
as those who are simply interested in what makes entrepreneurs
successful." (Peter High Forbes)
From the Inside Flap
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New York Times bestselling author of The Everything Store
Brad Stone takes us deep inside the new Silicon Valley. 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, but
today it's as common as ordering a book online. Uber and Airbnb
are household names: redefining neighbourhoods, challenging the
way governments regulate business and changing the way we travel.
In the spirit of iconic Silicon Valley renegades like Steve Jobs
and Bill Gates, a new generation of entrepreneurs is sparking yet
another cultural upheaval through technology. They are among the
Upstarts, idiosyncratic founders with limitless drive and an
abundance of self-confidence. Young, hungry and brilliant, they
are rewriting the traditional rules of business, changing our
day-to-day lives and often sidestepping serious ethical and legal
obstacles in the process. The Upstarts is the definitive account
of a dawning age of tenacity, creativity, conflict and wealth. In
Brad Stone's highly anticipated and riveting account of the most
radical companies of the new Silicon Valley, we find out how it
all started, and how the world is wildly different than it was
ten years ago.