The Upstarts

Brad Stone

• 01 januari 2017
• 9780593076354

Samenvatting:

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 aniline's. 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.


The world is changing right before our eyes. Technology has escaped the confines of our computers and mobile devices and has oozed into the real world. We now press a button and summon a cab. We can rent the spare rooms and spare time of others, any time of day. We don't just buy books and movies on-line but groceries, prepared dinners, laundry and babysitting services.

This great wave, sparked by the ubiquity of smartphones and high speed internet and cellular networks, has really just started. But the effects and efficiencies of software and the Internet have already upended the industries that once dominated the provision of real-world goods and services. It has minted not just a new set of winners and losers but turned San Francisco into an epicenter of the business world and spawned a new wave of conflict over the inevitable spoils.

There is a specific kind of entrepreneurial personality that thrives during unsettled times like this: brash, clever, and almost preternaturally relentless in their focus. They are eternally optimistic about the long-term benefits of technology and yet clinically paranoid about the short-term obstacles and rivals that stand in their way. They break the rules, betray friends, but can be endearingly loyal to the allies who help them achieve their goals. And they are awfully fun to write and read about.