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The Venture Cafe
from the money-money-money dept.
| The Venture Cafe: Secrets, Strategies, and Stories from America's High-Tech Entrepreneurs | |
| author | Teresa Esser |
| pages | 280 |
| publisher | Warner Books |
| rating | 9 - reads like a novel |
| reviewer | Victor Cruz |
| ISBN | 0-446-52783-1 |
| summary | Non-fictional accounts of entrepreneurs' struggles and triumphs |
Oh, no, I thought. Not another one of these rags-to-riches, I've-got-mine and-so-now-I'm-going-to-rub-your-face-in-it type books.
Thanks, but I've had enough. And then I took a moment to actually read this thing.
Turns out that this Teresa Esser isn't even an entrepreneur -- she's the wife of an entrepreneur. So what business does she have trying to tell me how to start a company?
Esser watched her husband start an Ethernet telephone firm that was eventually sold to 3Com for $90 million. After the company was sold, she spent three years interviewing 150 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate lawyers and high-tech headhunters about how a person can start their own high-tech company.
She interviewed members of the MIT blackjack team, asking them what it was like to gamble with other people's money. That's what the high-tech entrepreneurs were doing, you know, when they were financing their businesses with venture capital.
A lot of these new companies wound up going out of business. But some of them did not. Some of the new companies ACTUALLY SUCCEEDED at creating wealth for their investors -- including their venture capitalists, which more often than not happen to be pension funds.
So, when these high-tech entrepreneurs succeed at solving a problem and creating a solution and getting the product to market, and achieving a liquidity event, they make money for their investors.
There are a lot of business authors who spend half of the book thanking their wives for putting up with their obnoxious behavior and the other half bragging about how great they are.
Teresa Esser doesn't brag, really. I have to say, I admired how candid Esser was when she was talking about serious problems, like the time her husband got burned out and had to leave his company.
This was obviously a very painful experience, but she lays it all on the line. Esser didn't have to go back and dredge up those repressed memories about what it was like when her husband was on the verge of losing control of the technical direction his company was taking, and freaked out and asked Esser to turn off the electricity so that they would have to prematurely end an annoying board meeting.
She didn't have to fly to White Plains, New York and convince the God of high-tech headhunting, Chuck Ramsey, to spill the beans on how exactly you convince an top-ranked executive to leave his job and join a high-tech startup.
But she did.She could have spent the past three years lying on the beach in the Bahamas, drinking pina coladas and putting on sunscreen. Instead, she schlepped around Boston's financial district, asking jaded venture capitalists how an unknown entrepreneur could increase her chances of obtaining venture capital financing.
You know, most of these dot-com brag books make me sick. But I have to say, this one made me laugh.
I liked the story about the rat. These two kids started a company out of a disgusting apartment in Philadelphia and they tried to have a formal business meeting with a director of new business development from a Wall Street financial firm, but it was hard because they had these twelve-inch rats.
When the director of new business development came to visit, they didn't even have any clean cups to serve him tap water in. That story was funny. They gave the director of new business development a dirty dinosaur cup that they had gotten free from Burger King. And then he left. And the guys tried to figure out what had gone wrong with the meeting.
I mean, okay, okay. It's hard to start a new company. But with a book like this, at least you know that you're not the only one going through hard times.
To go through your own hard times, you can from The Venture Cafe from bn.com Also, check out The Venture Cafe web site. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit yours, read the book review guidelines, then hit the submission page.
it's watching a bunch of rich, fat, overpaid, (Score:2, Funny)
Until here I thought you were talking about union workers.
dot-con executives
Well, they are usually a waste, but you should calm down before you post something. I almost thought you were CmdrTaco.
I worked for a union in New Jersey (Score:5, Insightful)
I worked for a union in rural Pennsylvania, and the low seniority guys were earning $9.50 an hour to not push a broom. The high seniority fellows that earned $13+/hour drove the equipment, while six or seven of the newer guys took turns using two shovels.
I'm not saying unions are all bad, and I'm definitely not saying this country would be better off without them. But believe it or not, some unions abuse employers just as badly as some employers used to abuse their workers.
Read on for the dramatic conclusion? Sheesh! (Score:3, Funny)
Kind of reminds me of those cheesy kung fu movies you see at the video store with a description like:
- Don't miss the exciting last half hour, in which it is revealed that the brotherhood of Purple Shaolins was actually founded by Tsao Houxi!
- Make sure to watch the dramatic martial arts conclusion as Red Daggers Li at the last second defeats Black Dragon Xu!
Or my personal chrisd favorite:I mean, okay, okay. It's hard to start a new company. But with a book like this, at least you know that you're not the only one going through hard times.
And this "dramatic conclusion" ends with a Joe Pesci line--okay okay okay--that I would've recognized as terrible writing when I was nine. Hey Slashdot, since you're posting book review stories by the uneducated, can my little brother write one?
Re:Read on for the dramatic conclusion? Sheesh! (Score:5, Funny)
The Rich and You. (Score:1)
Whether they learned something or not, they are apparently making more money than you are. Your opinions over their results... Hmmmm...
VC's usually made out like bandits (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, one might have suspected that something untoward was happening. If a company goes public at $14 a share and closes at $400, the company has been done a tremendous disservice by the VC and investment bank. The money is supposed to be going to capital for the company. The company shares should have been priced at $400. The company looses, and the investor looses. The VC, broker, and investment banker win! The VC wins by offloading a loser company at tremendous gains, the broker wins with commisions on a grossly overvalued stock, and the investment bank wins by taking a stock public and retaining lots of options at $14.
What is the message/point of this book? (Score:4, Insightful)
I had a difficult time understanding what this book "does" for the reader from this review. Is it simply a collection of stories of people who succeeded and those who didn't. Or does she provide some kind of analysis and state what she thinks were the important reasons for success?
I would be very interested if this book postulates some reasons (even though it must always be remembered that they are her opinions and not facts) but if it's just a collection of stories, then why should I buy this book? I can read all about the rediculous wastes that went on during the dot-com years in the newspaper. Or see that one documentary movie whose name I forget now (you know, it was that one where the filmakers planned on following the success story of a startup only to end up capturing the true story of a dream gone bad).
Hey, if anyone has some theories about what seperated the winners from the losers, please post a reply to this message. I'd be interested in hearing them. I was never involved in the dot-com bust (except via the stock market) so I really "missed out" on an important lesson here. And I'm not convienced that this book would help me out.
GMD
Re:So you can ... (Score:4, Interesting)
So you can get a few raw facts and draw your OWN conclusions about what works and what doesn't?
There's certainly something to be said about that point of view. Indeed, almost immediately after my original post I realized someone was going to say this. However, it's the "few raw facts" part that bothers me. The review says that the author spent 3 years and interviewed 150 people involved in the dot-com story. I guarantee that she didn't commit each of those 150 stories to paper. I suspect that she just took the most shocking (e.g., the rat story) and wrote about them. And I sure as hell am not going to spend 3 years myself to figure out the facts. The bottom line is that when I read something, I expect the author to give me their "expert opinion." Now I want to emphasize that I am not going to mindlessly accept and assimilate that opinion. I do want to see some good supplementary logic and some case histories. But in my case (someone who was not involved in the dot-com crash) I have NO experience and really do have to rely heavily on someone elses. This is actually the purpose behind my post. Remember I asked for slashdotters to submit their opinions, knowing full well that there is going to be a lot of disagreement. I reserve the right to accept any or none of what I see.
I like to read other people's opinions (provided that I respect them as intelligent and have some knowledge of what they are talking about). That's why I come to slashdot: we've got ample amounts of people from both camps here (and for those of you who think I'm karma-whoring by praising slashdot, I've nearly got my 50).
Bottom line: I agree that you have a point but I am skeptical that this book (or any book) which is simply a collection of "a few raw facts" is going to provide me with a statisically significant amount of data from which to formulate a theory.
GMD
Re:So you can ... (Score:5, Interesting)
If I had a chance to grab my boss, I'd tell him a couple of things: DO NOT separate the techs from the non techs. Techs are not gods or even the trump card. Techs will not one day rule the world. The world will be ruled as it has always been ruled , by the three Ps: Politicians, Priests and Poets.
Concentrate on your SALES FORCE. A lot of programmers, sys admins, some execs who got their job the easy way, don't think a sales force is nessecary, as if their product would sell itself. NO PRODUCT EVER SELLS ITSELF. Get able, hard-working people staffed in your sales force, and get a good sales manager. Make sure the sales force uses the product. They don't have to be technical. Most sales are not to technical entities, but to non-technical businesses.
Pay/train your customer service/tech support well. Don't skimp on tech support. You don't want your coders having to solve tech's problems, and you don't want your tech support handling angry clients. Use the right tool for the right jobs. Don't hire techs for customer support. Don't promote people to tech support who do not have good problem solving skills. If they are good customer service reps, give them a promotion, or a raise, but don't put customer service reps in your tech support division. Keep your programmers programming and not answering tech-support questions.
Reward consistently, expect more. Don't give 10,000 bonuses unless the people deserve it. If everyone owns Porches, how can you tell who's your hardest worker? Reward excellence with excellence, reward laziness with the boot. When someone screws up but works hard, help them, don't punish them, but don't give them financial incentive if they havent generated revenue. When they generate revenue, then reward financially.
Make do with less than high tech. Companies went out and bought cisco 8500 switches and 7200 routers. The bought service contracts for thousands for each. They had a total of fifty employees and no high bandwidth utilization. Spend what you have and make do otherwise. Don't buy your equipment outright. Go to a holding company and lease if from them. It's cheaper in the long run if you plan to expand within five years. Remember fixed costs are zero in the long run. Spend as little as possible and get as much as possible.
I'm not saying that the DOT COM period would have been as great as we thought, all I'm saying is that a lot of good companies went down with the bad because of poor planing or people like me on the side lines saying: "I knew they'd fail". It's okay to fail and even to be an inexperienced company. But for what it's worth, get experienced financial and legal advice at least and manage your company like a BUSINESS and not like a chess club.
Hmm, she's not bad looking either (Score:2, Funny)
Grrrr [theventurecafe.com]
;-)
Carriage Returns (Score:1)
dot.com bust? (Score:1)
So the first time the industry showed any signs of slowing down, they (newspaper writers included) said 'oh look, there's the bust, I told you it would happen. I knew I was right not getting into it.'
But what really happend? Sure some guys had to get real jobs, but their effort (and investor's dollars) were not wasted. They are like ants who drown themselves so that other ants can walk across the dead bodies to the food (analogies rule!).
So what separated the drowners from the walkers? Same things as always, innovation, practical thinking, communication skills and HARD WORK.
Oh no! (Score:1)
Did you mean ESR? (Score:1)
Did you mean ESR? I mean, he qualifies in all those
"..executives.."
Executive is one thing the man is not
http://tuxedo.org/~esr/graphics/raymond00
...book review stories by the uneducated? (Score:2, Funny)
Mmmm, this smells like a person with a pipi complex. Dude, grow up! This is not a technical review, just a general one about a novel like investment-related book. He took the time to read the book and then give us for free his take on it. Short and to the point, what else do you want for this type of book. Hey, Evert has been making a bundle of money for years doing much less reviewing movies and I don't see anyone calling him uneducated. I mean how do you know this guy doesn't have a PhD and/or a ton of working experience. I personally couldn't care less about his background, but it seems that a few folks with a big complex do. Okay, so from now on everyone has to state their educational background (as if it really matters here?!) starting with me...okay, I have a BSEE and an MS in Comp Sci + 10+ years of technical experience. Jee, maybe I don't make the grade to be writing this??! I'll try to complete my PhD next time...
OT: page widening (Score:1)
And why don't they show the story when you change the threshold? I upped the threshold to +1 and now the story disappears and I'm left with only the comments...
No balls, no glory. Yes, Vic .. stop ur bitching (Score:1)
But you didn't tell us.... (Score:3, Funny)
Reminds me of myself a few years ago (Score:3, Funny)
Needless to say we did'nt get that bank all fired up about our business plan.
Sound like a good book (Score:2)
Read the sample chapter - didn't like it (Score:2)
Stupid CEOs who think up those 'grand' ideas are the ones to blame for the dotcom crash. Take the example from this book. The paperless train ticket system... Nifty idea with a lot of ridiculous barriers that make it impractical. Most trains tickets are purchased at the station with no security gates (yet) no baggage check in and the whole hoopla that goes with air travel. For that purpose the paper ticket is the natural obvious and efficient solution. But the enterpreneur in the book obviously doesn't see it that way. He's already obsessing about his vision without giving it some clear headed thought.
Department store with Black and White stripes... (Score:1)
On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 3 (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd like to see a good "where are they now" book covering the CEOs of disasterous startups.
How to be a HiTech Entrepenuer (Score:2, Funny)
"Go to Menlo Park. Shake a tree. A venture capitalist will fall out.
Wave your hands and say these high-tech buz words.
"Online comerce. B2B. Wireless Internet!"
The VC will give you $4Million dollars.
Hire 20 people, publish lots of hype, stir for six months, and go public.
Your IPO stock will inflate rapidly, and you'll become Mozillionaires.
Your share is $30M dollars. Go to Menlo Park. Climb a tree.
Uma cabaca, um arame, um pedaco de pau!
RATS! (Score:1, Interesting)
At DEC in the early days the hardware engineers worked during the day and ran all the rats into the programmers area, then, the programmers worked at night and ran the rats back over to the engineering area. They somehow managed to create a company that made $Billions a year of real money. Granted, they only lasted 40 years or so until they were bought by Compaq but some of the dot-bombs didn't last 40 days...
Common Sense (Score:1)
At this point, management can make decisions faster than logic.
Dilbert anyone? (Score:1)
See Here [dakine.net]
and
See Here [dakine.net]
John