Rating: 
Summary: Self-righteous talk
Review: The author, a self-described "half-Asian," relates his experience working at Value America, one of the first casualties of the dot-com craze. I was a VA customer myself, and just loved its stupid shopping system which had lots of pricing errors (e.g., 1-cent computer systems!) and generous rebate offers. It was an eye opener, indeed, for me to read about the behind-the-scene developments at VA, but the author came across as less than 100% honest about his involvement, overly critical of his coworkers, and too self-righteous. Also, if you are looking for business lessons learned, you won't find it here. This is a first-person account of events, not a good analysis of what really went wrong, what could have been done to make things work, and what sets VA apart ...(the latter of which was able to survive several near-death calls).In short, this makes a quick read at the library, but is otherwise a mundane book.
Rating: 
Summary: insightful, and opens many questions
Review: In the wake of the early 2000 dot-com bust, one of the biggest businesses seems to be people writing about their misadventures. While I can't claim to have read them all, David Kuo's "Dot Bomb" ranks high because of its depth, the insider status of its author and the access the author had to the deceptive world of Value America. Kuo's characterization of Craig Winn, founder of Value America, is simultaneously hilarious and frightening. A man who started out one step down from a door-to-door salesman, Winn exhibits hubris that is unlikely to be seen in the marketplace again. Before his web page(where he hopes to cut out the "middleman" and sell basically everything there is to sell) is even complete, the reader sees Winn hobnobbing with Henry Kissinger and Jerry Falwell and planning a run for the U.S. presidency. Despite the fact that Value America never makes any money, that the web page has technical problems and that nothing ever seems to get delivered, Winn keeps his heads in the clouds, taking long weeks of tropical vacations and casually examining new inventions and religious on-line stores as his empire slowfully falls down around him. Winn is not alone, as it seems that just about everyone who works for Value America watches its stock price more than their own work (Kuo is among them). From the rush to take the company public despite a lack of brand names to scenes of a ranting Winn complaining that nobody but him understands, the reader must fight away pain. To any rational (or, at the very least, post-Internet stock bust) reader, the actions taken by Winn and others are surrealistic, and by the end, the question isn't why Value America failed, but how it managed to stay around for as long as it did. Kuo's position in the book is slightly ambigous and suspicious. As the public relations master of Value America, he's an experienced spin doctor, and ends the book with an afterword praising Winn. One wonders if Kuo was truly deluded, or if he adopted such a position to keep from being sued or to gain close interviews with Winn and other company executives. Kuo is certainly not as stupid as he makes himself out to be - such a person would not have been able to skillfully manuever himself into a safe position as Winn, the CEO and the board of directors play corporate political hardball. However, even if Kuo is not the "everyman" he paints himself to be, this book is a masterful potrait of the egos and idiocies that brought down Value America and, no doubt, so many similiar dot-com businesses.
Rating: 
Summary: Fairly Entertaining
Review: Having worked for two dot.bomb flameouts, I can easily relate to the story he weaves - over-bloated executive structures, massive spending, political in-fighting, etc. Some of the story seems far-fetched or even ficticious, even for a dot.bomb. Still, it was fairly entertaining, but nowhere near as good as insider books like Liar's Poker or Barbarians at the Gate.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Story
Review: If you want to learn more about the internet bubble, this book is a must read. I could not put it down. It is fact filled yet easy to read - fun to read in fact. It is history and entertainment all rolled into one. "dot.bomb" is more fanciful than most novels and has more tension than most mysteries. I hope you try it because you will be both educated and entertained at the same time. I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: Great read into the downfall of a sham
Review: For those of us who were burned by VA and it's chicanery, this is an excellent read that will tell you "the rest of the story."
Kuo is a very good writer; the book flows well and is coherently written.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, curious, educational
Review: Chatty, funny and fast paced, strongly reminiscent of the tempo of the Internet-dot.com hype itself, the book is an anecdotal account of a world of purest vision and ugly greed. Beware of entrepreneurs that are scarred by arrogance, detached from reality, disrespectful of people who surround them, intoxicated by their own ideas. Such icons of innovation often do not make good company builders. In its intent, the book reminds intensely of The New, New Thing by Michel Lewis. Nevertheless, such books should flood the public until they drive their message home -- the huge irrational craze all of us participated in. Written by a former Bush speech writer (the author shuns excessive modesty), the book is extremely engaging. In the name of political correctness some very obvious judgements about people and events are never clearly stated in spite the ample opportunity on 300 something pages.
Rating:
Summary: Must read - great business book.
Review: Far more interesting and relevant, to any business, than a lot of the business reads out there. Fascinating. Certainly relevant even in a bureaucratic large company setting. Goes to show you that the 'snake-oil salesmen' routine over the centuries is still alive and well, as are the converts who become the worshippers, believers, and disciples. Hard to imagine that anyone could stick with such a company given all the red flags from the starting gate... but that's what people do. I half-imagine that many of the ex-execs STILL almost believe in it(!) And some will always need a 'god' at the top, never able to 'grow' the skepticism needed to realize there is no such thing as a 'new economy, or 'new paradigm' where the old rules (like profit or return on investment) no longer apply, nor the self-confidence to say 'the emporer has no clothes.' Pity.
Rating:
Summary: This book is great...
Review: I almost didn't buy this book because it sounded like a story that had already been told about a thousand times. I bought on the strengths of the positive reviews that it had received and was rewarded with a great read. It reads like a great novel, terrific characters that would be hard to invent. I read it in just 2 days, fast for me, because of the incredible pace of the book. Once I cracked the book I had a tough time breaking away from it. This is a true Internet adventure story. The writing is terrific, which truly adds to the quality of the story. This may be the best book that I have read in quite awhile. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Account Of Internet Dreams And Realities
Review: David Kuo's account of Value America's rise and fall is EXCELLENT! Experience reconciles expectation and reality-it's too bad that it took 100 million dollars to learn that. Kuo is an excellent (and honest) writer.
Rating:
Summary: The E-Vangelist
Review: David Kuo's chronicle of a dot com's downfall is more biography than expose. Value America was the brainchild of Craig Winn, one of those American original megalomaniacs intent on changing the world. A manufacturer's rep with a volatile record of success, Winn was an early convert to the web, sensing its potential to transform the retailing landscape and revolutionize the way goods are bought, sold and distributed. With the charisma of a born-again preacher Winn converted the non-believers, recruiting some close associates to set up a shoestring operation in Charlottesville Va. The story of Value America's birth mirrors that of so many start ups of the time, with employees whipping themselves into a working frenzy over the promise of stock option riches. But at Value America, as David Kuo so skillfully tells the tale, it wasn't just greed that drove the converts on to their perceived glorious destiny. More than anything, it was the overpowering and mesmerizing personality of Craig Winn himself. Kuo does a neat job of setting the story up with the blow by blow accounts of which relationships led to which rounds of financing, and how Winn found his way, through ingenuity and old-fashioned salesmanship, into the top echelons of the new economy elite. One has the sense that the author wished he'd been there during those heady early days. By his own account he certainly had no idea what he was in for when he came aboard in 1999 as Value America's VP of Public Relations from his background in politics and non-profit. By then the received wisdom was that Value America was on its way to greatness. Already the much awaited IPO had gone through, mega-deals with Fed Ex and Citigroup loomed just over the horizon, and Value America's office campus and fleet of jets were on order. Kuo bought into Craig Winn's world with the fervor of a new disciple. His worship of the great leader comes through again and again, even as Winn evades, misleads, and outright lies when dealing with Wall St., the public, and his own oh-so-cherished employees. Of course, it all ends badly, but with oddly few recriminations. Everyone involved in the drama at Value America comes away with the notion that they have participated in something big, if not exactly real. The only players in the drama who seem to have walked away completely unscathed were, interestingly, the religious leaders like Jerry Fallwell and Ralph Reed, whom Winn recruited to give credibility to his demi-god status and bankability to his quixotic mission to run for president. It's all very confusing how rational people end up as raving fantasists at the hands of a snake oil charmer. The most nerve wracking aspect of the tale is the huge scale of deception that swirled among the large group of ostensibly savvy people. Kuo does an admirable job of shedding light on the story, at the end equating his own fate as that of a Yukon goldminer who, lucky to have survived the harsh Arctic winter, has emerged broke but alive to tell the tale.
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