Rating: 
Summary: Good Insights for Anyone Involved in an Early-Stage Company
Review: This book offers a "fly-on-the-wall" account of the inner workings of Benchmark Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. This book details the events surrounding the funding and growth of such companies as E-bay, Priceline, Webvan, and Art.com. Additionally, the book brings the reader inside the partner meetings so one can see the heuristics of this venture capital firm. The only downside is that the author portrays the partners as sensitive to the needs of the varied people seeking funding from Benchmark. It is possible that this portrayal is accurate, however, I suspect that Benchmark is as ruthless as other VC firms. In the end I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the process of seeking funding and the dynamics of early-stage companies.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe the e stands for energy ...
Review: I have owned this book for a while and just now got around to reading it for a class I am taking on venture capital. I should have read it sooner, but I am glad that I read it AFTER the web-business meltdown. It isn't that the book hypes the web or that the guys at Benchmark are wild-eyed web partisans. In fact, as the web bubble begins to deflate towards the end of the book the author captures some insightful comments from the partners about the shift in focus because of what they saw coming.What is really useful about the book in the context of the post-web-bubble experience is the excellent way it captures the mood and thinking of the time and the story behind some ventures whose outcomes were still unknown when the book was first published. We now know of e-Bay's staying power and WebVan's demise as well as the stories of several other companies discussed in the book. Benchmark is still going strong with a talented team and an enviable portfolio. It would be wonderful to get a follow up article (maybe it has already been done) that shows how the Benchmark team handled the heat of the web meltdown and what their current portfolio thinking is. And, of course, it would be nice to get information on the whys and wherefores of Benchmark's foray into the international arena (it was contemplated in this book and, from the Benchmark website, it is now a reality). This is well done (even if the language is real-life rough) and I am very glad to have read it. I recommend it highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but misinformed
Review: I found the book to be totally engrossing and entertaining, but also amusing (not always in a good way), a little inaccurate, and probably more than a little embarrassing to the participants in hindsight. If you are looking for an entertaining read about the highest fliers in the internet bubble, this is a great choice. But if you are hoping to learn more about venture capital from an insiders point of view, this book will lead you astray. The author's description of the prevailing attitudes and lingo at Benchmark and other venture firms seems out of place. He seems to be describing the macho environment of an investment bank rather than the more subdued approach of venture capitalists. But maybe that's the way things actually were at Benchmark in the late 1990s. As a venture capitalist myself, I was surprised by the apparent lack of due diligence and the thin premises upon which the partners seemed to make their investment decisions. I'm sure this perception is in part a consequence of the author's intentional decision to gloss over the nitty gritty details. But explicit dialogue between the partners shows that the partners did in fact have a shoot-from-the-hip style. I am hardly qualified to question the partners' instincts when they were so successful. But I do think it is a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the industry as a whole.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Randall E. Stross, a business history teacher, describes how Benchmark's team of six venture capitalists made their decisions and provided recruitment and management support to some billion-dollar Internet start-ups. Written like a novel, this saga focuses on two of Benchmark's star investments: eBay and Webvan. Stross did some heavy lifting in the reporting department, including extensive interviewing and sitting in on meetings and conversations. He combines general observations about venture capital practices with dialogue from decision-making meetings. The book is best when it focuses on a few of the selected companies that Benchmark backed, since sometimes the detail and dialogue become too vague. We at getAbstract.com think general readers might like this narrative even more than executives and managers, who might find it a little casual, disjointed and diffuse if they are looking for specific insights about venture capital decisions. Oh, and one more thing: Since the book's publication, Webvan stock, which debuted at $34 per share, has plummeted to less than 50 cents per share. Ouch!
Rating: 
Summary: needs context
Review: The scuttlebutt in Silicon Valley is that the account of the psychiatric practice of Steve Jurvetson's wife given on page 62 was fabricated by the author; that the only thing accurate about this item is that she is a psychiatrist, the rest was made up. This gives one pause. And what's this business about venture capitalists not using the term VC? The author calls this taboo the "secret handshake" among VCs. I think the boys at Benchmark are pulling his leg on this one. But beyond this, as a book characterized as "an inside account of venture capitalists" it would have been much better if the author could have incorporated some of the history and larger context of the venture capital industry as part of his story, including more balanced accounts of Benchmark's competitors and partners alike. Jon Kraukauer successfully incorporated the history and technical aspects of climbing Mount Everest in his first-person account "Into Thin Air" which resulted in a brilliant book. Mr. Stross might have been able to do the same for venture capital had he taken the trouble.
Rating:
Summary: Self-Centered and Boring
Review: I usually finish all books that I buy, but this one ended up in the scrap heap after about 100 pages. The author projects that these VC's are the coolest thing to ever happen, all their fancy lingo, and the fact that companies, people, and dreams are all waiting for their "thumbs up". The entrepreneurs should be the real success story hear, not their stupid VC's.
Rating: 
Summary: Eboys was a great read
Review: Eboys is an exciting story about Benchmark Capital, a venture capital firm that has enjoyed enormous success lately. Its a good read that has exciting stories about companies you can identify. Being a student, I feel this book has truly inspired me to join the path of becomming a venture capitalist. As the books describes, being a venture guy allows you to combine so many various aspects of business, from management to funding. I reccomend this book to anyone interested in finance, VC, or ebay. Many exciting stories combined with an articulate writer and intersting characters.
Rating:
Summary: Watch venture capitalists at work
Review: eBoy's offers readers a window into the inner workings of Benchmark Capital - the guys that funded eBay and other hot start-ups. The book shows you how VC works - how money, people, and ideas come together. Good for anyone interested in raising VC $, or working for a VC.
Rating: 
Summary: Downhill from Page One!!!
Review: You have to first get in mind this book is a secondhand account written by a bottom feeder in the food chain. He is no entreprenuer or VC. Just someone trying to cash in on the bubble. He starts off by insulting all women bussinesspeople by insinuating that the world he is supposedly taking you into is some kind of men's club. This is simply not true. His language from the start was just as foul as it could be. Very unprofessional and amatuerish, which wrecked his credibility as an author immediately. That kind of language is to be included in writing only when it serves a purpose such as to develope the character of a street smart punk. Ask yourself what kind of person can spend the time this guy did surrounded by extraordinarily smart people who do the kind of hard work they do and then turn around and write such trash about the experience. No one who is serious about being successful as an entreprenuer or a VC could ever take this book seriously or benefit from it. I stopped reading this book for that reason. There are books written by entreprenuers who have been in the trenches and know what it's all about. A good example is "Startup" by Jerry Kaplan. There are many others. I gave this book one star because there was no way to give it zero stars. Don't waste your time with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Informative.
Review: This book works, as they say, on so many levels. The author spent months deep inside a venture capital firm observing the internal workings and the dynamics between the partners and the entrepreneurs that they champion. The writing is excellent; entertaining and informative without being self-consciously clever or mired in the technical details of the operation. This is the best business book I have read in a long while and is much better than many of the books that now top the bestseller lists. I highly recommend it.
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