Rating: 
Summary: Pheeeeew.
Review: Man oh man, did this book stink. It stank so bad that my dad called me up and asked me what smelled so bad, and he lives two towns over.I'd like to know how the author got paid for writing this drivel. Was it a straight advance, or did the fawning saps at Benchmark pay him in stock in their latest hot issue? Geeez Louise. I'd rather read a copy of the US tax code.
Rating: 
Summary: A fabulous read for everybody
Review: You don't have to be involved with e-commerce and venture capitalists to love this book. Randall Stross is such an engrossing writer, he keeps you at the edge of your seat wondering which deals are going to be good. There is a lot about the eBay story here, and it's a great story. What really intrigued me is how short the list was for the CEO's Benchmark put into place before the companies went or attempted to go public and the amount of involvement they had with these start up companies. To me this is one of those books where truth is stranger than fiction. It reads like a novel, and I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing reading
Review: Fascinating for anyone interested in the Internet economy. If "The Trillionaire Next Door" is the funniest business book out there right now, this is the most cogent.
Rating: 
Summary: Venture Capital Hardy Boys
Review: A reporter is allowed behind the curtain to see how powerful VC make their billons. In this particular instance, the VC firm happens to be one of the most prominent leaders in e commerce investment. I learned a lot about how VC operate. There is some drama and a few colorful characters emerge from this well-written book. I wish the author had put even a little critical distance between himself and his subject. The book has a kind of "gee wiz" flavor to it. The subject matter is a bunch a 30 somethings making ungodly amounts of money taking ownership positions in start up companies. Yet, our author witnessed not one example of greed or shading the truth. I bet these VC really aren't the Hardy Boys of Silcon Valley.
Rating:
Summary: Shameless Self Promotion
Review: This book is nothing but a self promotion for the Benchmark internet fund. Yes, these guys made some good investments and are probably very rich, but employing a writer to write a book about themselves is the ulitmate in pathetic ego centric behavior. Anyhow, their investments look pretty poor now that the internet bubble has burst. This book is neither a primer to the internet nor helpful to a budding entrepreneur. My recommendation is NOT to read this book. It should have never been published
Rating:
Summary: Pheeeew. Take this stinker off my bookshelf.
Review: The problem with this book wasn't the writing. Stross does a decent job working with scant material. The problem is that the VCs he writes about are a bunch of pompous idiots who happened to score big when they closed their eyes and tossed darts at their prospect list. This book destroyed any semblance of hope I ever had that the capital allocation process is a fair one, run by intelligent people who are good stewards of the money they're managing. Too bad. I fear we'll see the results of this VC binge in the coming years.
Rating:
Summary: Self-serving and of NO value!
Review: This book has no real value for entreprenuers or venture capitalists. All Eboys does is stroke the egos of some smart, albeit, lucky bunch of silicon valley investors. This book is a joke and the joke was on me for buying it and reading it. Maybe the next book will be the Fall of Eboys when their investments go sour. Highly NOT recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging, informative, and even a little fun
Review: If you have ever been involved with Venture Guys (as I have), or contemplated that you might want to start you own company and go get funding from them, then this book will provide considerable insight into their overall mindset and the way that they do business. Stross does an admirable job of keeping technical lingo to a minimum and carefully examining the "how" and "why" behind the Benchmark investments. With such successes as eBay, Scient, and Webvan in their portfolio, the team at Benchmark provides a great model for the venture community as a whole. Likewise, the book does not paint everything in happy colors and shows some of the notable failures that have occurred over the past few years. This is a fine book for anyone who wants to understand more of the money side of the companies driving the New Economy as well as for anyone that wants to see how deals really get done. The character development is a little weak, but that is fairly standard in business books.
Rating: 
Summary: Too good to be true
Review: I just don't get it. This book reads like a cheerleading exercise, not as a serious work of journalism. It helped me answer the question I had before I read the book: Why would any venture firm allow a reporter to enter its inner sanctum? Answer: Only when it probably knows ahead of time that the outcome will be positive.
Rating:
Summary: Fun reading from a perspective you don't see everyday
Review: The author was able to show some of the very interesting conversations and logic that went on behind closed doors. This was the star of the book. Only thing keeping this from a five star is that the last third of the book lost a lot of energy.
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