eBoys : The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work

Rating:
Summary: not profound, but not prosaic either
Review: Broad overview of the netherworld of venture capitalists as well as short take on eBay, the unlikely "profitable" internet company that learned how to scale its technology and augment its customer base with the help of Benchmark. As other reviews will corroboarte, it's this book's ebullient writing that salvages it from a more tepid rating.

Rating:
Summary: Watch venture capitalists at work
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.

Rating:
Summary: Insiders look
Review: Ever wonder what venture capitalists actually do? Read this excellent insiders account of Benchmark Capital and see how this firm catapulted itself to the forefront of VCs beating Kleiner Perkins in returns in just five years. The book goes in-depth on the stories behind how they funded eBay, Scient, Webvan and Ariba. Moreover the author does a fantastic job making the partners come to life; so much so that you feel you know Bob Kagle and David Beirne by the end of the book.