Rating: 
Summary: Remembering what it wasn't
Review: If you're looking for "how to float a start-up IPO" - this isn't it. What Lewis does do is deliver an insightful overview of how Jim Clark turned Silicon Valley on it's ear and began the power shift from the money people to those with the ideas.This is a quick, pleasant read that imparts some interesting cocktail knowledge. Impress your friends, become interesting at the water cooler. In typical Lewis style, the non-business reader and MBA alike can enjoy a witty commentary around a significant moment in American Business. In the same way that Lewis provided a backstage pass to the investment world in the 80s, he again takes us behind-the-scenes for a (albeit propped) look at what goes on in the frenetic world of business creating fever. This is a strong recommend for the friend or relative that asks, "What was all the dot-com hoopla about? What was the source of so much irrational exuberance?" A nice overview that future historians will use to interpret all the headlines.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Book I've Read in a Long, Long Time
Review: Part social and financial commentary, part character sketch...shockingly insightful nonfiction book that unfolds like a novel. Well thought-out and well written.
Rating:
Summary: Omniscient Tone for the Man Behind the Curtain
Review: Michael Lewis writes in an oj so smug tone. He's the guy in the know, the guy who sees it as it really is. But he's just another adornment, just another opinion on the situation. I hope he doesn't confuse interest in the subject with interst in the writing. The writing is too superficial, too smug, too all-knowing. I've found it best to read his books by taking out the facts, and then re-interpreting them. Because his books, dripping with interpretation, just make the scene more cloudy. That said, Lewis paints a portrait of Jim Clark in as the all-knowing Wizard of Oz. His conclusions state that Clark is the master of forecasting the next newest trend. To lewis's credit, he gives us the facts to reinterpret this conclusion.
Lewis states that Clark is a conceptual artist. The entrepreneur who paints a picture of a company, and then leaves it to others to tend to the 'mundane' details of turning a profit in the highly competitive economy. And he does with a tone of praise, so that it seems like the best way to act. Young, budding entrepreneurs, don't bother mastering difficult concepts like managing costs, determining competitive advantage, and trying to secure a niche in the market. Nope, just jot some off-the-cuff whims on a piece of paper, and your a billionaire. How about a different interpretation of Clark's success? How about pulling back the Wizard's curtain. Clark founded Silicon Graphics. He made a small fortune, but could have made more. Unfortunately, the venture capitalists and the management they brought in to run the company forced Clark out. He still made a fortune, but less than he should have. Clark set out to found a new company, and he wasn't going to make the same mistakes.
He started out with a concept company to install software services to interact through the television. It didn't happen. But, he met the author of Mosaic, Andreesen, and when Andreesen told him "this market is growing at 50% a year", Clark saw opportunity. He revisted his venture capitalist friends, proposed the idea with a much better structure to his benefit this time, and then brought the concept company public. Netscape skyrocketed. Clark was now a billionaire. And he sold some shares. Clark spent most of his time away from the office. No day to day operational stuff for the idea guy. Just time on his plane and his boat. thinking big thoughts. Lewis praises this approach to 'management'. Clark dreams up Healtheon on the boat. Because of Silicon Graphics and Netscape, the VC are willing to invest under any terms. Healtheon skyrockets at IPO, and then sputters and dies. Lewis presents the facts, but draws different conclusions.
In fact, not one of Clarks companies was a good investment, except for a day trader. If you put money into Microsoft or IBM or GE, you did well. If you invested in Clark's companies, you did poorly.
Clark didn't build real companies with Netscape and Healtheon. He built investment scams. He preyed on the naive IPO lusting public. And he came out a billionaire. Lewis's books are a quick read. Kind of like an off-the-cuff description of something with a smart friend over drinks.
It's fun, but there are lots of parts missing.
For a much deeper analysis of the world of startups, read "High Stakes, No Prisoners". It's more difficult, but you realize how incredibly hard and precarious this IPO millionaire stuff really is.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good, but not great
Review: A very good profile of Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics and co-founder of Netscape, written with Michael Lewis's typical verve and good humor. The author's strategy is to stick very closely to Clark, which is good and bad. While Lewis is able to give an interesting character study of the man, he isn't able to give a definitive picture of Silicon Valley in the turbo-charged 1990s. Lewis spends too much time on Clark's computerized boat, and not enough time on the Internet boom that Clark helped launch. Similarly, it would have been nice to see Lewis evince more skepticism about Healtheon, Clark's ill-fated step into online health. This lack of perspective is the big flaw in an otherwise strong and readable narrative. In all, it's an excellent book, but not a masterpiece on par with Lewis's "Liar's Poker."
Rating:
Summary: The New American Classic
Review: The real story of Jim Clark, arguably the father of the Dot-Com business revolution is masterfully told by Michael Lewis. A rags to riches story that starts in the middle and engulfs the reader. Read this book and you will discover how a poor boy from Plainview, TX who had an abusive father and was expelled from public school -became one of the fastest billionaires of our time. Lewis dispenses with the droll and continuously tantalizes the reader.
This book is as inspirational as it is exciting, the new new thing is bound to become a new American classic.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, great writer
Review: This is a great book and Lewis is a great writer. This book is a humorous, clever, insider's guide to silicone valley and the internet boom. Jim Clark is an extraordinary character and an example of the great things that are possible in the USA.
Rating:
Summary: Witty, fast, informative read
Review: One of several books on Silicon Valley entrepreneurs I've read lately. The author does a superb job of making his point without belaboring it. He adds a liberal touch of humor, doesn't take his fabled wealthy subject too seriously. As a nontechie, I gained several significant insights about Silicon Valley and its resident geniuses. Clark clearly is one of the three to six brightest and I'll leave you to debate who the others are. Before reading this book, I'd had the notion Clark had pursued Bill Gates and Microsoft relentlessly through the D.O.J. antitrust suit. The information presented in the book gives the story a whole different perspective. Clark clearly is too restless an intellect to pursue Gates doggedly. Clark will live out his life pursuing the next, New New Thing. More power to him!
Rating:
Summary: Jim Clark as archetype?
Review: A business friend of mine recommended that I read this story to gain a better understanding about how the world of the Internet and venture capital work. I will agree that the story kept me interested. The narrative is written by Lewis as he is reporting on, and following, Jim Clark. Clark is the quintessential Internet entrepeneur. We see his beginnings as well as a glimpse of what he is doing now. We see him as a counter version to Bill Gates. Whereas Gates assembles his team, then works his plan to the finish, Clark seems more to assemble the team, then let the go from there while he goes to do something else. Clark is a visionary and seems to be well ahead of his time. Many of the ideas he has (like TV shows on demand), came long before the public was ready for it. Because of his presence, many people buy into it when there is no market ready. Clark seems to lack the saavy necessary to show people what he has created. From the book, it appears that he simply loses interest and keeps going. As a text on trends, I found this a bit alarming. The thought than venture capitalists will sink enormous amounts of money into a project just because someone says so is scary. The idea that others will emulate Clark to gain capital is frightening also. If you are interested in working in the world of the Internet, I would highly recommend this book to give yourself a good picture of the names which are driving this forward.
Rating:
Summary: Dated Already
Review: One of the great ironies of this book, is that while it was "The New New Thing" only a few years ago, it has already become a historical document of sorts. This book follows Jim Clark, founder of Netscape and two other billion dollar companies, as he attempts to build the world's largest sail boat and to secure capital for his new companies which have never made a profit and have no prospect of doing so in the near future. It was a very timely piece when it was written, in the midst of the Internet boom, but as that period has passed us by, the immediacy opf the story has as well. I don't think this would be a bad thing, because I love historical non-fiction and the economy fascinates me, but Jim Clark and the rest of the cast who populate this story are not very interesting characters and the story is not very intriguing. I think this book provides good lessons about overexuberance, but aside from that it is not a book I would recommend to my friends or would ever pick up again.This is a quick read and provides an interesting picture of how the ecnonmy worked in the late 90's, but it did not leave a memorable impression.
Rating:
Summary: Jim Clark meet Sillicon Valley...or vice-versa
Review: This is the story of one of Sillicon Valley's living legends: Jim Clark, the entrepreneur, the visionaire, the fighter (in no particular order), who overcame fate and lousy odds to make it into history as the only one to back three multibillion busineses: Sillicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon, during the wild and crazy infancy of the Internet mania. I bought this book mainly because I had previously read Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker. I am sorry to acknowledge that he is out on a limb here, venture capitalism is not exactly his cup of tea. Lewis is not a journalist (rather a former bonds salesman) but he gives it a shot; he gets the picture pretty quickly, and he has a stingy, feisty style that I find enjoyable. Clark is described as the typical visionary, detached from the world he's living in, uninterested in details but constantly thinking ahead of everybody and wandering alone in his dark tunnel, nurturing his ideas, in search for the light that may or may not come. According to Lewis, Jim's motive was to overcome others' mistrust, his own lack of confidence and "become richer that Elliason, Oracle's CEO". Quite a busy agenda. I don't know about you guys, but I'm kinda' dissapointed here; all along I thought everything was about making the world a better place to live in.
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