).Not all investors, venture capitalists, and investment bankers are calculating and greedy, but enough of them fit that mold that Wolff's vivid portrayals ring true. Woe to the entrepreneur who thinks his investors are his friends who won't try to squeeze him when the going gets rough.
His tale of Magellan being left at the IPO altar by Robertson Stephens, its twirl around the dance floor with Wolff, and its eventual fire sale to Excite, the company that precipitated the IPO jilting, is filled with intrigue because of the Maxwell connection. What he doesn't detail, unfortunately, is the backroom machinations of a prominent VC and Excite investor who pressured RS&Co. to drop the Magellan IPO.
Wolff's depiction of AOL as one of the great dysfunctional companies of the Internet boom years is dead-on. I know, first-hand, that trying to find anyone at AOL who actually had the authority to make a decision was an exercise in futility. AOL management at the time was like the novice surfer who found himself riding a tsunami and somehow today, inexplicably, has made it safely to shore.
Revealing himself to be not only a victim but also a perpetrator of the Internet gold rush, Wolff's fleecing of CMP shows he is no saint. When considered in the larger context of the book, it makes painfully clear that whether you are buying a business or "buying" investors for your business, "Caveat Emptor."
Strangely enough, the business plan I wrote for my company in 1994 (that helped to secure funding from one of the "Big 3" Silicon Valley VC firms) prominently quoted some Internet statistics reported in the Wall Street Journal that had been compiled by Michael Wolff ! & Co. While I'd love to come full circle and quote from "Burn Rate" in the business plan I'm currently writing, I'm afraid it would hit too close to home for most VCs to stomach.
Rating: 
Summary: Juicy, Funny Tell-All of the Dot Com Era
Review: As a former worker in the Internet world, I found this book both a juicy read, and laugh-out-loud (lol) funny. Wolff spares no one in this account, least of all himself.
He perfectly captures the insanity of the "go-go" Internet mania years -- with companies paying huge premiums for, in some cases, as Wolff's wife so insightfully theorizes, just a particular domain name.
Few Internet-era celebrities are spared, as Wolff dishes on several "big names" in business of the day.
A great, entertaining period piece on the dot-com era.
- Julia Wilkinson, author, "My Life at AOL"
Rating:
Summary: Juicy, Funny Tell-All of the Dot Com Era
Review: As a former worker in the Internet world, I found this book both a juicy read, and laugh-out-loud (lol) funny. Wolff spares no one in this account, least of all himself.
He perfectly captures the insanity of the "go-go" Internet mania years -- with companies paying huge premiums for, in some cases, as Wolff's wife so insightfully theorizes, just a particular domain name.
Few Internet-era celebrities are spared, as Wolff dishes on several "big names" in business of the day.
A great, entertaining period piece on the dot-com era.
- Julia Wilkinson, author, "My Life at AOL"
Rating:
Summary: Secret Ceremonies of Internet Financing Revealed!
Review: Believe it or not, not every Internet entreprenuer gets out with a successful IPO. Wolff, a true New Media pioneer, gives us a marvelous insider's view that a winner simply could not provide, and the book is such a great, insightful read, I'm glad he failed so that we can get this peek. So much more than sour grapes, Wolff burns bridges and shows all the players with their masks off, himself included.
A book like this will always receive negative reviews from types who can't trust the motives of anyone who didn't come out a winner, but these same people readily accept as gospel any puff piece that states Steve Case's visionary genius built AOL rather than the marketing side kick with the simple idea sneak into American homes and fill the sock drawers with start up disks. Not every story is pretty, not every success is the inevitable result of brilliance and elbow grease. Do not write off this work because Wolff's business didn't work out. Rather, enjoy his sadder but wiser perspective. Enjoy a glimpse of everything that happens to successes, also, but somehow never makes it into the Business Week cover story.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting story of the very early internet years
Review: I really liked this book and got to learn about the hardships entrepreneurs go through in a startup.I was also not much aware about the differences in thought between West Coast and East Coast IT companies.Finally, kudos to Michael Wolff for potraying an honest,funny and nerve wrecking real life story and am happy he is doing what he likes to do!!
Rating:
Summary: this is the real thing
Review: I think I've read everything about this business--Po Bronson and Michael Lewis books most recently--and nothing anywhere compares to Burn Rate. First of all, Wolff, either fearless or crazy, doesn't suck up to anybody. Second, this is not just good writing, this is amazing; you start to read the sentences outloud they're so good all kinds of memorable lines stay with you. Third, Wolff's book is about character, the real stuff that makes people do what they do; you recognize the people here, you understand them, they're real--they aren't some model people who inhabit Silicon Valley and the Internet Industry (Lewis's book the New New Thing is all about inventing that sort of model). Burn Rate is brilliant. It makes you sweat it's so good.
Rating:
Summary: don't read this if you are trying to sell your company
Review: I was selling my company when I first read this and the deal was taking forever. I kept getting the feeling that I was about to get screwed. Then I read this book and I KNEW I was going to get screwed. This book is a perfect example of what happens when a smart, idealistic guy with a potentially good company starts running with the wrong crowd - financial guys. The result is a despressing page turner.
Rating:
Summary: Can't Put this Book Down !
Review: If you are into the Internet Gold Rush, or just like a hard-hitting, true story about business, personalities, and playing hardball, you MUST read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: How to survive having a few megabucks thrown to you
Review: Next up: How Donald Trump survived his Daddy's money, How Nelson Rockefeller survived the shadow of his family's name, how George Bush survived his years of failing oil companies.
The book is reasonably refreshing in its self-assesment of knowing virtually nothing about how the internet would affect publishing and how anybody would make any money off it. Its candor is also refreshing in describing how they had so little to offer but were so willing to sell it at a high price to the even more gullible ("they want how many million for the contents of my palm pilot?")
If the author were a disinterested party reporting the actions of others, one would have to rate this book 4/5 for good writing, clarity and candor. As a player who took huge sums of money from investors, suspecting the business was a house of cards, one can only wonder if he shouldn't be in jail. As a book, I have little choice but to recommend it. The description of AOL alone is worth the purchase price.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent writing + pretty good story = 4 star book
Review: The main thing I took away from this book was how impressed I was by Wolff's writing skills. He has a very absorbing way to describe people and events. His ability to question and criticize his own ideas and actions makes his cutting descriptions about other characters more credible. I'm sure some of the people in this book were none too thrilled to see it (Machinist and Rubin especially).
I would have rated this book 5 stars if the overall story had been just a little more interesting to me. Some sections tended to drag, but they were offset by others that were exceptional. If you have any interest in the tech boom and bust, I think you'd enjoy reading this book. I can't imagine there are many other choices out there written by someone with as much perspective and writing skill as Wolff.
