Rating: 
Summary: A View from the Trenches
Review: This book is about Wolff's short-lived foray into Internet entrepreneurship in the mid-90s. In addition to recounting his own company's fortunes, he seems to have been tuned in to just about everything that was going on with the net industry, so it's a great overview of the whole cyber-landscape too. Mainly, it's a chronicle of the moment when the Internet shifted from being a marginalized geekfest to being Big Business. He has great chapters on Wired magazine, on AOL, on Microsoft, and on his own attempts to secure venture capital for his company. The third chapter, "The Art of the Deal," was hysterically funny and thoroughly horrifying at the same time. At first I thought, reminiscing, that I was at perfectly the right age to have taken advantage of the Internet boom, if I'd had the presence of mind. But then, as I read further, I became more and more relieved that I'd never done so. This book was published before most of the recent upheavals in the Internet world: The ascendancy and hegemony of IE in the browser wars (after Netscape effectively abdicated); AOL's ill-fated acquisition of Time Warner; and, of course, the "dot-bomb" to which many of us owe our current unemployed status. The book, therefore, lacks the scope and perspective of a historical document, but is very much a "view from the trenches" look at the way it seemed to a smart and thoughtful (and literary) guy who was there. One of my primary reactions was of nostalgia. Ah, remember when AOL was Mac-only? Not only that, but it was only one of several available online communities: Delphi, Prodigy, CompuServe, Sierra... Remember when it seemed like there were only five of us who knew that AOL and the Internet were not the same thing? Remember when there was no Web? Remember when there was no Amazon.com? Remember Micropayments? Remember Push? Ah, them was the days. Most of all, Wolff does a pretty good job of stopping every now and then to take stock, to wonder philosophically what it's all about: Is the Internet media, or just a big telephone? He doesn't figure out the answer, of course, but that's not what philosophy is about. Taking the long view, I think it's books like this that are going to help our society, 25 or 50 or 100 years down the line, figure out what the Internet boom/bust, and the 90s, were about.
Rating:
Summary: Probably Funnier if You Weren't There
Review: This book, written in 1998 about a company that collapsed in 1997, is quite prescient in many aspects except in the implicit assumption in the subtitle that the "gold rush years" of the internet were over in 1998, while in fact 1999 and early 2000 would prove to be the peak of the dot-com craze. The book is overall very funny (although sometimes a bit repetitive). I've read that former employees of the author do not necessarily remember him fondly for his actions, but for outsiders, this is a fun and interesting book.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: This is a great book. The author has a great view of the industry and, more importantly, a well-founded self view. Though written in 1998 (i.e., AGES ago in the Internet industry), a lot of the observations he makes are still relevant today, particularly in the post-bubble world. One of the observations he makes is that "a few years from now when people hear the phrase `dot com` they will laugh", which is uncomfortably close to where we actually are. His discussion of where Time Warner and AOL were and wanted to b in the early days of the Internet boom are also interesting, given how things have ended up with the two companies. Finally, the author's epiphany towards the end about the fundamental flaw in his own net business was for me very profound, but I won't spoil that for other readers.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable book that is consistent with my experience
Review: This is not only a great read, but it is totally consistent with my experiences working for 4 pre-IPO high-tech firms. There is something surreal about the world of the startup and the money that chases it. I've worked for several ex-finance types who cynically thought that they could profit from the stupidity of others (cluelessness is as cluelessness does). They could have come right out of the pages of this book. Wolff portrays this world as sort of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, with the backers looking to unload their startups before anybody discovers that they are worthless (by 'they', I think I'm referring to the firms). That's consistent with what I've seen. Wolff also describes the strange vampire community of PR firms, sales people, executives, lawyers, accountants, bankers and others who specialize in feeding off of naïve entrepreneurs. That's consistent with what some of the startup parasites I've encountered, all looking to get a piece of that easy money. After all, it isn't the entrepreneur's own money, so it is no wonder they spend like there's no tomorrow. (Like Machinist, I also check out the cars in the parking lot as a guide to how profligate the execs are.) The history of the Internet, and some of the seminal events that took place in the 1990s, and the description of how the VC game works are very accurately portrayed. Besides serving as an introduction to the experiences that a startup undergoes, this book is a useful guide to the recent history of technology, but it is hardly a dry academic tone. In spite of dabbling as a CEO, the author is primarily a professional writer. He knows how to tell a story, and he does a good job of it. This is an autobiography written by a pro who has had significant experiences in an area of interest, so it should be no surprise that this is a compelling book. I enjoyed reading it very much. It is both informative and entertaining, providing an important personal account of some of the most interesting years in recent business history. It is comparable to Bronson's "Nudist on the Late Shift," but in this case, the author actually had the opportunity to view the craziness from the inside, instead of being a detached external observer. I hope I'm not giving away the ending by saying that although the author flirted with Satan for several years, he apparently emerged with his soul intact. ;-)
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