The Upstarts
How Uber, Airbnb and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
New York Times bestselling author of The Everything Store Brad Stone takes us deep inside the new Silicon Valley.
Ten years ago, the idea of getting into a stranger’s car, or walking into a stranger’s home, would have seemed bizarre and dangerous, but today it’s as common as ordering a book online. Uber and Airbnb are household names: redefining neighbourhoods, challenging the way governments regulate business and changing the way we travel.
In the spirit of iconic Silicon Valley renegades like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, a new generation of entrepreneurs is sparking yet another cultural upheaval through technology. They are among the Upstarts, idiosyncratic founders with limitless drive and an abundance of self-confidence. Young, hungry and brilliant, they are rewriting the traditional rules of business, changing our day-to-day lives and often sidestepping serious ethical and legal obstacles in the process.
The Upstarts is the definitive account of a dawning age of tenacity, creativity, conflict and wealth. In Brad Stone’s highly anticipated and riveting account of the most radical companies of the new Silicon Valley, we find out how it all started, and how the world is wildly different than it was ten years ago.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stone (The Everything Store) turns his attention to the sharing economy in this dual portrait of two of the fastest growing startups in the "post-Google, post-Facebook era of innovation" in Silicon Valley. At both Uber, the ride-sharing app, and Airbnb, the homestay rental platform, Stone finds commonality among the CEOs, who lead their respective companies with an idealistic vision and aggressive business practices. Uber's Travis Kalanick comes off as the more pugnacious of the two, while Brian Chesky of Airbnb operates with a softer touch. Beginning in 2009 with President Obama's inauguration, the book follows the companies and their founders from the early days to their current status as leaders in the global market place, upending their respective industries and local economies around the world. Both Uber and Airbnb are currently valued in billions, but as Stone shows, the road to success over the past 8 years has not been an easy one. Both companies persevered through financial woes caused by investor rejections, struggles with local governments, scuffles with rivals, and publicity disasters. The writing is solid and the sheer magnitude of the book's subjects demands attention for this book.
