Founders at Work : Stories of Startups' Early Days

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company. Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover? Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. For them, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup, to learn how it's done. But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses do—create value—more intensively than almost any other part of the economy. How? What are the secrets that make successful startups so insanely productive? Read this book, and let the founders themselves tell you. Contents......Page 5 FOREWORD......Page 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 10 INTRODUCTION......Page 12 CHAPTER 1: MAX LEVCHIN: PayPal......Page 14 CHAPTER 2: SABEER BHATIA: Hotmail......Page 30 CHAPTER 3: STEVE WOZNIAK: Apple Computer......Page 43 CHAPTER 4: JOE KRAUS: Excite......Page 72 CHAPTER 5: DAN BRICKLIN: Software Arts......Page 83 CHAPTER 6: MITCHELL KAPOR: Lotus Development......Page 99 CHAPTER 7: RAY OZZIE: Iris Associates, Groove Networks......Page 113 CHAPTER 8: EVAN WILLIAMS: Pyra Labs (Blogger.com)......Page 121 CHAPTER 9: TIM BRADY: Yahoo......Page 136 CHAPTER 10: MIKE LAZARIDIS: Research In Motion......Page 149 CHAPTER 11: ARTHUR VAN HOFF: Marimba......Page 160 CHAPTER 12: PAUL BUCHHEIT: Gmail......Page 168 CHAPTER 13: STEVE PERLMAN: WebTV......Page 180 CHAPTER 14: MIKE RAMSAY: TiVo......Page 198 CHAPTER 15: PAUL GRAHAM: Viaweb......Page 211 CHAPTER 16: JOSHUA SCHACHTER: del.icio.us......Page 229 CHAPTER 17: MARK FLETCHER: ONElist, Bloglines......Page 239 CHAPTER 18: CRAIG NEWMARK: craigslist......Page 253 CHAPTER 19: CATERINA FAKE: Flickr......Page 262 CHAPTER 20: BREWSTER KAHLE: WAIS, Internet Archive, Alexa Internet......Page 270 CHAPTER 21: CHARLES GESCHKE: Adobe Systems......Page 286 CHAPTER 22: ANN WINBLAD: Open Systems, Hummer Winblad......Page 302 CHAPTER 23: DAVID HEINEMEIER HANSSON: 37signals......Page 313 CHAPTER 24: PHILIP GREENSPUN: ArsDigita......Page 321 CHAPTER 25: JOEL SPOLSKY: Fog Creek Software......Page 349 CHAPTER 26: STEPHEN KAUFER: TripAdvisor......Page 365 CHAPTER 27: JAMES HONG: HOT or NOT......Page 380 CHAPTER 28: JAMES CURRIER: Tickle......Page 389 CHAPTER 29: BLAKE ROSS: Firefox......Page 396 CHAPTER 30: MENA TROTT: Six Apart......Page 406 CHAPTER 31: BOB DAVIS: Lycos......Page 419 CHAPTER 32: RON GRUNER: Alliant Computer Systems; Founder, Shareholder.com......Page 427 A......Page 447 C......Page 448 E......Page 449 H......Page 450 L......Page 451 N......Page 452 Q......Page 453 S......Page 454 W......Page 455 Y......Page 456 Founders at Work recounts the early struggles for independence and acceptance of many of modern technologys giants, through personal interviews that are at times hilarious, at times painful, and always inspiring. As human-interest stories they will interest the same audience that enjoys reading about the Google founders in PEOPLE magazine. These stories are exceptionally interesting, because they're about the early stages, when the founders were younger and inexperienced. Most readers know startup founders only as confident millionaires. As novices trying to find their way by trial and error, they're more human, and easier for the reader to identify with. "Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. If you're one of these people, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful one, to learn how it's done." "But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses do - create value - more intensively than any other part of the economy. The lessons startups can teach about productivity are lessons that almost everyone will be able to use in their own work."--Jacket Presents the profiles of the founders of thirty-two start-up technology companies, discussing how their ideas originated, the obstacles thay overcame to make their companies grow into successful ventures, and the influence that many of these companies have on the Internet culture.