Picture a Silicon Valley that includes a radio shock jock, a corporate kidnapping gone bad and a business deal that hangs in the balance. And, of course, hoodies.
In “This is Rage: A Novel of Silicon Valley and Other Madness,” Ken Goldstein pulls from a career’s worth of business deals with Silicon Valley types.
“What I want people to see is the other side, to get inside a board room … to see what the discussion is and to see how people react during crisis,” says Goldstein.
Success in the world of tech start-ups can feel amazing, “but the fallout [from failure] can be extreme and then the question is really what happens to those people that gave everything to you, do they get another chance?”
On using Silicon Valley as the setting for part of the book, Goldstein says “there’s no place, it’s really a frame of mind.”
And that frame of mind is front and center in the book.
“Internet time is extreme. It just doesn’t stop. And your competitor is coming at you with a better solution and you have to be responsive,” he says, “and if that means it’s going to be another all-nighter, it’s another all-nighter.”
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