Best Books About Tech Start-Ups and Their Origin Stories
My favorite books on start-up origin stories have almost nothing to do with the main topic of this blog, traveling. Well – I actually have one Airbnb related book in the list. But it is probably as close as it gets.
As of late, I developed some strange reading patterns. I usually consider myself a pure literature lover with a focus on fiction writing or essays (especially those written by the greatest writer of all times – Thomas Mann). But over the last two years, as my Good Reads list tells me, I have been reading more and more non-fiction books with some occasional fiction reading in between. A habit that I would rather get rid of.
I think it all started with “And the Band Plays On”, one of the most comprehensive books written about the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. It felt like an ideal read during the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. There were a lot of similarities in terms of misconceptions and our human desire to undermine a scary health crisis. It was a very good read and I would highly recommend it.
But if you are looking for some easy, gossipy and shocking reads that concern one of the most controversial cultures of our decade – look no further than books on tech start-ups. These are some of my favorite books that I read during my non-fiction frenzy, which will introduce you to the people and the stories behind Twitter, Airbnb, Uber, WeWork (what a story!), Facebook, our beloved Instagram and even SnapChat – an app that I never used but seems to be a big hit among the younger audience. I can vouch for all these books as ideal beach/summer reads.
Favorite books on the origin stories of tech Start-ups
The list starts with my absolute favorite in terms of the drama – no other than Twitter – and ends with the one that changed it all and ended up (deservedly) being the least liked one – Facebook.
Hatching Twitter: a True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal
One thing guaranteed. You will never see the self declared guru type CEO Jack Dorsey the same way that you did before after reading Nick Bilton`s “Hatching Twitter”. Wow – I am not sure if he can unwind this long history of backstabbing to become the Twitter CEO for a second time even if he meditated in Myanmar until the end of the time. What a drama – though it is still nothing compared to the recent drama triggered by the world`s most controversial narcissistic richest man Elon Musk and which eventually escalated to a litigation stage. I am rooting for Twitter`s lawyers with all my heart.
Hatching Twitter was easily one of the most shocking reads outlining the modest origin story of Twitter, which as soon as the success came, turned into an almost disturbing story of a series of betrayals.
The book starts with the very early days of the group that eventually founded Twitter when they were toying with the idea of a podcast (I guess it was too early back then in the mid 2000s). Their focus has later turned into a texting app, which eventually became Twitter.
Once Twitter is launched – the book walks us through the milestone events that led to the applications ultimate success before delving into board room fights, backstabbing and frequent changes of the company`s CEO.
It is a compelling book that can be read in almost one sitting.
No Filter: the Inside Story of Instagram
The book tells the origin story of Instagram that actually started with an app called Bourbon, which was closer to Four Square than it was to Instagram.
Sarah Frier`s book covers not only the origin story of Instagram but its very interesting sale stage to Facebook and then the eventual fall between the original founders Kevin Styrom and Mike Krieger and Mark Zuckerberg.
It is a story of persistence. The book also includes an interesting section on whether the original founders shared part of the then almost record breaking sale fee paid by Facebook – USD 1 billion. The author first creates suspense around the question but rewards the readers with a definitive answer.
The Airbnb Story: world peace?
For many, Airbnb is probably one of the most liked tech-start ups of recent decades. This is likely mainly due to the impact the company had on how we perform one of our favorite acts – traveling – but also the founders ability to minimize the drama and disinterest in stealing the headlines (unlike the Uber founder Travis Kalanick).
As you may have already noticed, I am not the greatest fan of Airbnb. But I will happily read any book that I can get my hands on on the origin story of a company that likely changed the travel industry forever (and yes it all started with air beds idea when a certain conference in San Francisco led to a hotel room shortage in the city).
This was a good read involving less drama compared to the other reads in the list. I also really enjoyed the book`s focus on the extreme challenges that the company went through in its early years. There are also many stories involving the events that took place at Airbnb apartments and how the company tried to deal with the fallout.
The book, however, suffers from a typical issue observed in any tech related book. I could do without reading the sections that highlight nothing useful but the god complex of the tech start-up founders. As you may have guessed, I am not fully convinced that the entire motivation of the Airbnb founders is to lead the society to a lasting world peace.
The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Start-up Delusion
Speaking of God Complex and the tech start-up founders, I have to add this great book about the one founder who probably genuinely believes that he is the God. I am not sure if tech start up founders stories get any worse than the married duo behind the most scandalous rise and fall stories of the recent years supported by a Japanese billionaire – Adam Neumann and Rebecca Neumann of WeWork.
The book does a great job explaining how the couple could play the FOMA card and easily fool a supposedly very sophisticated venture capital industry. It also shows that while the main party to blame is the leading founder Adam Neumann, the entire eco-system of venture capital is also nearly as guilty with the role that they played in the tragedy (for many company employees) by shamelessly enabling Adam Neumann`s behavior.
Super Pump: Battle for Uber
Recently turned into an Apple TV Series, the book by Mike Isaac portrays the aggressive strategies followed by Uber to first create and then grow its market share.
It is one the best books in the list in terms of its focus on the growth strategy followed by tech start-ups that involve unsustainable amounts of cash burning that gets even worse when the competition starts. Obviously, unlike social media companies, the network effect plays almost no role for utility focused start-ups and things get substantially more difficult once a fairly good competitor soon appears in this newly created/disturbed market. The book could be confidently named the Battle between Lyft and Uber.
Travis Kalanick, the ousted former CEO and co-founder of Uber, is the main character in the book. I read this book before the Apple TV Show and the recent story of Guardian, the Uber Papers, based on the confessions of a whistleblower. So it was a shocking read for me but most of the story is now already out there.
How to Turn Down a Million Dollars: the Snapchat Story
I have never used Snapchat and only opened an account after I read this book (but never use it). The story of Evan Spiegel starts in San Francisco in Stanford but it is actually a Los Angeles story – the city that hosts the company`s headquarters.
It is difficult to feel sympathy for Evan Spiegel as the book also focuses on his past expulsive and unacceptable fraternity day behavior. However, the product innovation pace – something the company is often praised for – and Spiegel`s firm resistance against the condescending purchase offers of Mark Zuckerberg really added a different flavor to this book compared to the others in the list. It also gave me interesting insight into the thinking of a much younger generation and their social media behavior.
The book will likely interest you if you are curious about the ideas leading to some of the most used social media platforms of today even if you, like me, have never used some of those apps.
Facebook Effect: the Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World
The book by David Kirkpatrick published in 2010 about the most successful start-ups of all times almost reads like a love letter to Mark Zuckerberg. It was written before the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal and before Facebook was seen as the source of all evil in the world. The author also had almost unlimited access to Mark Zuckerberg, an access which was likely granted on the basis of a “mutual understanding” about the tone of the book.
If one can disregard all we know about Facebook by now in 2022 and the cost of their mission to connect the world, it is a good read outlining in a very detailed manner how Facebook stood out among the similar ventures of the same era – MySpace, Friendster among others.
These are just some of my favorite books on the origin stories of start-ups. I will be regularly updating this post and if you have any recommendations for me to read and then add to the list, I will be happy to hear those.
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