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The Upstarts
- How Uber, Airbnb and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World
- Narrated by: Mr Dean Temple
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Categories: Business & Careers, Management & Leadership
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The Four
- The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google
- Written by: Scott Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook are in an unprecedented race towards a $1 trillion valuation, and whoever gets there first will exert untold influence over the global economy, public policy and consumer behaviour. How did these four become so successful? How high can they continue to rise? Does any other company stand a chance of competing? To these questions and more, acclaimed NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway brings bracing answers.
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Thought Provoking
- By Amazon Customer on 02-03-21
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The Everything Store
- Written by: Brad Stone
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Winner of the 2013 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To achieve that end, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy that's never been cracked. Until now...
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What an amazingly exhilarating story !
- By Aqblues on 14-11-20
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No Filter
- The Inside Story of Instagram
- Written by: Sarah Frier
- Narrated by: Sarah Frier, Megan Tusing
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The remarkable inside story of how Instagram became the hottest website on Earth. With astonishing access to all the key players, she recounts the fateful meeting of the Instagram founders in 2010. She explores the company’s unlikely acquisition by Facebook and the internal clashes over whether it could retain its autonomy. And she reveals how when Facebook entered a tailspin brought about by data misuse and fake news, it was Instagram that came to the rescue. But this is not just a Silicon Valley story. No Filter reveals how Instagram has transformed global society.
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A meticulous chronicle
- By Ajith Narayanan on 21-02-21
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No Rules Rules
- Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
- Written by: Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer
- Narrated by: Jason Culp, Allyson Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Hard work is irrelevant. Be radically honest. Adequate performance gets a generous severance. And never, ever try to please your boss. These are some of the ground rules if you work at Netflix. They are part of a unique cultural experiment that explains how the company has transformed itself at lightning speed from a DVD mail-order service into a streaming superpower - with 125 million fervent subscribers and a market capitalisation bigger than Disney. Finally Reed Hastings, Netflix chairman and CEO, is sharing the secrets that have revolutionised the entertainment and tech industries.
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Fabulous book, gives a lot of food for thought!
- By Sanchit on 03-11-20
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Samsung Rising
- Inside the Secretive Company Conquering Tech
- Written by: Geoffrey Cain
- Narrated by: Michael Braun
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on years of reporting on Samsung for the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and Time from his base in South Korea and his countless sources inside and outside the company, Geoffrey Cain offers the first deep look behind the curtains of the biggest company nobody knows. How has this happened? Forty years ago, Samsung was a rickety Korean agricultural conglomerate that produced sugar, paper, and fertiliser.
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Brilliant narration
- By Tushar G. on 22-10-20
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Facebook
- The Inside Story
- Written by: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In his sophomore year of college, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. The site caught on like wildfire, and soon students nationwide were on Facebook. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognisable from Zuckerberg's first, modest iteration. It has grown into a tech giant, the largest social media platform and one of the most gargantuan companies in the world, with a valuation of more than $576 billion and almost 3 billion users. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life.
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The Four
- The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google
- Written by: Scott Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook are in an unprecedented race towards a $1 trillion valuation, and whoever gets there first will exert untold influence over the global economy, public policy and consumer behaviour. How did these four become so successful? How high can they continue to rise? Does any other company stand a chance of competing? To these questions and more, acclaimed NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway brings bracing answers.
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Thought Provoking
- By Amazon Customer on 02-03-21
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The Everything Store
- Written by: Brad Stone
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Winner of the 2013 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To achieve that end, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy that's never been cracked. Until now...
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What an amazingly exhilarating story !
- By Aqblues on 14-11-20
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No Filter
- The Inside Story of Instagram
- Written by: Sarah Frier
- Narrated by: Sarah Frier, Megan Tusing
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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The remarkable inside story of how Instagram became the hottest website on Earth. With astonishing access to all the key players, she recounts the fateful meeting of the Instagram founders in 2010. She explores the company’s unlikely acquisition by Facebook and the internal clashes over whether it could retain its autonomy. And she reveals how when Facebook entered a tailspin brought about by data misuse and fake news, it was Instagram that came to the rescue. But this is not just a Silicon Valley story. No Filter reveals how Instagram has transformed global society.
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A meticulous chronicle
- By Ajith Narayanan on 21-02-21
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No Rules Rules
- Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
- Written by: Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer
- Narrated by: Jason Culp, Allyson Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Hard work is irrelevant. Be radically honest. Adequate performance gets a generous severance. And never, ever try to please your boss. These are some of the ground rules if you work at Netflix. They are part of a unique cultural experiment that explains how the company has transformed itself at lightning speed from a DVD mail-order service into a streaming superpower - with 125 million fervent subscribers and a market capitalisation bigger than Disney. Finally Reed Hastings, Netflix chairman and CEO, is sharing the secrets that have revolutionised the entertainment and tech industries.
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Fabulous book, gives a lot of food for thought!
- By Sanchit on 03-11-20
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Samsung Rising
- Inside the Secretive Company Conquering Tech
- Written by: Geoffrey Cain
- Narrated by: Michael Braun
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on years of reporting on Samsung for the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and Time from his base in South Korea and his countless sources inside and outside the company, Geoffrey Cain offers the first deep look behind the curtains of the biggest company nobody knows. How has this happened? Forty years ago, Samsung was a rickety Korean agricultural conglomerate that produced sugar, paper, and fertiliser.
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Brilliant narration
- By Tushar G. on 22-10-20
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Facebook
- The Inside Story
- Written by: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In his sophomore year of college, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. The site caught on like wildfire, and soon students nationwide were on Facebook. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognisable from Zuckerberg's first, modest iteration. It has grown into a tech giant, the largest social media platform and one of the most gargantuan companies in the world, with a valuation of more than $576 billion and almost 3 billion users. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life.
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Delivering Happiness
- A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
- Written by: Tony Hsieh
- Narrated by: Tony Hsieh
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In this, his first audiobook, Tony Hsieh - the widely admired CEO of Zappos, the online shoe retailer -explains how he created a unique culture and commitment to service that aims to improve the lives of its employees, customers, vendors, and backers. Using anecdotes and stories from his own life experiences, and from other companies, Hsieh provides concrete ways that companies can achieve unprecedented success.
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Extended one self-belief to value
- By Pranav Kumar on 10-01-21
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Super Pumped
- The Battle for Uber
- Written by: Mike Isaac
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, Mike Isaac
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A New York Times technology correspondent presents the dramatic rise and fall of Uber, set against the rapid upheaval in Silicon Valley during the mobile era. Based on hundreds of interviews with current and former Uber employees, along with previously unpublished documents, Super Pumped is a pause-resisting story of ambition and deception, obscene wealth, and bad behavior, that explores how blistering technological and financial innovation culminated in one of the most catastrophic 12-month periods in American corporate history.
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Goes deep into the workings of Uber
- By Arun Narasimhan on 26-01-21
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Invent and Wander
- The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, with an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
- Written by: Jeff Bezos, Walter Isaacson - introduction
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In this collection of Jeff Bezos' writings - his unique and strikingly original annual shareholder letters, plus numerous speeches and interviews that provide insight into his background, his work, and the evolution of his ideas - you'll gain an insider's view of the why and how of his success. Spanning a range of topics across business and public policy, from innovation and customer obsession to climate change and outer space, this book provides a rare glimpse into how Bezos thinks about the world and where the future might take us.
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Captivating account of how great men think..
- By Prashant Nigam on 02-02-21
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Bad Blood
- Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
- Written by: John Carreyrou
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar start-up, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end. In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose start-up ‘unicorn’ promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier.
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Thought provoking thriller
- By Pooja Goyal on 21-02-21
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To Pixar and Beyond
- Written by: Lawrence Levy
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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One day in November 1994, Lawrence Levy received a phone call out of the blue from Steve Jobs, whom he'd never met, offering him a job running Pixar, a little-known company that had already lost Jobs $50 million. With Pixar's prospects looking bleak, it was with some trepidation that Levy accepted the position. After a few weeks he discovered that the situation was even worse than he'd imagined.
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Trisection of art, science and business
- By Amazon Customer on 23-12-20
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The Ride of a Lifetime
- Lessons in Creative Leadership from the CEO of the Walt Disney Company
- Written by: Robert Iger
- Narrated by: Robert Iger, Jim Frangione
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The CEO of the Walt Disney Company shares the ideas and values he has used to reinvent one of the most beloved companies in the world, and inspire the people who bring the magic to life. In 2005, Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company during a difficult time. Morale had deteriorated, competition was more intense, and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company's history. Twelve years later, Disney is the largest, most respected media company in the world counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox among its properties.
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Makes me never want to be an American CEO
- By Pearl on 16-06-20
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Alibaba
- The House That Jack Ma Built
- Written by: Duncan Clark
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In just a decade and a half, Jack Ma, a man from modest beginnings who started out as an English teacher, founded Alibaba and built it into one of the world's largest companies, an e-commerce empire on which hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers depend. Alibaba's $25 billion IPO in 2014 was the largest global IPO ever. A Rockefeller of his age who is courted by CEOs and presidents around the world, Jack is an icon for China's booming private sector.
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Good informational read on Alibaba
- By Lemas Bglr on 26-09-20
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Range
- How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Written by: David Epstein
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In this landmark audiobook, David Epstein shows that the way to excel is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly, juggling many interests - in other words, by developing range. Studying the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists, Epstein discovered that in most fields - especially those that are complex and unpredictable - generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. They are also more creative, more agile and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see.
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More people need to read this
- By Km on 23-02-21
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Finish What You Start
- The Art of Following Through, Taking Action, Executing, & Self-Discipline
- Written by: Peter Hollins
- Narrated by: Gregory Sutton
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Finish What You Start is a unique deep dive into the psychology and science of accomplishment, productivity, and getting things done. It takes a thorough look at why we are sometimes stuck and gives detailed, step-by-step solutions you can start using today. Every phase of finishing and following through is covered, and even productivity pros will be able to learn something new. Above all else, this is a guide to better understanding your brain and instincts for optimal results.
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First book that I finished in one week
- By Vineet Hedulkar on 06-01-21
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The Unusual Billionaires
- Written by: Saurabh Mukherjea
- Narrated by: Gaurav Marwa
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The Unusual Billionaires tells the story of eight, truly outstanding companies which delivered 10 percent revenue growth over the last 10 years and 15 percent return on capital employed. In simple words, these companies defeated 5000 other public listed companies to deliver high growth while maintaining profitability year-on-year for the last decade. How did these companies do it? Why couldn’t this be reciprocated by other companies? What are they doing differently?
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I wish I read this book 3 years ago!
- By Ranodeep Sen on 09-09-20
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AI Superpowers
- China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
- Written by: Kai-Fu Lee
- Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In AI Superpowers, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power.
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Biased and shortsighted
- By Sukrit Goel on 27-03-19
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The Tatas
- How a Family Built a Business and a Nation
- Written by: Girish Kuber, Vikrant Pande - translator
- Narrated by: Rajiv Dadia
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The 19th century was an exciting time of initiative and enterprise around the world. If John D. Rockefeller was creating unimagined wealth in the United States that he would put to the service of the nation, a Parsi family with humble roots was doing the same in India. The Tatas is a tribute to a line of visionaries who have a special place in the hearts and minds of ordinary Indians. Written by seasoned journalist Girish Kuber, this is also the only book that tells the complete Tata story spanning almost 200 years.
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Very captivating.
- By Amit Kumar on 29-03-20
Publisher's Summary
New York Times best-selling 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 10 years ago.
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What listeners say about The Upstarts
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anish Tripathi
- 14-09-19
Amazing book
Best book I have read. Great to know how Airbnb and Uber started and the impact they have had and the sheer tenacity and perseverance of the founders. Love it.
1 person found this helpful
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- Nishant Kaushal
- 28-05-20
An undercooked book
The book starts good but fizzes away aa it progresses. A book you can skip.
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- Anonymous User
- 24-05-20
This book is just so awesome!!
The narration, the story and all the aspects of this book are worth recommending to everyone, be it an entrepreneur or a history buff. Surely a must read for an entrepreneur. The story, research about all the facts, people and authorities involved and the way of narrating those is fantastic.
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- Otavio Costa
- 09-09-18
Very interesting. Maybe a bit early!
it's a new world. it's a new economic and social environment. It is a story that will still evolve a lot. But the book tells the beginning of those startups and of the sharing economy itself. That's important enough!
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- Tariq selah
- 18-06-18
Good bio of Uber & Airbnb
story is well written, more focus on the actions of Uber & Airbnb founders not on their personas, nice and smooth book in general.
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- Sivaranjani S
- 09-06-18
Gets your heart racing!
If you are a follower of the tech world, you are in for a treat!
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- Tracey
- 30-03-18
Encouraging if you decided to start a business
loved it because it gives you a behind the scene look at how these businesses were set up and got through their various growth stages
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- Chewy
- 07-04-17
Not for me
So this book was interesting in a way that it goes into depth of their journey of uber etc but probably not what I was expecting so rushed it and it felt long. I didn't know what I was expecting but I didn't connect; it's not a bad book but just not for me. It's good if you wanna imagine the reality of an upstart & its trials & tribulations. Respect to the author but I am prob not your correct audience.
4 people found this helpful
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- MattB944
- 12-02-17
Definite must read for all entrepreneurs
Definite must read for all entrepreneurs with big dreams. Great insight into big mistakes not to make or how you should or shouldn't run a business.
4 people found this helpful
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- Rob Moore
- 02-03-18
My favourite audiobook of 2017 (out of 100s)
Would you listen to The Upstarts again? Why?
Yes. Really great reveal of disruptive business and the wrestle between success and challenge. Well researched, balanced & motivating
Who was your favorite character and why?
All 4 of the main protagonist companies
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
The title: "The Upstarts" perfectly relevant
Any additional comments?
A great mix of motivation to grow and disrupt in your own space, fun, educational, unique & balanced. A great piece of work.
1 person found this helpful
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- Graham
- 17-11-17
Started strong
Started strong - and it as clearly very very well researched - but i have to admit it did get a little tedious in the second half. Still a good book if you are interested in the formation of huge companies.
1 person found this helpful
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- Colly23
- 06-06-17
Real insight into the world of the Upstart
If you are fascinated by the recent uprising of the sharing economy heavyweights - Uber & Airbnb - then this book will really appeal.
The 2 stories run alongside each other, which helps illustrate the speed of growth and briefly references the competition they faced throughout this period.
Personally, I was more interested by the insight into the characters of Travis Kalanick and Brian Chesky - what drove them to success and how they challenged city law-makers & resistance from competition... who knows what will happen next!?
1 person found this helpful
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- PeeJay
- 05-02-21
Fascinating insights
I really enjoyed listening to this, the huge successes of uber and Airbnb have been a mix of hard work, unforeseeable events and rock solid core beliefs in their business ideas by their founders.
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- B Campbell
- 01-12-20
Interesting insight
Felt in some places it dragged on a bit but the story was interesting overall. I felt like it was missing a real punch line.
Stories of both Uber and Airbnb are told alongside each other and that flowed well.
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- Max
- 26-10-20
Very detailed and well structured story
This book has offered many interesting insights and it was fascinating to hear the stories and challenges of the uprise of Uber and Airbnb in such a detailed way. If you're a founder you will find plenty of valuable takeaways too.
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- Victor K
- 17-07-20
Recommended for entrepreneurs
A good book that gives insight into the journeys that airbnb and uber had from their inception up until 2016 I believe. I would definitely recommend this to be added to the entrepreneur's reading list. But if you want to have an interesting read I feel the way that the story kept on moving between airbnb and uber was not done well. Yes there were interesting comparisons that were made but I feel this could have been done better. All in all, I recommend this book and would give it 3.5 if I could.
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- Safo
- 11-07-20
Unlistenable
At least purchasing this audiobook will encourage me to actually pick up the book, solely down to the unbearable commentary. Story I’m not sure of the rating due to only getting to chapter 2.
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- Ondrej Geryk
- 06-01-20
Interesting read (listen)
Quite interesting to see insights of these start-ups ... could be little bit more in detail thought
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- rafay
- 14-10-17
A must for entrepreneurs who want to create something big
It's a fantastic book that lets you see the massive tech giants as what they really are, as a couple of like minded people who got together and had a vision of the world that wasn't created yet. It lets you see the process of building an empire and the hoops each start up had to jump through just to make it into 2017. Definitely recommend this book.
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- Hayley
- 05-10-17
Fascinating
Easy to listen to and well written. A clear insight into the world of the rapidly growing tech companies. A fascinating journey for anyone entering the startup world.
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- William
- 11-09-17
So good!
Great stories and insights on Uber & Airbnb, learnt a lot about business and tactics listening to this book.
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-07-17
Great book, a bit heavy on regulations
Great book. A little too heavy on regulations for my liking, but there are golden nuggets of insight here.