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The Upstarts

How Uber, Airbnb and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World

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The Upstarts

Written by: Brad Stone
Narrated by: Dean Temple
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Random House presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Upstarts by Brad Stone, read by Dean Temple.

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.

Business Ethics E-Commerce Entrepreneurship Management Management & Leadership Small Business & Entrepreneurship Workplace & Organisational Behaviour
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Critic Reviews

Readers will find plenty of food for thought in Brad Stone’s The Upstarts, the most detailed investigation yet into the early years of these Silicon Valley prodigies. It’s an entertaining and well-crafted account... a careful character portrait of both Uber and Airbnb. Read it and you will be able to judge them for yourself.
A fun, briskly told narrative… Mr. Stone’s reporting is excellent. The Upstarts is not the end of the story but an excellent history of the beginning.
Excellent... an unusually gripping business book.
Stone brings a big dose of truth serum to the marvels and machinations of the sharing economy and its founders.... 'The Upstarts' is rich with inside details.
Technology writer Brad Stone chronicles [Uber and Airbnb's] swift rise to the corporate stratosphere, juxtaposing visionary zeal with the often deep impacts they've left in their wakes... The book is a timely reminder that pushing the digital realm into the physical can disrupt communities as well as the competition.
A richly researched and highly readable narrative that provides additional layers of insight by weaving in contrasting stories of competing companies that failed. (Walter Isaacson,)
A colourful and enjoyable read ... Compelling.
In The Upstarts, Brad Stone has vividly captured the cultural and economic upheaval brought about by the latest generation of Internet superpowers. His book is a magnificent expose of how companies like Uber and Airbnb came to be, the people that profited and lost out along the way and the ramifications that this technology will have on the world for decades to come. Stone remains the preeminent chronicler of the Internet Age and a master storyteller.
[Stone] amply illustrates that for every tech champion there is a forgotten crowd of decapitated competitors, pissed-off investors, defenestrated founders and unrewarded early employees ... where Stone really succeeds is in providing the reader with the visceral experience of the start-up enterprise. (Antonio Garcia-Martinez)
A fascinating account of the founders and leaders of each company, each of whom have moulded the companies into their own images in many ways... [Stone's] telling is especially artful. These books are great primers for aspiring entrepreneurs as well as those who are simply interested in what makes entrepreneurs successful. (Peter High)
All stars
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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.

Amazing book

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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.

This book is just so awesome!!

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The book starts good but fizzes away aa it progresses. A book you can skip.

An undercooked book

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