Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure

The meeting took all day. I later learned that this was standard procedure at IBM: a simple review takes one day, and if there is something substantive to discuss, it requires two. In contrast, GO’s meetings were usually scheduled in fifteen-minute increments.

Nothing strokes an investor’s ego more than having a friend or colleague mention a high-flying company in a hot new field and then pointing out that he’s in on the action.

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“That’s a post-money valuation of one hundred fifty to one hundred seventy-five million, depending on how much we raise.” I was worried that this price was unrealistic, and that the offering might not fly when it hit the street. “I just can’t see how our business plan supports that valuation,” I said. “It’s enough to make a sane investor toss his c

Sometimes I wasn’t sure what motivated John. It certainly wasn’t money. To most investors, the prospect of a quick sellout to IBM would be irresistible. But for John, investing in high technology was a calling, and monetary reward was the byproduct of a successful mission. The higher goal was to create something enduring, a growing enterprise that

I could see that something had changed in him. He seemed less intense, more at peace with himself. “Where did you park the jet?” He sighed. “Sold it. I’m also selling our vacation house in Hawaii.” “Too bad, I never got to mooch a vacation there,” I said. “How come?” “We just decided to get our priorities straight. All this stuff—our material posse

“Look, gang, it’s time to bet the company. IBM is getting antsy again; Microsoft is breathing down our neck; the investors are anxious; and our reputation is fading. We can’t afford to delay any further, period. It’s time to stand and deliver.” Carol interrupted. “I can get the Meridien Hotel in San Francisco for January 22, but only if we make a f

In the real world, management is an art, not a science. The formal techniques for decision analysis that business schools teach are fool’s gold, a vain and misguided attempt to systematize the chaotic. The mere existence of these methods betrays a darker truth: we harbor a desperate desire to believe that the world is ultimately predictable. But an

Well over a billion dollars had gone into developing this operating system, an investment that continues today with no realistic possibility of a return. The technique works well as long as enough money pours in to buoy up moribund projects. But by mid-1989, IBM was so laden with the walking dead that its highly profitable mainframe monopoly could