Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company.

Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover?

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 82 Ratings

Good startup book; HIGH on economics - 2009-09-26
Reviewer Rating:
Overall good book. I obviously enjoyed certain interviews more than others (almost slept through the Lotus and co. ones), I enjoyed and learned a lot from their stories. I wish there was more focus on peer relations and less on VC's business, but I'd be an ignorant if I overlooked the fact that these companies didn't grow as big as they are on good will alone.

Very inspiring book. I'd recommend it to anyone interest in starting up any kind of business.

Good, but a little more diversity would be nice - 2009-08-13
Reviewer Rating:
This book was good, however, it was a little repetitive at points and lacked examples of start ups in industries other than software. With that being said, the founders interviewed were able to share many valuable experiences and I learned a lot.

At the Heart of the Entrepreneurial Audience - 2009-08-06
Reviewer Rating:
I started reading Founders at Work before I flew out to California for my Y-Combinator interview (Jessica Livingston is a part of this group along with Paul Graham). I eventually bought the book, and I've been reading it on and off for the last few months when I have a few moments away from my start-up.

The main thing to understand is that this book is the story of many entrepreneurs and their story about starting their respective companies. You'll gain insight into the entrepreneurial experience through some of the most well-known entrepreneurs of our time.

One thing that the more general audience may enjoy is hearing the "real story" behind the beginning of famous companies such as Lotus, Apple, Blogger, and others. This books speaks to the sacrifice and risk it took to build these companies that is often hidden behind their success.

However, if you're an entrepreneur, or at least entrepreneurial, you'll get much more out of these stories. You'll certainly get some inspiration, but you may even get relief. As an entrepreneur, you're going to hit tough times. By understanding the experiences these individuals went through, you'll gain a better understanding of the experiences you're going (or will go) through. If you're interested in reading more about this, I wrote a blog post about it called "On Shared Experience". You can find it on my website, but it's definitely worth getting your hands on this book and understanding for yourself.

How interviews uncover new truths - 2009-05-24
Reviewer Rating:
The thing I like most about interviews in general are that some new truths are often uncovered and the chance to dispel common myths is revealed. All the answers we need already exist among us. When you surround yourself with those you admire, your beliefs begin to change and so do your moment-by-moment decisions. Instead of harboring envy or jealousy for those who have succeeded, look to them as mentors and role models. If you enjoyed Founders At Work, you'll likely appreciate 50 Interviews: Entrepreneurs, finding more insights and ideas from other successful entrepreneurs in a variety of different industries. I invite you to check it out: 50 Interviews : Entrepreneurs

Very informative but also starting to show it's age - 2009-04-28
Reviewer Rating:
There are several good interviews here but some of them are getting quite old in internet years. For example, Ev Williams is interviewed about Bloggr even though now most people know him for starting Twitter.

Perhaps a follow up book is in the works!

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