Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure

In 1987, Jerry Kaplan embarked on every aspiring entrepreneur's dream--he formed his own company. Startup is Kaplan's riveting and insightful story about what it takes to create and maintain a company in he computer industry--and how to handle its remains when the world is not ready to accept what it proposes. This is both an inspiring personal account and a thrilling adventure story of what goes on behind the world of the computer screen.

The founder of the visionary, yet doomed, GO Corporation kept notes throughout his years at the helm, thinking that one day he would produce a book. It shows. This is a vivid and lively rise-and-fall account of a company born to create a pen-based computer. It begins on a corporate jet with the author and fellow industry visionary Mitchell Kapor, founder of Lotus, sharing a vision of pen computing. From there, Startup quickly leaps to the day-to-day challenges of hiring staff, constantly reassessing and readjusting goals, and coping with the stress of endless rounds of venture capital funding. That Kaplan, in his first attempt at running a company, battles with the top forces at Microsoft, IBM, and other industry giants to bring the idea to market, only makes the story more compelling. His company's ultimate failure says more about a cutthroat industry than about the quality of Kaplan's product. This is a real David and Goliath tale. If you've ever wondered why things go right or wrong, how competition can kill you, or how financing really works within a small startup, read this book!