The Launch Pad by Randall Stross audiobook

The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's Most Exclusive School for Startups

By Randall Stross
Read by René Ruiz

Random House Audio 9781591845294
8.82 Hours Unabridged
Format : Digital Download (In Stock)
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    ISBN: 9780449807873

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Twice a year in the heart of Silicon Valley, a small investment firm called Y Combinator selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs from around the world for three months of intense work and instruction. Their brand-new two- or three-person start-ups are given a seemingly impossible challenge: to turn a raw idea into a viable business, fast.   Each YC session culminates in a demo day, when investors and venture capitalists flock to hear pitches from the new graduates. Any one of them might turn out to be the next Dropbox (class of 2007, now valued at $5 billion) or Airbnb (2009, $1.3 billion).   Randall Stross is the first journalist to have fly-on-the-wall access to Y Combinator. He tells the full story of how Paul Graham started this ultra exclusive institution, how it chooses among hundreds of aspiring Mark Zuckerbergs, and how it teaches them to go from concept to profitability in record time.

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Summary

Summary

Twice a year in the heart of Silicon Valley, a small investment firm called Y Combinator selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs from around the world for three months of intense work and instruction. Their brand-new two- or three-person start-ups are given a seemingly impossible challenge: to turn a raw idea into a viable business, fast.
 
Each YC session culminates in a demo day, when investors and venture capitalists flock to hear pitches from the new graduates. Any one of them might turn out to be the next Dropbox (class of 2007, now valued at $5 billion) or Airbnb (2009, $1.3 billion).
 
Randall Stross is the first journalist to have fly-on-the-wall access to Y Combinator. He tells the full story of how Paul Graham started this ultra exclusive institution, how it chooses among hundreds of aspiring Mark Zuckerbergs, and how it teaches them to go from concept to profitability in record time.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews

Y Combinator is a national treasure, a Silicon Valley seed fund that is mass-producing new startups. Randall Stross’s behind-the-scenes look at YC offers a rare glimpse into what it really takes to conceive an idea and get it to market as quickly as possible. The Launch Pad is a must-read for anyone interested in the realities of modern entrepreneurship. Eric Ries, author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup
The Launch Pad is an intimate look at the white-hot center of the new Silicon Valley star tup ecosystem. Stross’s account of the best new entrepreneurs and the exciting companies they’re building at startup schools is a great read for founders and would-be founders alike. Marc Andreessen, cofounder, Andreessen Horowitz

Reviews

Reviews

Author

Author Bio: Randall Stross

Author Bio: Randall Stross

Randall Stross is the author of the New York Times column on business and technology, “Digital Domain,” as well as a professor of organization and management at San Jose State University, which is based in the heart of Silicon Valley. His book The Microsoft Way (Addison Wesley, 1996) was the most critically acclaimed book about Microsoft at the height of the company’s power, and his book eBoys(Crown, 2000) was one of the most successful books about the web 1.0 phenomenon, for which he was given full access to the venture capitalists who funded eBay and was able to tell the inside story of how and why eBay took off.

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Details

Details

Available Formats : Digital Download
Runtime: 8.82
Audience: Adult
Language: English