Capital Instincts: Life as an Entrepreneur, Financier, and Athlete [Hardcover]

Richard Brandt (Author), Thomas Weisel (Author), Lance Armstrong (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471214175 | ISBN-13: 978-0471214175 | Publication Date: January 24, 2003 | Edition: 1st

An insider's view of the investment banking world from someone who is actually shaping it

Powerful, controversial and determined, Thomas Weisel is known for his unwavering focus on winning the race, whether he is competing in a national cycling championship, sponsoring Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong or negotiating with business competitors. For twenty-seven years he ran one of the major investment banks on the West Coast, bringing public companies such as Applied Materials, Siebel Systems and Yahoo! and was instrumental in establishing San Francisco as an alternative financial center to Wall Street. In 1997 he sold his company to NationsBank, which later merged with Bank of America. Unhappy with his treatment after the merger, Weisel trumped Bank of America by negotiating a separation package that included $500 million in stock options and the ability to hire away crucial Bank of America management. Within two years, the investment bank he started, Thomas Weisel Partners, reached half a billion dollars in revenues and negotiated high-profile deals such as Yahoo!'s merger with Geocities. Power Investor weaves Weisel's approach to success, his competitive nature and love of cycling into a fascinating inside account of the cutthroat world of investment banking.

Thomas Weisel (San Francisco, CA) is the founder, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Thomas Weisel Partners, a research-driven merchant bank exclusively focused on the growth sectors of the U.S. economy. He is founder and president of Tailwind Sports, which manages the U.S. Postal Service cycling team, and was an Olympic-class speed skater and the former chairman of the U.S. Ski Foundation.
Richard Brandt (San Francisco, CA) has twenty years' experience as a leading business journalist. He was a senior reporter for BusinessWeek for fourteen years and editor in chief of the technology business magazine Upside for four years.

Editorial Reviews

Review

San Francisco investment boutique Thomas Weisel Partners just offloaded another 100 employees (spurring more rumors the firm will be sold), but its 62-year-old founder is busy charging up other hills. Weisel, a renowned cyclist, has been promoting his new autobiography, Capital Instincts: Life as an Entrepreneur, Financier, and Athlete, and doling out the tome to clients. The book isn't exactly flying off the shelves (Amazon rank: 9,136), but it's packed with testosterone-charged tales of Weisel's athletic, business, and art-collecting exploits--including his recent $40 million sale of abstract impressionist art. Chapter 1: "Never Underestimate Thom Weisel." (Fortune Magazine, March 31,2003)

From the Inside Flap

For over three decades, Thomas W. Weisel has been one of the leading figures of the financial scene that blossomed along with Silicon Valley, becoming an integral part of its phenomenal success. Many pioneers have contributed to the changing nature of U.S. business, but only a few have emerged as real leaders in American entrepreneurialism. Thom Weisel is one of those leaders.

His passions extend beyond business. Deeply competitive, he remained a top athlete well into his fifties, helped revive U.S. Olympic skiing and U.S. cycling, and created the world-class cycling team (led by his good friend Lance Armstrong) that has won the famed Tour de France four times in a row-and counting. He's also a renowned art collector and has contributed significantly to the world of politics, not just with money but with his classic blend of personal involvement and energy.

In Capital Instincts: Life As an Entrepreneur, Financier, and Athlete, you'll follow Thom Weisel from his youth as an extraordinarily talented athlete from Milwaukee, to his present position as one of the most influential investment bankers of our time. He rejected the New York financial scene in 1969 to join the entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley, taking public such companies as Amgen, Micron Technology, Siebel Systems, and Yahoo! He may be one of the last of a generation of influential financial entrepreneurs in a world now dominated by giant conglomerates.

A controversial figure, Weisel took over control of Montgomery Securities in a power struggle that solidified his reputation as a no-holds-barred businessman decades ago. Through accounts from colleagues, competitors, and Weisel himself, you'll learn how he built Montgomery to a position of prominence, selling the firm to NationsBank in 1998 for $1.3 billion-probably the biggest mistake of his career.

In 1998, Weisel walked out of NationsBank-now called Bank of America after its acquisition of the San Francisco bank-after a dispute over control. He took key partners and hundreds of millions of dollars with him to start over again at the age of 58. His new company, Thomas Weisel Partners, reached nearly half a billion dollars in revenues in two years, one of the fastest growing companies in history. The firm was then battered by recession, the death of the dot-com industry, and an industry wracked by scandal. But Weisel's rapid restructuring of his firm, told even as it happens, is a powerful lesson in business crisis management.

A mix of intellectual might, passion, and powerful egos, Capital Instincts distills Thomas Weisel's approach to success throughout his life. Weisel himself adds commentaries on the U.S. economy, the future of the stock market, and the current crisis in the industry. Capital Instincts is an extraordinary tale of life, business, and sports from one of the most impressive leaders of our age.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (January 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471214175
• ISBN-13: 978-0471214175
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,580,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have over 20 years' experience writing about science, technology and business, currently a freelance journalist and book author. My most recent book is "One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com (Portfolio/Penguin, October 27, 2011.) It's the story of how Jeff Bezos got started, his impact on retailers, and what he's like as an entrepreneur and a manager (tough!) I'm also author of "Inside Larry and Sergey's Brain" (Portfolio/Penguin, 2009) which was released in paperback as "The Google Guys: Inside the Brilliant Minds of Larry Page and Sergey Brin." (Do you know how few people recognize the names "Larry and Sergey" without additional info? We found out.) I'm also co-author of "Capital Instincts: Life as an Entrepreneur, Financier and Athlete" (John Wiley & Sons, 2003.)

Having written two books in which the subjects would not give me interviews (interesting that the founder of a book-selling site does not give interviews for books) and one book in which the subject had too much control over the manuscript, my next book will be one in which I have direct access to the subject AND complete control over the content.

Not that it's impossible to write a biography without the cooperation of the subject -- it just takes a lot of research and interviews with people who know him or her well -- but I want to be able to really dig into the psyche of the subject. I'd like to ask Jeff Bezos, for example, why he never gives interviews any more unless he hits the talk shows with a product to sell, like a movie star hawking his new picture. I'd like to draw Larry and Sergey into a thoughtful discussion of privacy issues, their deep thoughts on the importance of Web search engines with honest results and how they maintain it.

Executives at public companies whose policies create controversy should get out into the world and explain themselves. They shape our society and affect our lives. I mean, come on! I've interviewed Bill Gates, Andy Grove, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, scientists and top academics extensively over the years, and I don't do hatchet jobs.

Still, the book of which I'm most proud is "The Google Guys." I spent four years on it, off and on, most often on. One blogger claimed it was a hagiography, but that's just because I refuse to attack Larry and Sergey simply because that's a popular thing to do these days. I stand behind everything in the book. Most of the reviews were terrific.

Before the internet (temporarily) destroyed the business of journalism, I was editor-in-chief and columnist for technology/business magazine Upside from 1995 to 2001. From 1981 to 1995 I was a technology correspondent for Business Week Magazine. My freelance articles have appeared in CNBC.com, L'Express, Science magazine, Technology Review, Science/Business magazine, Stanford magazine and Working Woman. The Wall Street Journal did an excerpt of "One Click."

My awards include a National Magazine Award, Deadline Club Award; Washington Monthly Award; Atlantic Monthly Award; Computer Press Association Award; Acer/Boston Computer Museum Awards; I was a Knight Science and Technology Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991, and a Science Journalism Fellow from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1981. I've been a speaker on programs for BBC, CNN, NPR and industry events.

I studied engineering and journalism at the University of Delaware, received a BA in biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and studied mathematics at Harvey Mudd college.

I live in San Francisco with my wife and daughter, dog and two cats. My hobbies include carpentry, ocean kayaking, scuba diving, gardening and running. I re-roofed my own house.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Next time pick your writer better, May 7, 2003

By 

R. Spell "raspell" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Capital Instincts: Life as an Entrepreneur, Financier, and Athlete (Hardcover)

I'm an I-Banker and enjoy reading biographies of exceptional businessmen. Sandy Weill's recent biography comes to mind as a personal favorite. Since Tom Weisel is an exceptional athlete with many interests similar to mine, I thought I would enjoy this read. Frankly, it's very painful.

First of all, the two-page summary at the end of each chapter written by Weisel would have been a great framework around which to write a biography. But the actual chapters read like a paid self-promotion or someone in the throes of hero-worship. The author consistently talks of what a great athlete Weisel is while making sure he mentions that Weisel never brags about his athletic prowess. No need to given that the writer will glorify the results. Even concerning business the writer manages to find a positive in every event. For example, the original partners split up and start a competing firm but there is no attempt to mention if Weisel's faults could have had any impact. Of course, per this book, he has no faults.

Weisel eventually merges the successful but controversial Montgomery Securities into Nationsbank but after trumpeting this as a great deal, it merges poorly so blame is completely placed on Nationsbank. Now, of course anyone living this large competitive life must trade-in for a 24-year-old trophy wife when he is 49. Unfortunately there is never a significant mention of the break-up of his first marriage other than what a great father he is and how involved he is with all his kids.

This book is so filled with braggadocio that if Weisel were really interested in keeping the profile of a respected businessman, he would have done his best to limit his exposure to this book. Tom Weisel may very well be a great man but great men do not need to have this much said about them in this forum. I'm shocked he agreed to allow his name to be included in this work, as it is not becoming.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars GAACK!, July 24, 2004

By 

Poniplaizy (Mount Joy, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Capital Instincts: Life as an Entrepreneur, Financier, and Athlete (Hardcover)

I am in a unique position to comment on this book as I was the copyeditor on it. Previous to this I could not reveal my opinions, but I am no longer employed by the company I worked for at that time, and ever since I read this piece of puke, I've wanted to tell somebody--anybody!--how horrific it is. Thom Weisel is a royal b**tard with an equally king-sized ego, and about 99% of the book is him bragging on himself. Don't think Brandt is the author--Thommy boy had his hands firmly on the reins the whole way through, BELIEVE ME BECAUSE HE MADE FIFTY THOUSAND CHANGES AT EVERY STAGE OF THE PUBLICATION PROCESS!!! Note also that almost every one of these changes was to make the book even more self-aggrandizing than it started out. If you love reading the inflated-headed ramblings of a narcissistic egotist, this one is for you, but if bloated self-smooching turns you off the least bit, prepare to never stop throwing up.

And now, for my final question: Why doesn't he just sleep with Lance Armstrong and get it over with?

I feel so much better now!

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Must Miss, March 24, 2003

By 

J. MacKeen "Mike from Boston" (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Capital Instincts: Life as an Entrepreneur, Financier, and Athlete (Hardcover)

The right Instinct is to preserve your Capital and not buy this item. Calling this effort a book is unfair to other books. It is more properly viewed as a press release. The author spends most of the pages repeating how handsome and athletic Thom (don't call me Tom) Weisel is, and shares very little about the factors, decisions, etc that have made him uniquely successful in building two leading banks. This text imparts more information on Lance Armstrong than it does on the tech banking industry. There is a book to be written on Montgomery and TWP, but this is not it.