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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Down and Out in Web 2.0 and London, January 25, 2010
There's a whole genre of semi autobiographical books about tech startups, and this one covers Paul Carr's experiences in the London Internet industry circa mid 00's and his travails therein.
Paul pulls few punches on his own shortcomings, and does a more than adequate job of setting the scene of a particular time and place. Providing good color around the people and feel of what it must have been like to watch people starting various well hyped and funded ventures and then proceeding with his own efforts are some of the high points here. (Having co-founded a couple of companies in Silicon Valley, the tone here rang true, and I came away feeling somewhat empathetic at the pressure the author was under, seemingly all the time.)
If there were one nit, it was that everything finished a bit cleanly. While it was clear what happened, I was left with the feeling that the end of the affair didn't receive the same attention as the beginning, and that Paul's ex-cofounder may have received a gentler treatment than the other folks who crossed his path.
A good dose of humor made this an enjoyable read. Also, if you happen to know anyone in the book, or follow Paul's writings in TechCrunch or on the web, this will, perhaps, explain some things.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, snarky, lively -- and true, August 3, 2009
This review is from: Delete delete delete (Kindle Edition)
"True Confessions of a New Media Whore" is the subtitle. Paul Carr is a journalist who decides to become an entrepreneur, mostly for the money. This funny and sometimes sad story is the result. I got the Kindle version, and enjoyed it tremendously.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
You'll Learn a Heap About the Major Internet Players in this Entertaining Read, December 10, 2011
Stumbled upon Carr's latest book The Upgrade: A Cautionary Tale of a Life Without Reservations and enjoyed it so decided to check out this, his older book. I must say it's just as entertaining, and historical when it comes to the big success wise stories, fads and failures of the early Internet phenomenon, it's very educational. You'll learn for example that Google is actually a typo and what Google's real name was supposed to be. How these companies that don't actually have anything tangible for investors to see actually get their investment dollars and make money through the fact that Paul after being jealous of all these other people making millions of a basic idea which he was reporting on, decides to try and be the next big thing with a company called Friday Cities. We readers are along for the ride as he tries to get investor dollars and a heap of users on the web. If you're familiar with his drunken exploits in his next book there's a fair few in here as well, although not as many. He does get arrested though for not having the money to pay a cab and gets up to a few other adventures. Overall I found this book a bit more educational and a lot less far fetched than The Upgrade, the Upgrade was maybe a bit more interesting to me but that's more because it's set in hotels and the travel industry. Still this is a good read, as just as good a place as any if you're interested to know how Facebook, Google, Yahoo and the other dominant players came to be.
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