The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest: A Novel [Paperback]

Po Bronson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 2000

Dazzling and outrageous, Po Bronson's The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest is a knowing, eye-opening, and unrelentingly funny insider's look at the ultimate millenial adventure: the gold rush in Silicon Valley. It is a novel that brazenly opens up the American dream and lays out its twisted circuitry for all to see.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bronson's last novel, Bombardiers, was wonderful, so it comes as no surprise that his latest novel is just marvelous. What does it take for entrepreneurs to risk everything, develop a product, start a company, and take it public? When social idealism, corporate politics, petty jealousies, money fever--all part of the business landscape in Silicon Valley--meet, the results make for a fun, fast-paced read. And if you're familiar with the culture of Silicon Valley, you'll find yourself asking if this is a novel or a chronicle of the times. Just make sure you clear your calendar before picking up this book--you won't be doing anything else until you finish. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A former bond salesman who now chairs Consortium Booksales & Distribution, Bronson made his first $20 million (well, maybe not that much) with his best-selling debut, Bombardiers (LJ 11/1/94). In his new work, billed as a Silicon Valley novel, an ambitious young drudge at a research lab is handed a project that could land him in the top ranks?design a computer that will sell for $300.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Edition edition (May 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380816245
• ISBN-13: 978-0380816248
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,024,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Po Bronson travels the country recording the stories of real people who have struggled to answer life's biggest questions. He has built a career both as a successful novelist and as a prominent writer of narrative nonfiction. He has published five books, and he has written for television, magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and for National Public Radio's Morning Edition. Currently he is writing regularly for Time in the United States and for The Guardian in the United Kingdom.

Po Bronson's book of social documentary, What Should I Do With My Life?, was a #1 New York Times bestseller and remained in the Top 10 for nine months. He has been on Oprah, on every national morning show, and on the cover of five magazines, including Wired and Fast Company. His first novel, Bombardiers, was a #1 bestseller in the United Kingdom. His books have been translated into 18 languages. Po speaks regularly at colleges and community "town hall" events. He is a founder of The San Francisco Writer's Grotto, a cooperative workspace for writers and filmmakers. He has also been on the Board of Directors of Consortium Book Sales & Distribution since 1992. He lives in San Francisco with his family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, Fun, Fun . . . then Fizzle, June 27, 2004

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest: A Novel (Paperback)

Author and Silicon Valley insider, Po Bronson, writes a very funny novel about four quirky guys with the right stuff who want to create something that matters in the realm of computers. From cutting edge software and hardware development companies to Palo Alto think tanks, the plot follows the creation of a less than $300 computer from a list of low priority projects at the think tank level to the actual modeling of a prototype that gets one rival top dog engineer's undies in a knot. The trials and tribulations that face the group compare to the highs and lows of an EKG with enough back-stabbing, personality manipulation and corporate espionage to keep the reading at a wonderous pace up until the last 20 or so pages. The crafting of the dramatic persona, especially the four progtammer/hardware specialists hinges closely to the usual stereotypical portrayals of techno geeks seen in movies and television shows. However this does not detract from the fun level of the story; indeed one gets the sense that these portrayal closely model reality. What does detract is the rather abrupt ending which winds down what could have been an all out page-turning business adventure with a stop-on-a-dime conclusion that certainly did not satisfy me.

Perhaps having seen the rather burlesque film version of this novel, I naively was expecting more bells and whistles and a more thorough troncing of rival engineer and threat Benoit. It never came, but perhaps that is due to the fact that I know nothing about the world of Silicon Valley where Bronson's could-be spoofs on the computer industry's behind the scenes star would lose their bite. Happily, the novel does not force a romance between Caspar and his housemate as in the movie version; here the attraction is noted and the reader can use his imagination to determine the outcome. Thank you, Po.

All in all, I enjoyed the novel; I just wish it had a longer ending.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Realistic, entertaining, lucid, upbeat, December 17, 1998

By 

Steve Sailer (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest:: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Po Bronson's first novel, Bombardiers, a slightly surrealistic satire on bond salesmen, was a cross between Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities and Joseph Heller's Catch-22. It won some plaudits for its literary ambitiousness, but Bronson's overkill on the pointlessness of his characters' lives left a bit of a sour taste. This novel, a fictionalized story of the inventions of the Network PC and Java by a small Silicon Valley start-up, is far less stylized, but the characters are more likable, idealistic, and inspiring. This is to Bombardiers as Wolfe's The Right Stuff was to his Bonfire.

The depiction of computer nerds strikes me as realistic and sympathetic, although I'm sure not all Silicon Valley geeks appreciate the portraits. I also liked another realistic touch: there is no sex in the novel, and almost no women characters. This contrasts well with the other Silicon Valley start-up novel, Douglas Coupland's Microserfs, which starts out with a terrific portrait of life as a sleep-deprived minion of Bill Gates, then degenerates into a pilot for a sit-com that could be pitched as "It's like the cast of 'Friends' starts a software company."

I was especially impressed by how Bronson set up certain characters to be the villians of the plot, then showed us that from inside their heads they see themselves, with some justification, as the good guys. The conclusion is quite surprising: the most Machiavellian of the bad guys gets exactly what he was conniving for (a huge investment by a venture capital firm), then has to live with the bureaucratic consequences. I ended up feeling quite sorry about his plight.

Bronson is probably the most true-blue member of the small School of Wolfe (Richard Price is the senior member, with Jay McInerney floating in and out). I haven't yet figured out whether he has a huge amount of literary talent, or whether he'll simply be a very useful recorder of The Way We Live Now, but in either case he's worth reading. One big threat to his chances of becoming a great novelist is that he is probably the most handsome novelist since Hemingway, and that can cause no end of trouble.

Steve Sailer

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, July 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest:: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Po Bronson agains shows his grasp of the ironic is well beyond any other current author. After disembowelling Wall Street in Bombardiers, Po grabs Silicon Valley and exposes the "infite loop" of money, ideas and egos that makes the Valley machine hum. A Machivellian masterpiece! Po, take on Capitol Hill next!!