Customer Reviews

Grumby

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Grumby is the best novel about startups since Douglas Coupland's Microserfs - a funny, crackling tale with real business and tech industry insider knowledge. A must read for the "TechCrunch" crowd, you'll find yourself hunting to match up many of the novel's characters with their real-world counterparts in a way that a prior generation did while reading "Bonfire of the Vanities".

Kessler's business books and columns pop with humor and rich story telling and fans will find the best traits preserved in his first fiction book. Dialog-driven, and tech-centric, the book strikes the perfect and tough-to-achieve balance of geek-speak and business jargon without alienating those who can't sling code or read a balance sheet.

Grumby also provides a rollicking speculation on where key tech industry trends - Moore's law, the cloud, offshore labor, open source, peer-produced content, and others - might lead. While I often find business books and business novels a disappointment, Grumby is that rare, satisfying gem and is a must-read for anyone interested in a vicarious rocket-ride through the startup, tech, VC space.

If you've ever wondered what it's like to be in the whirlwind of a silicon valley startup, this book is for you. It's fast paced and extremely accurate. Lovely book.

I read Grumby in two sittings in less than 24 hours. It has the driving beat and speed of a heavy metal band; it's enough to make your head spin. But it is compelling at the same time. The pacing is great, giving us a "real time" feel for the rollercoaster ride that is the tech industry and some of the dialog is just LOL hilarious. As a non-tech, non- VC civilian, I can promise that this story will entrance the lay reader as much as the more tech savvy ones. Educational with a light touch but mostly just flat out funny.

This summer while on vacation I had a chance to read the newest book by Andy Kessler called Grumby. It's a book about an entrepreneur who invents the next big thing then every imaginable

I loved it. It was funny, and I read it twice on vacation. It's pure technology, venture, startup, and Silicon Valley entertainment. Anyone in technology, venture, or investing will love this book. A must read. I'm sure many will recognize themselves in this book. I know that I did.

I predict that it will be a staple in all entrepreneurship programs in the top MBA schools around the world.

Here's the basic plot:

The entrepreneur bootstraps a technology that goes on to be the next big thing. Then everything happens: he finds a cofounder, gets traction with beta, self finances, raised venture capital, grows like a weed with zillions of users and money pouring in, scales up with a with Chinese manufacturing, gets hacked, deals with the CIO, recovers and gets back on track, deals with investment bankers at Goldman Sacks, goes public, becomes the poster child of technology, then gets shorted by Wall Street, and on and on. It's the ultimate tech "chutes and ladders" venture story.

Although Grumby is fiction, it's a great story with many lessons of high tech successes and failures all rolled up in one good story. Andy is great story teller and Andy does a fantastic job articulating the historical and future understanding on where technology is going. This book is that story. Grumby is a great roadmap of where technology is headed.

This book is pure entertainment and pure gold for anyone in tech or the technology business. I predict that this book will be a standard issue in all business schools that teach high tech entrepreneurship.

Grumby is a winner!

my full review is here: [...]

Grumby isn't your typical "rags to riches, back to rags" story. It is entertaining from the opening road trip scene to the spectacular collapse. Andy Kessler weaves a tale full of biting insights on high-Tec start-ups, VC's, and the world's favorite investment bankers to hate, Goldie Locks. The main character, and his man Friday, Meeta, take us on a rollercoaster ride which is a cross between "the revenge of the nerds" and "the big short". The ending is the best when they figure out what their invention has done to the market, a sort of "Unintended Consequences", it is both funny and uncomfortable revealing. If you pay close attention, there are also a few life lessons to be learned. Buy it, you'll like it.

Kessler is a master of characters in this fun, fast paced novel, taking us behind the scenes of the real venture start-up world. The extremes are provoking, puncture myths and balloons, get the brain thinking in fresh ways. The story is all too real, very poignant and insightful. It is played out daily in the heart of venture start-up communities around the globe. Its implied tips are priceless, especially for the first-time entrepreneur.

JOHN NESHEIM

Author: High Tech Startup and The Power of Unfair Advantage

I'm a semi-luddite with no previous knowledge of app development, coding, hacking, etc, but I found "Grumby" both funny and fascinating. Unlike many contemporary novels that start with a good premise but konk out halfway through, "Grumby" is well-written to the end.

Someone ought to turn it into a movie...it's vastly more entertaining than "The Social Network."

I read the Kindle version on my Nexus S phone and I loved it. The story line is very interesting and the one of the best things I like about the story was its pace. The author didn't waste any time getting right into the action of the startup. A very good read indeed.

Andy Kessler is a genius. This book was so good and completely realistic. Andy tells a great story and is so knowledgeable when it comes to technology and human nature. I can't wait to buy if for my friends.

My boss suggested I read this and I'm glad I did. Not only was it motivational and inspirational, but as someone who occasionally found himself on the pages of Valleywag, it was cool to see the stories (with names changed to protect the innocent) of folks I knew. A rivetimg read. Buy it now.