Customer Reviews

Netscape Time: The Making of the Billion-Dollar Start-Up That Took on Microsoft

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you liked Michael Lewis' book, The New New Thing, about Jim Clark,
I think you will like Jim Clark's ruminations even more in this book
about what he learned at Silicon Graphics and how he helped create
Netscape. I also recommend this book as a superb case history
concerning key lessons about entrepreneurship in the Internet age.

If you don't know Clark's and Netscape's story, here's a quick
summary. Jim Clark uncovered a software approach to creating 3D
graphics while an academic. He left to found Silicon Graphics, and
eventually suffered from conflicts with his hand-picked CEO.
Frustrated by the inability to redirect the company towards a low-end
workstation and PC-based business, he resigned at age 50 with stock
worth about $15 million. Looking around for something to do, one of
his SGI colleagues suggests he meet Marc Andresson, the 23 year old
who had primarily co-written Mosaic, the first browser (along with
Eric Bina). Clark's first use of Mosaic was to e-mail Andresson.
They quickly decided to do something together, and Clark agreed to
fund it up to three million dollars. After two false starts on a
concept, they decide to create a "Mosaic Killer." The
strategy then becomes to hire all the people who had worked on Mosaic
at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the
University of Illinois. That, too, is quickly accomplished.

The
young men except for Bina have to wait to graduate from college, and
then a company is built around them as "rock star"
developers under Andresson's technical leadership. Within months, the
first release of what will become Navigator is up on the Web for free
downloading. Netscape quickly begins to sell licenses to major
companies, Jim Barksdale is hired as CEO, and the company goes public
to an astonishingly positive reaction. The company soon decides to
concentrate on software as its business rather than becoming a content
provider. Microsoft soon notices a new competitor, and the allegedly
anticompetitive actions now being ajudicated in the courts take place.
Netscape is sold to AOL. Clark later goes on to found his third
company, which is the subject of The New New Thing.

But, you
probably knew all or most of that. Why read this book then?

To
me, the value of what I found here was that Jim Clark seemed to be
pretty candid about why he decided to do or not do certain things that
had a very large impact on SGI's and Netscape's success. As a result,
this is an excellent study in entrepreneurship that considers how the
Internet changes everything. Whether your business is in the old or
the new economy, I think you can learn many valuable lessons from this
thought process and its consequences.

Here are the successes:

First, one important thing he did right was to fund the start-up
initially with his own money. His purpose was to get a bigger piece
of the pie for himself and the key developers. As founder of SGI, he
had received only about 1.5 percent of the company's market cap.
Early use of venture capitalists had cost him money in his view, and
he was probably right. A software start-up doesn't need tremendous
amounts of money. Founders and angels can often fund round one. This
made it easier for him to work with Andresson to attract the
development team, and reward them properly.

Second, his initial
strategy was to focus on getting all of the Mosaic development talent
into Netscape. That also was a good decision. In a new technology
area, the people are usually more important than the intellectual
property. Spyglass focused on getting the intellectual property
without the people, and did not do very well. This looks like another
good decision.

Third, he began selling software licenses early.
This gave him credibility, cash flow, and access to more financings at
an attractive price.

Fourth, he overcame his error in picking a
leader at SGI and chose Jim Barksdale. Clearly, Barksdale was a good
choice. I suggest you read Clark's thinking about why entrepreneurs
should usually find someone else to run the company for them. In
Clark's case, he just isn't interested in working on all of the
details and hanging around. But every business needs a CEO who does.

Fifth, he went along with Andresson's preferences to "release
early and often" and to make the software free. This speeded up
development time, and the company's growth. This was a key strategic
decision. Clark quickly grasped that Internet businesses needed
faster action and could provide it than hard asset businesses
could.

He also made some errors. Here they are:

First, and most
importantly, he knew that he was taking on Microsoft ultimately, but
did not properly prepare. As Sun Tzu suggests, your strategy should
either ensure that you do not have to fight or that the fight is under
circumstances so favorable that you cannot lose. Machiavelli suggests
that you always kill your enemy, because wounded enemies are lethal.
Netscape needed more and more powerful allies, and a way to insulate
itself from the inevitable Microsoft browser product buried in a
Windows package for free. I suspect that the error here was that he
didn't fully realize that he had the potential to create another
Microsoft.

Second, he focused the company on browser software to the
exclusion of content opportunities. All of the later Web successes
like Amazon, Yahoo and eBay could have been innovated by Netscape at
that point. Clark didn't want to split the company's focus, and the
browser product was hot. In retrospect, he probably left 99 percent
of the opportunity on the table. In this case, he probably did not
fully appreciate the future potential of the Internet. A better
solution would have been to start-up new companies with partner and VC
funding to put these operations together. They would have been
outside of Netscape and had their own focus and funding. Netscape
could have been an even more successful version of CMGI.

Third, he
ruffled the feathers of the people at the University of Illinois. He
waited until they were annoyed before making peace. This disagreement
wasted a lot of time and money, and slowed down corporate acceptance
of Netscape. He needed a diplomat on his team earlier on.

As you
can see, that's a lot to think about in one book.

After you have
finished absorbing and applying these lessons, I suggest that you ask
yourself where your pursuit of opportunities and examination of
potential risks may be too limited. Learn from Jim Clark's
experiences to take full advantage of the potential of where you are,
and then you will not need a new new thing.

Lead others and yourself
into greater prosperity!

To all these 1 and 2 star reviewers: What planet are you on? This book is excellent. Easy to read. Really well written. And with much insight from the voice of someone who's been thru the business battleground. Clark's simile on page 134 about how Netscape's offices looked a few months into the start-up, the manic, hectic, pressurized pace left the offices looking "like a conceptual art exhibit at a state mental institution" qualifies the author as a first class wordsmith. And I second that opinion that Clark could make yet another fortune as a writer.

Would you spend twenty dollars to spend about 8 hours listening to Jim Clark reminisce about starting SGI and Netscape? Then buy the book.

For those familiar with the struggle of trying to accomplish something innovative, you will find his story strangely familiar. For those trying to innovate something on the Internet, you will find this book very encouraging. For those who read between the lines, you will find that it's not about the money, it's about "getting it" and being right, and money is the proof statement in this brave new world.

Clark's direct no-nonsense style can be in your face at times, and you can see why the dense just couldn't get it, because no one likes being shouted awake from a deep sleep. But like most prophets, Clark sees no profit in beating around the burning bush. It seems to be a trait of the innovator.

There is some real insight buried among the stories, as well as advice on how to deal with VCs and dilution of equity, problems many of us look forward to having.

This should be an audio CD, since it is more of an epic poem than a book. It would be great to have a DVD version with addition points of view and multimedia. Netscape made the Internet a multimedia experience; it would seem only fitting that a book by its founder would do the same.

I found the book to be a reasonably enjoyable read, however I must say that the author's high opinion of himself seems to shine through on almost every page and really put me off. We don't want to know about his boats, wealth, etc... just the story would do.

I read a different version, and the cover had just him on the front with a really self satisfying grin. And there were NO photos in the book to relate the story to!

Could have been much better.

Big disappointment. The real story about Netscape is the amazing people who made the product what it is/was, not that Clark hates Gates (though he is probably a closet "Gates wannabe"), venture capitalists, or anyone else. It's also not about how shrewd a business man he is (telling MS to *expletive* off when they call, and then looking to "hypocritically" shake their hand when he needs them???). The book should have been called "Clark Time".

The story of the birth and rise of Netscape makes up the bulk of this book and provides interesting reading. Jim Clark, Mark Andreessen, and the team they assembled to crank out the first Mozilla browsers were true startup heroes. The book does a fair job of capturing the spirit of those first months with their jolt-stoked, pizza-fed all-nighters, legal fights with the NCSA, and the evangelical selling of the brave new world that Netscape was enabling.

Unfortunately, the book is marred by poor overall structure and editing. The prose tends to be long-winded in places and repetitive. The same themes come up in different places and nothing new is added each time. Jim Clark takes too much time to grind his various axes against SGI, NCSA and Microsoft. If he had been more focused and cutting in these remarks, his arguments would have been more persuasive. As it is they come off as a tad petulant.

The later sections of the book tend to ramble and are short on juicy details of specific deals, actions and dialogue.

Scant attention is paid to the effects that the startup rollercoaster had on the familes and significant others of those involved. This may have been by design to protect their privacy. But it does mean that there is whole facet to the story that goes untold.

Overall, a good book to read to get a flavor of what this phenomenal startup success was like to live through. But it could (even should) have been a lot better.

FROM A WRITER IN SAN FRANCISCONetscape Time rocks. Granted, occasionally Jim Clark comes off as the great Oz of the Silicon Valley. But more often than not he takes the reader behind the curtain by candidly revealing the inner workings -- the ups and downs and all the inbetweens --- he encountered while building " the billion-dollar start-up that changed the world." Who wouldn't be interested in the story of a guy who dared to shake his fist at the one who REALLY believes he is Oz? (Need we name names here?) This book is well worth the money. At the very least, even if the subject matter doesn't interest you, Netscape Time is such a damn good read it's worth the indulgence. Some guys have all the luck. Judging from Clark's eloquent prose, he could probably also launch a successful career as a novelist. Let's just hope he doesn't. The market is already tight enough for us struggling writers. Two thumbs up. Five stars. For sure.*****

The title neglected to tack onto the end "and lost".

An otherwise good book is, to me, lowered by the constant complaining about Microsoft's tactics. I'm not defending those tactics, or saying that the tactics were legal, nice or anything like that, but it just got a bit monotonous listening to them. Of course, it's understandable how Clark could be angry about what happened, but it still makes the book less pleasant to read, trying to find 10 pages without a shot at Microsoft.

Clark is a good writer. The story of how Netscape started is an interesting one. It's one that I've read in one form or another a few times, so that part of the book wasn't that exciting.

There were two parts of the book I found interesting and make the book well worth reading:

1 - Jim Barksdale - the right stuff (chapter 12). Jim Clark is a man who knows what kind of a leader he is, and knows what kind of leader is needed when. Picking Jim Barksdale to be CEO of Netscape was a smart thing, and took a lot of guts. I'd recommend a close reading of this chapter for anyone who thinks they might want to be a leader someday.

2 - The best of enemies (chapter 18). It starts off with the Greeks who beat the Italians in World War 2, and in the process, attracted the attention of the Germans, who flattened them. There is an obvoius lesson there (eventually you lose - Rome was sacked), and Clark adds the non-obvious one: Eventually you will fight a battle you lose. But can you afford to avoid that battle?

So, the book has useful thoughts on leadership and business, interesting insights into the world of funding and Venture Capital and the birth of the Internet as most of us know it.

Read it.

Whether you are looking for an interesting story, information on software businesses, information on software development, or information on how a business developed so rapidly it just isn't in this book. I was hoping for a book telling me how a technology business grew quickly and successfully. What I got was page after page of whining about Microsoft and Bill Gates, Silicon Graphics, and venture capitalists with hints of how Netscape was built here and there. Ironically he even whines in the same paragraph in which he tells you he isn't whining. You would think a man that started two wildly successfuly businesses could get past some of the things that happened to him. Especially since it appears that most of the things that were done "to him" were the results of bad business decisions and agreements. If you are intersted in a book that really talks about growing a business look for the book by the guys that started Home Depot

The book talks about NCSA Mosaic, Netscape Navigator, Spyglass and Microsoft at length.

There is no mention of Netsite (Netscape's server product) or OpenMarket (the other Web server company).