eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you want to understand the 1990s, you have to understand venture capitalists. These are the people who listen to business pitches by the score, the financial-world equivalent of miners turning over tons of earth in search of precious metal. They're looking for the next Amazon.com, the next Yahoo!, the next eBay. Randall E. Stross, who teaches business history at San José State University, just happened to be there when a firm called Benchmark Capital discovered eBay. eBoys tells the story of how a group of not-quite-middle-aged men came to make an investment that returned a Silicon Valley record of 100,000 percent.

Stross is a gifted storyteller who weaves the personal histories of the Benchmark partners with stories of how the firm came to back such companies as Priceline.com and Webvan. We meet guys who weren't born to privilege, men who took unconventional routes into the venture capital business. Probably the most intriguing is Dave Beirne, a hyperaggressive executive recruiter who went into the business after realizing venture capitalists are the ones who really call the shots at high-tech start-ups. We also see the problems Silicon Valley guys have when they try to dot-com the bricks-and-mortar world. The short tale of an aborted partnership between Benchmark and Toys 'R' Us illustrates why the old economy is so mystified by the new.

Anyone interested in how business works should find something of interest in eBoys. From the organizational structure and corporate culture of Benchmark to the histories and personalities of its partners to its adventures in the world of Internet start-ups, it's a digital snapshot that reveals how successful businesses look, think, and mine gold in today's economy. --Lou Schuler

Review

"Writing with all the drama and speed of the Internet itself, Randall Stross spins a tale of risk-takers and rule-breakers that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This eye-opening firsthand account of the young, gutsy, and mega-rich entrepreneurs who are financing today's hottest Web-based businesses will leave you gasping. It's an insider's look at a very cloistered world--the one at the center of the most talked about revolution in business history."-
-Joël Glenn Brenner, author of The Emperors of Chocolate

"This is the one--the book about Silicon Valley we've all been waiting for. Randall Stross is the first journalist to truly crack the code, to get so far inside this world that what's emerged is not just an authoritative account but one that has the absolute ring of truth. With its vividly drawn characters, unforgettable scenes, and crackling dialogue, eBoys puts you in the room where instant companies--and instant wealth--are created. And when this age finally ends--as it surely will--eBoys will take its place as the definitive account of one of the wildest eras in the history of American capitalism."
--Joseph Nocera, editor-at-large, Fortune

"Randall Stross's eBoys is that rare book that's both an important work and a fun read. The Silicon Valley venture capitalists whom Stross writes about with such verve and grace are the equivalent of the tech world's Hollywood casting directors, holding daily tryouts to spot tomorrow's talent. The miracle of this book is that somehow we're in the room as some of the best known VCs in the Valley audition the future. The result is not only a rich, page-turning tale but a voyeur's dream that for my money is the single best look at the VC world to date."
--Gary Rivlin, author of The Plot to Get Bill Gates

"This book is so realistic that if you have been in a venture capital meeting it will make you sweaty all over again. eBoys is a terrifically written account of venture capitalists in action, financing the investor dreams or nightmares of the future with high-flying e-business companies like Webvan and eBay and more." The book is a great read."
--Jack Covert, president and founder, 800-CEO-READ -- Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 325 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (May 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812930959
• ISBN-13: 978-0812930955
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #274,908 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Distorted, July 22, 2000

By	a reader (USA) - See all my reviews

eBoys reads like a Gospel tract for Benchmark Capital. I say this as someone who knows and likes "the boys" at Benchmark and can attest that their investment returns are genuinely top-tier. But unfortunately the author presents the Benchmark perspective to a fault, almost as if he's writing from inside some kind of reality distortion field.

For starters, there is a major distortion in the Introduction about one of Benchmark's main competitors in the venture capital business, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. All other partners at this firm outside of John Doerr are disparaged as "not-Doerr," as if Doerr were the only competent venture capitalist at the firm that entrepreneurs want to work with and the rest of the partners are simply a weak supporting cast. This disparagement is anecdotally directed at KPCB partner Will Hearst in particular. I suppose this is done for dramatic effect, but it is way off. In recent years Will Hearst has been one of the top-performing partners at the firm, in some funds surpassing John Doerr.

Meanwhile anyone who has been paying attention to the venture business in the least bit in recent years should know that KPCB partner Vinod Khosla, who was a cofounder of Sun Microsystems and is as much an entrepreneur as a venture capitalist, has been consistently hitting the ball out of the park, most recently with such multi-billion deals as Cerent and Siara. Not bad for a "not-Doerr" I would say.

Another major distortion is the author's account of Benchmark's falling out with Stanford University. The University is at the heart of the Silicon Valley boom in producing engineering and business talent for the industry as well as funding it, but it is cast as some kind of conspirator that tried to thwart Benchmark's efforts to launch its first fund. Did the author even attempt to get Stanford's side of the story or those of the other limited partners who were supposedly part of this X-files type conspiracy? Some "off-the-record" perspective, at the least, might have been helpful in balancing the two sides of the story. I think at this point the author is just being plain lazy and makes one wonder what his terms were for being granted access to Benchmark's inner sanctum. After these distortions it becomes difficult to trust the book on other matters, for example the account the author gives about Jerry Kaplan and Onsale relative to the rise of eBay. How fair is it? It's hard to know.

All and all it's a disappointing book. I didn't learn a thing. I expected more since I benefited from the author's previous book on Microsoft. This is too bad, because eBoys could have been an excellent book had it been better researched and more balanced.

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Irresistible, Essential Reading for Entrepreneurs, June 9, 2000

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Most people who want to found a new business dream about getting venture capital en route to going public. At least a third of these people who approach venture capital firms do not have any contacts to get them a hearing at venture capital firms. Even those who do will find the odds are long. Perhaps one deal in 100 from connected people will be funded by a particular venture capital firm.

Almost all entrepreneurs I know think that venture capitalists get paid too much, and that they get in the way rather than being a help.

This book will help you draw your own conclusions, as well as give you some ideas about what to look for if you do decide to go for venture capital.

Many will be astonished to see that funded ideas often come with no workable CEO in place. The venture capitalist will often play a key role in doing the recruiting of the CEO and other key personnel.

Also, others will be amazed to find out how important little things are to keeping deals together or tearing them apart -- usually the trust or lack of trust in those involved on all sides.

For years, I have worked with executives whose firms were orginally funded by venture capitalists. I also have friends who are venture capitalists. Everything in the book rang true to me.

The only thing that would have made the book bettter would have been equal access to the thinking of the people in the start-ups. We get their view through the VCs. Because of the relationships involved, that's hard to accomplish because there's a need to stay friendly that is harmful to candor.

Although the book will be invaluable to entrepreneurs, it was not designed for that purpose. It really is more of a business history of one firm over a two year period of time, highlighting some of its most successful (eBay and Webvan) and unsuccessful (a venture with Toys R Us that went nowhere) relationships. You'll have to draw your own lessons along the way. So it's like reading a mystery novel. Keep your eyes open for the clues, and draw your own conclusions.

People thinking about a career in venture capital will also find the book to be valuable. The demands and strains are large, and so are the rewards when it all works. Keep in mind that success in venture capital goes in cycles. My friends tell me that dot com investments have been the most successful class of investing ever for VCs. Some firms report making money 90 percent of the time in the last 5 years. It won't usually be that easy. Se remember that you are reading about the good times when you go through this book.

Buy it, read it, and apply its lessons to make your own success greater! You're much more likely to create an irresistible growth enterprise when you do.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shameful -- Stross is a shill, August 2, 2000

By A Customer

With the economic success in the Valley, now everybody wants a piece of the action, including journalists. Sadly, this book will probably follow on Po Bronson's and Jerry Kaplan's as a script for a Hollywood movie.

I bought this book because, one, I've been operating as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for some time, and, two, I enjoyed Randall Stross's book on Steve Jobs and Next. That book, "The Next Big Thing", exhibited balanced, accurate journalism.

Stross has lost my respect with Eboys, however. Sorry, but VC firms don't operate in this compassionate, humane way, and Benchmark is no exception. The book's message that these guys are motivated by service to the entrepreneur is laughable. The venture business is all about return on investment, and these guys are among the most tough-minded and ruthless in the Valley. To not recognize that most fundamental reality, Stross has either lost his mind or sold out.