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TAPE SUCKS: Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story by [Frank Slootman]

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Frank Slootman

TAPE SUCKS: Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story Kindle Edition

by Frank Slootman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 244 ratings

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Silicon Valley has been birthing renegade technology companies for the better part of a century, a storied lineage that traces from Stanford’s Fred Terman to the Varian brothers’ Klystron amplifier, from the hallowed garage of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard to the bold “traitorous eight” who fled Shockley Labs to form Fairchild Semiconductor. These companies, to be sure, broke new science and engineering ground—yet their most lasting legacy may well be their pioneering approach to business itself. They blazed a path that led to Intel, Apple, Oracle, Genentech, Gilead, Sun, Adobe, Cisco, Yahoo, eBay, Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Twitter, and many, many others.

What causes a fledgling company to break through and prosper? At the highest level, the blueprint is always the same: An upstart team with outsized ambition somehow possesses an uncanny ability to surpass customer expectations, upend whole industries, and topple incumbents. But how do they do it? If only we could observe the behaviors of such a company from the inside. If only we were granted a first-person perspective at a present-day Silicon Valley startup-cum-blockbuster. What might we learn? This document—the story of Data Domain’s rise from zero to one billion dollars in revenue—is your invitation to find out.

For anyone curious about the process of new business formation, Tape Sucks offers a provocative, ripped-from-the-headlines case study. How does a new company bootstrap itself? What role does venture capital play? Why do customers and new recruits take a chance on a risky new player? Frank Slootman, who lived and breathed the Data Domain story for six years, offers up his clear-eyed, “first-person shooter” version of events. You’re with him on the inside as he and his team navigate the tricky waters of launching a high-technology business. You’ll feel—deep in your gut—the looming threat of outside combatants and the array of challenges that make mere survival an accomplishment. You’ll catch a glimpse of an adrenalin-fueled place where victories are visceral, communication wide open, and esprit de corps palpable.

The upshot is that the principles of the early entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are alive and well. Their straightforward ideas include employee-ownership, tolerance for failure, unfettered meritocracy, faith in the power of technology breakthroughs, a preference for handshakes and trust over contracts and lawsuits, pragmatism, egalitarianism, and a belief in the primacy of growth and reinvestment over dividends and outbound profits. Tape Sucks is an honest, informed perspective on technology wave riding. It allows you to observe a high-growth business at close range and get an unvarnished picture of how things really work.

Print length

111 pages
Language

English
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Publication date

April 21, 2011
File size

154 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004XMXYX6
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 21, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 154 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 111 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0615484069

Best Sellers Rank: #209,587 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #241 in Entrepreneurship (Kindle Store)
- #373 in Business Leadership
- #1,449 in Entrepreneurship (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 244 ratings

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Frank Slootman

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Frank Slootman currently serves as Chairman and CEO at Snowflake. Frank has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur and executive in the enterprise software industry. Mr. Slootman served as CEO and President of ServiceNow from 2011 to 2017, taking the organization from around $100M in revenue, through an IPO, to $1.4B. Prior to that, Frank served as President of the Backup Recovery Systems Division at EMC following an acquisition of Data Domain Corporation/Data Domain, Inc., where he served as the Chief Executive Officer and President, leading the company through an IPO to its acquisition by EMC for $2.4B. Slootman holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from the Netherlands School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

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4.5 out of 5

244 global ratings

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Michael

Practical. Motivating. Mindful.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 6, 2022

Verified Purchase

A short but very engaging read. Frank manages to take down the pretentiousness that is sometimes associated with having business success. The advice is practical and extremely approachable making it easy to connect to and apply in real life. Strongly recommend putting this one in the queue (shouldn't take more than an hour or two at the most) if you work in a startup, in corporate, or anywhere in-between, and are looking for reflective business insights that focus on humanity improvements to drive business 'success' and not just the numbers.

One person found this helpful

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Norbert Haupt

Full of Golden Nuggets for any CEO or Entrepreneur

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 17, 2012

Verified Purchase

I met the author of this book at a CEO roundtable meeting. These meetings are quite effective, since there are only some 15 to 25 participants present, along with a moderator and a guest. Frank sat right across from me at the table, and I was thoroughly impressed with his no-nonsense approach to business and his candid, quick wit.

The told the group that he had written a "small book" about his experience at Data Domain, the backup company that got its name by the slogan "Tape Sucks" in the mid 2000s. He took over as CEO in 2003, and the company was doing over $1 billion in business a year when it was sold to EMC, their arch competitor, in 2009.

Obviously, Data Domain is a great technology success story, and his book, Tape Sucks, tells the story, from beginning to end. He writes like he speaks, minus the Dutch accent. The book is a quick read and full of nuggets of wisdom from a guy who has been there.

The audience for the book are:
*Current CEOs of startups
*CEOs of companies that want to grow from 20 people to 1000
*Entrepreneurs that want to start a technology company of any type

I enjoyed this book thoroughly and I found myself nodding all the way through.

Now, if I only remember all the tips as I go through my workdays.

2 people found this helpful

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salesmith

Your chance to get into the head of the CEO of Snowflake

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

Frank is one of the greatest leaders of our time. This book gives you a glimpse into his thought process pre-ServiceNow and shows you his blueprint that he has executed throughout his career to this day at Snowflake. If you are interested in how he thinks, get this book. If you are interested in the history of enterprise IT in the early 2000's get this book. If you are interested in successful execution, what are you waiting for? Although meeting Frank is a far off dream, this feels close to that.

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Andy

Favorite read of 2021

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 18, 2021

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I got this book this year. It’s a short easy read. Unlike most self help this one gets straight to the point and doesn’t ramble for chapters.

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Rosamaria Cristello

Nice condense wisdom from an excellent operator

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book distills some wonderful operational nuggets from a exceptional CEO. Worth the simple time investment to pick up insights on comp, culture, and running fast.

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Austen Allred

Not as good as his essays

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is pretty good, very tailor made to enterprise companies and more specifically data storage companies. His essays are better.

One person found this helpful

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michael j. monahan

Slootman Firing from the Hip

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 7, 2021

Verified Purchase

A candid, no nonsense look at the life and path of a startup. Slootman provides great anecdotes and ideas for getting an organization off the ground.

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Avid Reader

Better than Marc Benioff's Behind the Cloud

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

Tape Sucks is MUCH better than Behind the Cloud, which is the book everybody mentions about enterprise software. Much more practical, realistic, but also less salesy.

If you are a SaaS/enterprise software founder, this book is for you.

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