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Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal Hardcover – November 5, 2013

by Nick Bilton (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,861 ratings
Editors' pick Best Nonfiction
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The dramatic, unlikely story behind the founding of Twitter, by New York Times bestselling author and Vanity Fair special correspondent The San Francisco-based technology company Twitter has become a powerful force in less than ten years. Today it’s everything from a tool for fighting political oppression in the Middle East to a marketing must-have to the world’s living room during live TV events to President Trump’s preferred method of communication. It has hundreds of millions of active users all over the world. But few people know that it nearly fell to pieces early on. In this rousing history that reads like a novel, Hatching Twitter takes readers behind the scenes of Twitter’s early exponential growth, following the four hackers—Ev Williams, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass, who created the cultural juggernaut practically by accident. It’s a drama of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles over money, influence, and control over a company that was growing faster than they could ever imagine. Drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails, Bilton offers a rarely-seen glimpse of the inner workings of technology startups, venture capital, and Silicon Valley culture.
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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Portfolio
  4. Publication date
    November 5, 2013
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 0.94 x 9.31 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1591846013
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1591846017
  8. See all details
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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,861 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the story engaging and insightful. They praise the writing quality as well-written and cleverly scripted. The book provides an enlightening look into the early days of Twitter and is a must-read for those interested in tech, VC, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Customers describe the book as entertaining, exciting, and lively. They appreciate the depth of character development and the varied personalities behind the company.

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Story qualityWriting qualityEducational valueHistory of twitterEnjoymentCharacter developmentInsightNarrative quality
234 customers mention "Story quality"234 positive0 negative

Customers find the story engaging and insightful. They describe it as a well-researched, riveting account of how Twitter was created. The book provides an interesting perspective on the events, emotions, and aspirations of the characters.

"...The story is very well told. It's a captivating read. It's very surreal to read about your friends and former co-workers in a book like this...." Read more

"Well-researched and sincere take on a fascinating story: the inception and development of Twitter...." Read more

"...That's completely true, and the book's a worthwhile read for that alone...." Read more

"...The final part of the book is also riveting, providing an update on Jack, Evan, Biz and Noah...." Read more

94 customers mention "Writing quality"84 positive10 negative

Customers enjoy the writing quality of the book. They find the story well-written and cleverly scripted. The book is described as a thriller with excellent storytelling, characterization, and a quick read.

"...The writing is colorful, if not inspired, and Nick Bilton handles the winding narrative deftly...." Read more

"...He is a talented narrator and skilled at characterization. Hatching Twitter is a page turner. The anecdotes are enthralling...." Read more

"...And it's written in a beautiful narrative style not often matched by technology writers...." Read more

"Great book. Excellent writing. However I found two minor things that bothered me a little: 1...." Read more

73 customers mention "Educational value"73 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and helpful for those interested in tech, VC, innovation, and entrepreneurship. They appreciate the well-researched and entertaining account of the journey of founders and other key people involved in building a service. The book is useful for entrepreneurship students because it shows that success isn't easy.

"...Having this book is kind of like having a well researched MTV Rock Documentary about our work, friendships, and time in our lives...." Read more

"Well-researched and sincere take on a fascinating story: the inception and development of Twitter...." Read more

"...successful and unsuccessful ones alike--requires a lot of things: A solid idea, the right team to execute on it, and good timing, certainly, but on..." Read more

"...He is a talented narrator and skilled at characterization. Hatching Twitter is a page turner. The anecdotes are enthralling...." Read more

46 customers mention "History of twitter"43 positive3 negative

Customers enjoy the book's detailed look into the creation of Twitter. It provides a fascinating glimpse into the early days and growth of the global phenomenon. The book is praised for its thorough research and ability to capture the essence of the social media platform.

"...researched and sincere take on a fascinating story: the inception and development of Twitter...." Read more

"...A smart move on the author's part - scrutinizing how the founders used Twitter - right down to tweets on the exact days and times when certain..." Read more

"...These are minor gripes. Still, Hatching Twitter is a page turner...." Read more

"Hatching twitter is all about the people behind Twitter...." Read more

30 customers mention "Enjoyment"24 positive6 negative

Customers enjoy the book's engaging and entertaining story. They find it exciting, intense, and lively. The book holds their interest throughout with its fascinating story and inspiring message. Readers mention that the book gives them courage to be persistent.

"...Each part is lively and irresistible. The backstabbing...." Read more

"...However, the book held my interest throughout...." Read more

"...It's a fun ride from the birth of Twitter almost up to the present, and there are a lot of bumps along the way...." Read more

"This book is a complete waste. I got sucked into the reviews and the hype and bought it...." Read more

27 customers mention "Character development"27 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's character development. They find the characters fascinating and authentic, with a comprehensive look at the personalities that founded and shaped Twitter. The book is described as an entertaining mix of biography, soap opera, and business case. It provides a comprehensive look at how great minds, ideas, ambition, and egos interacted.

"...myself drawn to the details of the power plays and personalities vividly chronicled by Bilton...." Read more

"...Lots of character development, though in some cases it detracts from the story in an attempt to double as a morality play...." Read more

"...This is fascinating stuff, filled with large personalities, larger egos, Machiavellian power plays, and friends backstabbing friends...." Read more

"...It captures human emotion well and tells a cohesive story with interesting characters that is better than most fiction...." Read more

14 customers mention "Insight"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides an insightful look into the dynamics of a tech startup. They appreciate the honest portrayal of human nature and how far people will go to achieve their goals. The book shows how startups grow and the impact of investors. Readers mention that the truth is stranger than fiction, with Machiavellian power plays and backstabbing.

"...stuff, filled with large personalities, larger egos, Machiavellian power plays, and friends backstabbing friends...." Read more

"Truth is stranger than fiction, which came to mind when I read Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton...." Read more

"...got all the bases covered: four quirky personalities at the top, boardroom coups, back-alley plots and office intrigue, and if that's not enough,..." Read more

"...The characters involved way out there, so authentic too, and many of them exceedingly sympathetic...." Read more

24 customers mention "Narrative quality"14 positive10 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the narrative quality. Some find it touching and sympathetic, with a fascinating interplay between human relationships and corporate intrigue. They find it easy to get emotionally involved in the real relationships and excitement. Others feel the narration drags in parts and is overdramatized.

"...Still, Hatching Twitter is a page turner. It captures human emotion well and tells a cohesive story with interesting characters that is better than..." Read more

"...Lots of character development, though in some cases it detracts from the story in an attempt to double as a morality play...." Read more

"...involved way out there, so authentic too, and many of them exceedingly sympathetic...." Read more

"...Frustratingly, the story abruptly ends as the events depicted catch up to the publication date - the book ends with Dorsey being brought back to the..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Rabble
    5.0 out of 5 stars From the perspective of a participant - rabble
    Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    I'm Rabble, one of the people who helped start Odeo and i'm mentioned a bunch in the first couple chapters. This review might not be useful for evaluating the book as something to read, but i figured this might be a decent forum to provide a review.

    The story is very well told. It's a captivating read. It's very surreal to read about your friends and former co-workers in a book like this. Most of us live our lives only ourselves. Having this book is kind of like having a well researched MTV Rock Documentary about our work, friendships, and time in our lives. I think if you interview enough people, look at what happened in any situation, it's easy to put a spin and story on things. None of us know the details of everybody else's life.

    I wish there'd been more discussion about the technical and models we pulled from to build twitter. Where the ideas came from and how they were put together. It's very weird to see how much focus there is on people's drinking, clothing, hygiene, and being broke. That we were pulling from txtmob, the unix finger command, carlton university's status update system, bike messenger dispatch, blogger, etc... that's not as sexy a story. That we considered how to look at transitions of mediums from desktop to web, from web to mobile, as a place to create new systems for communications in old ways, isn't as cool as intrigue amongst friends who ended up creating twitter. There's a lot of the people and not as much understanding twitter and it's context.

    The order of things as they happened and as they are told in the book isn't the same. This is ok, i think, mostly because the book is about telling the story of twitter's creation. It's no a strict chronology. Reordering things makes for a better story arc. There were a number of people not interviewed and i think their story was diminished. Some of us were talked about more because they fit a better story arc.

    One last thing, i'd say that Twitter's management problems were due to lack of ability to come together and make a decision, and not the anarchists refusing to follow rules and allow order.
    373 people found this helpful
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  • Joe Schuessler
    4.0 out of 5 stars An Engrossing Read
    Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Well-researched and sincere take on a fascinating story: the inception and development of Twitter. Bilton takes advantage of the abundant web material available about the early days of Twitter and also seems to have had extensive opportunity to do his own original interviews with the company's four founders Biz Stone, Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey, and Evan Williams. Bilton uses this material to study the unique character and personality of each of the four founders. This becomes key when you see how each founder's unique personal style leads to their conflicting visions for the future of Twitter. For example, Jack Dorsey saw Twitter as a status updating tool useful primarily for enabling users talk about themselves and what they were doing, while the more civic-minded Evan Williams saw it as information-gathering tool whose greatest potential was in describing the world and current events. Intriguingly, Bilton notes that that Evan Williams forbids his young children to use iPads, iPhones, or television, and encourages them to read physical books. Makes you think even the one of the important people in the tech world believes that Twitter and social media are just a waste of time. I also enjoyed learning about the "forgotten founder" Noah Glass, who was critical in starting the company but received very little attention for his contribution. On the downside, you get the feel that Bilton got a free pass to write an "authorized" version of the Twitter story that emphasized hype and glossed over flaws in Twitter as a platform and as a company. Still, it's an engrossing read.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Lane Becker
    5.0 out of 5 stars Dispelling some big myths about Silicon Valley
    Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Having lived and worked in and around Silicon Valley for most of my adult life, I have always felt that one of the most frustrating things about this still-amazing place is that it never seems content to just tell the world the truth about how technology is made.

    Building products--successful and unsuccessful ones alike--requires a lot of things: A solid idea, the right team to execute on it, and good timing, certainly, but on a more complicated note, personal connections, social capital, back-room deals, and, most of all, a whole hell of a lot of luck. Yet the stories that get told about Silicon Valley all too often gloss over all of this (and the power-grabbing and horse-trading that always accompany it) in favor of the much simpler and totally inaccurate narrative about the brilliance of "that one guy." The "founder." The "inventor." The one who made all the money and took all the fame. Never mind the other people who helped come up with it, the people who supported it, the people who contributed to it, the people who toiled away to make it a real thing. Nope: Just that guy. You know, the next Steve Jobs!

    Not so "Hatching Twitter." A lot of the reviews here have focused on how compelling Bilton tells this story, weaving the narrative of the tool's creation around some impressively researched details about a seemingly never-ending litany of back-stabbing. That's completely true, and the book's a worthwhile read for that alone. But to me, the most impressive thing about the book is how intently it works to dispel this standard myth of the lone creator, and how tirelessly his prose works to promote the truth, which is simply that making things is hard, and that it takes more than any one person to bring something as big and as important and as fundamental as Twitter seems to be into the world.

    I can only hope that the next wave of brilliant, motivated early-twenty-somethings who make their out to California to find their fortunes in the world of startups read this book and take away that message. That it sticks with them, and that they remember, no matter how successful they get, that it doesn't have to be all about them. That there's plenty of glory to go around. This stuff we do here is already impressive--there's no need to mythologize it, to hoard credit, to take away the accomplishments of others for no other reason than to promote a small, self-serving lie.

    And if they do, then maybe then they'll be able to treat each other better than the awful, inhumane way the Twitter team did.

    Maybe. I'm not holding my breath.
    72 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Kuyper
    5.0 out of 5 stars Die menschlichen Stories hinter Twitter
    Reviewed in Germany on July 11, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Ein paar Freunde schreiben Geschichte im dot.com-Goldrausch von San Francisco und gründen Twitter. Was sie beitragen, wie sich ihre Werte verändern, wie sie reich oder nicht so reich werden - all das erzählt dieses Buch. Eine moderne Abenteuer-Saga über Unternehmertum, Mut und Verzweiflung. Wunderbar und einfühlsam erzählt von Nick Bilton. Danke, Nick.
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  • davide
    4.0 out of 5 stars Consigliato
    Reviewed in Italy on January 1, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    La vera storia di twitter
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  • Said Pelaez
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro para conocer como twitter dio voz a los mudos
    Reviewed in Mexico on June 15, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Nick con este libro logra transmitir el dinamismo, pasión y frustración de los primeros días de twitter y toda la sucesión de eventos que marco al mundo
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  • Truth Devour
    5.0 out of 5 stars Twitter & Twerps
    Reviewed in Australia on July 23, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Given I've spent well over two decades working within the IT industry, I wasn't really surprised by the skull duggery that was described to have taken place behind the closed doors of the Twitter office. Its rapid growth, significant potential and interest from influencers certainly left the start up open to being a target.

    It's a great insight into what happens & it certainly demonstrates very clearly that Ego has no rightful place in business.

    Twitter has changed the way people view social media platforms and use its services. Freedom of speech, the realtime validation of what's happening around the world... all surged forward with a leap when the founders of Twitter provided a mechanism to write 145 char in a square box.

    Brilliant.
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  • Leonardo Campos
    5.0 out of 5 stars adictive reading
    Reviewed in Brazil on June 16, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I just couldn't put the book down. I had never thought Twitter had gone through so many ups and downs
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