Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0

Sarah Lacy is the authoritative chronicler of the Web 2.0 phenomenen. She has an astute grasp of the social and cultural factors that shaped the entrepreneurs behind businesses like LinkedIn, Facebook and Digg. Better still, she also explains the business logic behind each of these businesses, demonstrating how the Web 2.0 generation has learned the lessons of the Dot.Com boom and bust to build businesses that are faster to start, leverage pre-existing technology and are more responsive to users. The book is a call to arms for the next generation of internet entrepreneurs and I enjoyed every page.

Wenn man sich für Unternehmertum im Internet interessiert, ist es immer gut die Erfolgsgeschichten von anderen lesen zu können und sich dadurch inspirieren lassen.Das Buch erfüllt genau diese Aufgabe und erzählt auf einer einfachen Weise, was bekannten Internet-Unternehmer wie Max Levchin, Gründer von Paypal und Slide, nach der Dotcom-Blase gemacht haben und wie es geschafft haben, obwohl die Allgemeinheit gemeint hat, Internet wäre nach der Dotcom-Boom tot.Allerdings finde ich, dass Founders at Work viel interessanter ist und man es vorziehen sollte. Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good ist zwar unterhaltsam aber man lernt eher weniger über die Fehler und Gründe hinter des Erfolgs der Web2.0-Startups. Weiterhin bevorzuge ich persönlich das Interview-Format von FaW und die Vielfalt der Gründer - nicht alle sind aus der Internet-Branche-. Außerdem ist Once You're Lucky zu kurz für mein Geschmack und beschränkt sich auf wenige Startups.Dennoch ist das Buch gut und wenn man schon Founders at Work gelesen hat und ein bisschen Inspiration während der Konzeptionsphase seiner nächsten Startup sucht, sollte man sich dieses Buch kaufen.

7章、8章でFacebookの立ち上げの話や、マークザッカーバーグのインタビューを読むことができる。ザッカーバーグはインタビュー嫌いな人のようだが、著者のSarah Lacyとは仲がいいようで、貴重なインタビューなのかもしれない。日本でもFacebookが話題になってきているようなのでこの機会に読むのもいいかも。

It was "okay". It mostly talked about Paypal, Facebook, Digg and alittle about Blogger > Twitter. Some stuff were pretty informative, but it was (insert nice word for fluff here) overall. I already know alot about PP and FB (who doesn't?) but I did not know that the founder of Blogger sold to Google for $10 million in stocks and cashed out for around $50 million. I also did not know that the Blogger Founder started Twitter. Makes sense I suppose. Is it worth reading? Maybe if you're not from Silicon Valley or don't know much about Web 2.0.Some things were alittle shady - how Zuck, 20, met an important person before he moved to the Valley. How did he meet this tech person who didn't go to Harvard? There are some gaps.Lacy seems an admirable person, but given her lack of credibility over her article on Kevin Rose in Business Week last year and her disastrous interview w/Zuck at SXSW doesn't make this a sound book based on true facts, but based on assumptions and rumors. Most of this stuff could probably be found on Wikipedia if you look up the companies and founders. Save the money or wait till I donate this book at the local library near you.

This is the third book I read about tech entrepreneurs. In fact it is the fourth if I include Inside Steve's Brain (but this one is about a single entrepreneur). The two previous ones were interviews of many, i.e. Betting it all and Founders at Work. The beauty (and at same time weakness) of Once you're lucky, Twice you're good is that is is about web2.0. Is this new step in the Internet development a speculative bubble or a speculative revolution. It is probably too early to say even if author Tracy Lacy (appearing in another post) is quite convinced it is a revolution.It is a beautiful book because it shows once again the richness of individual connections. I have my own illustration of it in a blog, [...]. Paypal and its founders appear to be at the center of this network. Fairchild had such a similar situation at the beginning of Silicon Valley in the sixties, Apple, Sun, Cisco thereafter.Another interesting element is about investors. There has been a popular idea that web2.0 was not funded by venture capitalists anymore because the web2.0 business angels who were web1.0 entrepreneurs had learnt their lesson. The situation is more complex as the web2.0 financing shows. Greylock, CRV, Accel but also Benchmark and Sequoia are vey active. Finally, it shows again and again what entrepreneurs are, i.e. passionate, driven individuals and I can only advise reading the epilogue about Levchin's childhood. Quite fascinating...