Charles Ferguson started Vermeer Technologies and turned his very big idea into FrontPage, the first software product for creating and managing a website. 12 months after starting the company he sold it to Microsoft for $133 million. This is his personal account of how Silicon Valley and technology start-ups really work - the sharks, networks, money, geniuses and what it takes to win in the Internet industry. where any speed below warp nine doesn't get you to takeoff.
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
From Amazon
If you've ever gone out to lunch with a coworker and suddenly found yourself witness to a savage stream of unflattering assessments of bosses, wicked gossip, and the-emperor-has-no-clothes analysis of your industry, you'll know what it's like to read High Stakes, No Prisoners. Ferguson, an MIT PhD., started up a company called Vermeer Technologies in 1994, a rough time for start-ups in Silicon Valley. The country was coming out of a recession, the stock market was stagnant, and the Internet wasn't yet taken seriously by those with money to invest. Vermeer had a software program called FrontPage that only someone who understood the coming power of the Net could appreciate. Even in Silicon Valley, few were so prescient.
Most of High Stakes is the story of Vermeer, from its start-up to its sale to Microsoft. (Now bundled with Microsoft Office, FrontPage is used by more than 3 million people worldwide.) Along the way, Ferguson met the players in the Valley and formed strong opinions of them. He describes Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale as an egomaniac and technological dolt in way, way over his head. Oracle founder Larry Ellison is "severely warped." One of his best lines sums up Silicon Valley as a place where "one finds little evidence that the meek shall inherit the earth."
But this isn't just the technological equivalent of WWF trash-talking. Ferguson is very tough on himself, too, and details his own shortcomings as a person and a businessman. Mostly, it's a gloves-off account of how things really get done in high technology today, as refreshingly honest and acerbic an account as you'll ever read. --Lou Schuler
From Publishers Weekly
All the characters readers would expect to find in a "behind the scenes" look at what it's like to build and then sell one of the first Internet-related companies are present and fully accounted for in this first-hand account, written by a coauthor of Computer Wars. We see the venture capitalists who are out to maximize their return on investment in the fledgling company at the entrepreneur's expense, the voracious large competitors who threaten to crush it like a bug and the stumbling support professionalsAeveryone from lawyers to headhuntersAwho often turn out to be more of a hindrance than a help. Ferguson tells what it was like to create Vermeer Technologies, which produced one of the first software products that made creating Web pages fairly easy, and then sell it to Microsoft for $133 million some 20 months later. While the account is richly detailed, Ferguson's tone is smug and his attitude toward a great many of the people he describes travels the short arc between patronizing and dismissive. The story of Vermeer's creation is bracketed by an overview of the high-tech industry, clearly showing that Ferguson has an interesting view of the issuesAboth great and smallAraised by the remarkable growth of the Internet. It's a shame that he didn't give us more perspectiveAand less invectiveAon the travails associated with building his company. (Nov.) FYI: The author will donate his earnings from this book to a nonprofit educational organization.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Yes, Charles is brilliant, arrogant and is lightening-fast in seeing the failings of others and himself and is willing to take ownership of them (rectifying the situation and doing something about it is another story completely...). However, he also has a massive inferiority-complex when up against anyone with more brains, more money, more priviledge or more power than himself hence his complete disdain for anything Microsoft-related (never mind that it was the hand that fed him and he continues to bite it). He also fails to see that you can attract a lot more bees with honey instead of vinegar. It's not a coincidence that everyone from Vermeer, except Charles eventually landed a job at Microsoft, I suspect Gates was smart enough to see just how insanely jealous Charles must be of him. As for his acidic portrayal of many of the players in the book, I'm fairly sure Charles really reserves his most toxic rage and disdain for those persons who display A)either negative qualities he has and sees a lot of himself in and wished he did not have (i.e career opportunism, uppity-ness) or B)positive qualities he wished he had but is too nasty to ever take time out to acquire and attract (i.e Gates with his intelligence, power and wealth).
I've actually dated him and yes, his character does come out in his writing very strongly. So yes, he is a real jerk, and can be an even larger jerk especially when you've outsmarted him in any slight way. That being said, he also has a very warm, human, giving and honest side which for some unknown reason he hoards jealously (and glipses of it come out here and there in the book), which is why in the book he skewers just about everyone and their dog. It's really too bad - with a talent and intelligence like that, he could have gotten a lot more for Vermeer, a lot more for himself and he'd be a happier human being instead of a 50-ish, balding, lonely, bitter software millionaire in a Mazda Miata.
A+ = for writing, use of wit and humour as well as quality
A = for relevancy of content
B = for character portrayal
C = for overall importance in the grand scheme of things
Format:Paperback
Charles Ferguson, an MIT PhD, was the founding CEO of Vermeer Technologies, a company that developed one of the first web design tools. Vermeer sold the company to Microsoft for a boatload of money and lived to tell the tale. It's a fasinating story of what its really like on the inside of a high-tech startup replete with politics, hard-ball negotiations and strange bedfellows. Ferguson may be arrogant, but he's smart and tells it like it is. Anyone thinking of building a startup should read this book.
Format:Paperback
Charles Ferguson is smart. Charles Ferguson knows he's smart. But Charles Ferguson thinks he's smarter and more important than he really is, and this makes this otherwise interesting book sometimes painful to read.
The chapters covering the formation through eventual acquisition of Vermeer Technologies are an interesting education in the ways of VCs and hi-tech startups in the mid 90's. However, the last three chapters of the book are pretty worthless. These contain Ferguson's analysis of the industry and predictions for the future, and suffer because of Ferguson's worldview that he and Vermeer were far more important to the industry than they actually were. Ferguson lacks an understanding of large IT operations, and it's unfortunately evident in these chapters.
Ferguson's pronounced hostility towards certain actors in his book - including former subordinates - also makes for uncomfortable reading. Some things should simply be kept private.
Buy the book if you want to learn about VCs and hi-tech startups early in the Internet era, and don't mind wading through Ferguson's ego eruptions. Otherwise, skip it.
Want to see more reviews on this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 42 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Authentic Silicon Valley Story
Mr. Ferguson's book is the only narration I have so far encountered (including Mr. Michael Lewis' THE NEW NEW THING, Mr. Po Bronson's THE NUDIST ON THE LATE SHIFT, and Mr. Read more
Published on July 25 2001 by C. Johanson
4.0 out of 5 stars
insightful analysis of Microsoft v. Netscape plus bonuses
I met Charles once or twice in and around MIT (he was a grad student in political science; I was/am in the engineering school). Read more
Published on Mar 30 2001 by Philip Greenspun
4.0 out of 5 stars
a good book for people who hate VCs
I've started companies and I've also been a VC and neither experience is very pleasant. The only pleasant parts are getting the initial idea, seeing it work, and then selling the... Read more
Published on Feb 10 2001 by James Altucher
2.0 out of 5 stars
book starts really well, then quickly gets annoying
The part about raising capital is excellent (actually, I remembered reading a very similar article in Fast Company a year or two ago). Read more
Published on Feb 1 2001 by Michael Alatortsev
5.0 out of 5 stars
witness to the start of the Internet revolution
High Stakes is an intensely personal book from a witness to the start of the Internet revolution. Charles Ferguson had an essential widget for creating interactive web pages, and... Read more
Published on Dec 30 2000 by T. Masterson
1.0 out of 5 stars
He's proud to be arrogant
If you can't see anything wrong with the title line of this review, than maybe you will enjoy this book. Read more
Published on Dec 21 2000 by S. Clark
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be a classic
I have just finished writing a website in FrontPage, so this book caught my eye. The few people to whom I have mentioned it have not heard of it, from which I deduce it is not as... Read more
Published on Dec 15 2000 by Gregory Richards
4.0 out of 5 stars
I laughed out loud
Very entertaining book: a must read if you have ever been subject to the AMT upon exercising your ISOs, or have worked in the software industry, especially in Massachusetts. Read more
Published on Oct 22 2000 by Thomas B. Gross
5.0 out of 5 stars
What They Forgot to tell you About Business Start-ups
I'm currently involved in launching an Internet company right here in Des Moines, Iowa. One of the people we asked to sit on our board of directors said, "Read High Stakes,... Read more
Published on Sep 19 2000 by Jacob Ludington
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flawed, but one of best in genre.
As you might expect from a book subtitled "A Winner's Tale..." this book contains a fair amount of horn-tooting. Read more
Published on Aug 7 2000 by "fadoodle"
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business & Investing > Biography & History > Company Profiles
- Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > E-commerce
- Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > High-Tech
- Books > Business & Investing > Popular Economics
- Books > Computers & Technology
- Books > History > Americas > United States
- Books > History > United States
- Books > Science & Math > History & Philosophy > History of Technology
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
