Customer Reviews

eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I found the book to be totally engrossing and entertaining, but also amusing (not always in a good way), a little inaccurate, and probably more than a little embarrassing to the participants in hindsight. If you are looking for an entertaining read about the highest fliers in the internet bubble, this is a great choice. But if you are hoping to learn more about venture capital from an insiders point of view, this book will lead you astray.

The author's description of the prevailing attitudes and lingo at Benchmark and other venture firms seems out of place. He seems to be describing the macho environment of an investment bank rather than the more subdued approach of venture capitalists. But maybe that's the way things actually were at Benchmark in the late 1990s.

As a venture capitalist myself, I was surprised by the apparent lack of due diligence and the thin premises upon which the partners seemed to make their investment decisions. I'm sure this perception is in part a consequence of the author's intentional decision to gloss over the nitty gritty details. But explicit dialogue between the partners shows that the partners did in fact have a shoot-from-the-hip style. I am hardly qualified to question the partners' instincts when they were so successful. But I do think it is a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the industry as a whole.

I usually finish all books that I buy, but this one ended up in the scrap heap after about 100 pages. The author projects that these VC's are the coolest thing to ever happen, all their fancy lingo, and the fact that companies, people, and dreams are all waiting for their "thumbs up".

The entrepreneurs should be the real success story hear, not their stupid VC's.

Eboys is an exciting story about Benchmark Capital, a venture capital firm that has enjoyed enormous success lately. Its a good read that has exciting stories about companies you can identify. Being a student, I feel this book has truly inspired me to join the path of becomming a venture capitalist. As the books describes, being a venture guy allows you to combine so many various aspects of business, from management to funding. I reccomend this book to anyone interested in finance, VC, or ebay. Many exciting stories combined with an articulate writer and intersting characters.

eBoy's offers readers a window into the inner workings of Benchmark Capital - the guys that funded eBay and other hot start-ups. The book shows you how VC works - how money, people, and ideas come together. Good for anyone interested in raising VC $, or working for a VC.

You have to first get in mind this book is a secondhand account written by a bottom feeder in the food chain. He is no entreprenuer or VC. Just someone trying to cash in on the bubble. He starts off by insulting all women bussinesspeople by insinuating that the world he is supposedly taking you into is some kind of men's club. This is simply not true. His language from the start was just as foul as it could be. Very unprofessional and amatuerish, which wrecked his credibility as an author immediately. That kind of language is to be included in writing only when it serves a purpose such as to develope the character of a street smart punk. Ask yourself what kind of person can spend the time this guy did surrounded by extraordinarily smart people who do the kind of hard work they do and then turn around and write such trash about the experience. No one who is serious about being successful as an entreprenuer or a VC could ever take this book seriously or benefit from it. I stopped reading this book for that reason. There are books written by entreprenuers who have been in the trenches and know what it's all about. A good example is "Startup" by Jerry Kaplan. There are many others. I gave this book one star because there was no way to give it zero stars. Don't waste your time with this one.

This book works, as they say, on so many levels. The author spent months deep inside a venture capital firm observing the internal workings and the dynamics between the partners and the entrepreneurs that they champion. The writing is excellent; entertaining and informative without being self-consciously clever or mired in the technical details of the operation. This is the best business book I have read in a long while and is much better than many of the books that now top the bestseller lists. I highly recommend it.

Ever wonder what venture capitalists actually do? Read this excellent insiders account of Benchmark Capital and see how this firm catapulted itself to the forefront of VCs beating Kleiner Perkins in returns in just five years. The book goes in-depth on the stories behind how they funded eBay, Scient, Webvan and Ariba. Moreover the author does a fantastic job making the partners come to life; so much so that you feel you know Bob Kagle and David Beirne by the end of the book.

I have owned this book for a while and just now got around to reading it for a class I am taking on venture capital. I should have read it sooner, but I am glad that I read it AFTER the web-business meltdown. It isn't that the book hypes the web or that the guys at Benchmark are wild-eyed web partisans. In fact, as the web bubble begins to deflate towards the end of the book the author captures some insightful comments from the partners about the shift in focus because of what they saw coming.

What is really useful about the book in the context of the post-web-bubble experience is the excellent way it captures the mood and thinking of the time and the story behind some ventures whose outcomes were still unknown when the book was first published. We now know of e-Bay's staying power and WebVan's demise as well as the stories of several other companies discussed in the book.

Benchmark is still going strong with a talented team and an enviable portfolio. It would be wonderful to get a follow up article (maybe it has already been done) that shows how the Benchmark team handled the heat of the web meltdown and what their current portfolio thinking is. And, of course, it would be nice to get information on the whys and wherefores of Benchmark's foray into the international arena (it was contemplated in this book and, from the Benchmark website, it is now a reality).

This is well done (even if the language is real-life rough) and I am very glad to have read it. I recommend it highly.

As one who personally knows several of the Benchmark principals, Randy Stross, and others mentioned in the book, I was fascinated by the close-up portrayals of the Benchmarkers.

Randy has his favorites among the group, and those men occupy center stage in a tale that's focused on personalities rather than on the mechanics of the vc business. Although Randy is an outstanding writer, and occasionally performs verbal magic on an otherwise mundane phrase, the most intriguing passages seem to have emerged straight from his tape recorder: slightly edited transcripts of Benchmark partner meetings. There is not much analysis of their interactions (occasionally we spot a hint that not all the partners are as equal as they claim to be, and that their much-vaunted camaraderie may be a bit forced). In contrast, the portrayals of the wannabe recipients are much more vivid because they depict the bad as well as the good.

Ultimately, the book ran out of steam. After the partners took the same roles and recited the same lines in discussions very similar to those they'd already conducted a dozen times, I was ready for a punchy denouement. I didn't get one (too bad Randy wasn't around when the bubble burst--now, that would have provided some interesting reading). Instead, I was left with this message: if you want the backing of a vc firm, don't bother trying to invent a better mousetrap or find a cure for cancer--your best bet is to enroll your children in the same schools the vc kids attend--or at least sign them up for the same basketball team.

This book can be read in a few days, just like a novel. The stories are very insightful about the hype that went on in the Valley during the internet boom. Now that things have calmed down, it is interesting to see how some of these partners were far-sighted about what would happen. The only thing I wished would be described with more details was related to the rationality of the decision making process taken by the Benchmark Partners when deciding to invest in the company. But otherwise, excellent book to get familiar with the VC world.