Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 | 
 enlarge | Author: Sarah Lacy
Publisher: Gotham
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $1.41
You Save: $24.59 (95%)
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Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 61160
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1592403824
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.4700670979473
EAN: 9781592403820
Publication Date: May 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: remainder mark
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Product Description
The captivating story of the mavericks who emerged from the dotcom rubble to found the multibillion-dollar companies taking the Web into the twenty-first century
Everyone has heard the story of the Internet Bubble. Beginning with Netscape s IPO in 1996, billions flowed into Internet startups, and companies with no revenues and shaky business plans earned sky-high valuations on Wall Street. It was the era of paper millionaires, $800 office chairs, and Super Bowl ads for dotcoms. Then in 2000 the Bubble burst, with the NASDAQ losing 75 percent of its value and hundreds of companies closing up shop. It was all written off to irrational exuberance, and everyone moved on.
Once You re Lucky, Twice You re Good is the story of the entrepreneurs who learned their lesson from the bust and in recent years have created groundbreaking new Web companies. The second iteration of the dotcoms dubbed Web 2.0 is all about bringing people together. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace unite friends online; YouTube lets anyone posts videos for the world to see; Digg.com allows Internet users to vote on the most relevant news of the day; Six Apart sells software that enables bloggers to post their viewpoints online; and Slide helps people customize their virtual selves.
Business reporter Sarah Lacy brings to light the entire Web 2.0 scene: the wide-eyed but wary entrepreneurs, the hated venture capitalists, the bloggers fueling the hype, the programmers coding through the night, the twenty-something millionaires, and the Internet fan boys eager for all the promises to come true.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 I liked it so much I had to email the author June 2, 2008
J. M. Sherman (Venice, CA USA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Having lived through a number of 1.0 internet companies (Lycos, Xoom, NBCi,and others), I felt like I was being given a history lesson that was almost entirely spot on. I really appreciate that these people were willing to open up to Lacy and share with her so she could share with us. I'm starting a new company now and the lessons, advice, the ability to live vicariously through others, etc. is al extremely valuable.
Plus, it's a really well-written and enjoyable book. I spent two 90 minutes sessions on the elliptical trainer reading this book so I suppose I owe Sarah a thank you for the great read as well as the cardio!
Great read from inside or outside the bubble... July 21, 2008
T. Westergren (San Francisco, CA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
A great read for people in the bubble, and those outside looking in. As someone who has spent almost a decade deeply immersed in the strangeness that is Silicon Valley, I appreciate that Sarah has written a book that is knowledgeable without being too much 'inside baseball.' She takes care to avoid assuming too much (no un-explained acronyms), and keeps the book moving with human stories. It would be interesting to do a follow up in a few years to see how these many characters evolve...the technology version of Seven Up :)
Congrats, Sarah.
A cautionary rally banner July 15, 2008
Match (Washington D.C.)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is just great. For the legions of us that went through the bust and are just now starting to dip our (now) ever cautions toes back into the entrepreneurial internet(s) this is a great hind-sight tale of what didn't work. But more than that it is a tale of what didn't work, why and here's how to not make these mistakes again.
Told from the biographical tales of those who lead the industry in 1.0 and those that are leading the charge under the, admitting timid, 2.0 moniker.
This book was a trip down memory lane as much as it was a book about the bright future of the entrepreneurial intertubes.
An excellent insight into Web 2.0 July 26, 2008
Sam Purtill (Vacaville, CA USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is a fun and insightful read for anyone looking to learn more about Web 2.0 and the culture of Silicon Valley right now. Sarah Lacy spends a lot of time with the subjects in her book which make the details very detailed and interesting. Enjoyed it from start to finish.
The web, post-Google June 2, 2008
Bobby Steel (San Francisco, CA)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Sarah's book does a good job covering a portion of Silicon Valley in the post-Google era. Starting from the lineage of the early PayPal team, the author traces the personalities behind Facebook, Slide, Yelp, LinkedIn, and Digg (among others) to define the growth of the newest entrepreneurs in SF and the Valley.
If you enjoy the inside stories of Valleywag, you'll enjoy the personality-focused style of this book. The author cultivates her access to these personalities to capture much of the personality of each - this keeps the book engaging and does a lot to explain how these companies are run and why, for example, Facebook has walked away from so many buyout offers.
The book is also interesting in that it mostly ignores the current web titans, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, instead explicitly following this newer generation of entrepreneur who can launch and build huge audiences on the smallest of budgets. This is refreshing to see - there are too many Google/Yahoo/Microsoft books in the market already.
My major complaint with the book is the relative centricity around just a few characters, primarily Jay Adelson, Kevin Rose, Mark Zuckerberg and Max Levchin. The Digg guys in particular really haven't achieve enough to warrant their large focus in the book. The story is weakend by the way too in-depth focus on Adelson in particular, who comes off looking entirely narcissistic and foolish in his time running Digg and that forgettable web video company he runs.
The author's style conjures up a more timely Robert X. Cringely and can certainly deserves spot on the bookshelf next to Accidental Empires or Nudist on the Late Shift.
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