Hatching Twitter A True Story of Money Power Friendship and Betrayal by Nick Bilton

Hatching Twitter A True Story of Money Power Friendship and Betrayal Reviews

• 
  Eklein

  This book in less than 140 characters Nick Bilton really really hates Jack DorseyHatching Twitter ultimately has a lopping meta uality to it It's about the fight between the four founders for control of both the company and the origin story But it is itself part of the fight between the four founders for control of both the company and the origin story This is a fight that Biz Noah and Ev win even as it's a fight that they've or less lost in real life But their victory in the book is so complete as to be suspicious Bilton is so skeptical of Dorsey's motives and so trusting of the other founders that the account begins to read as overwhelmingly one sided even as it's deeply reported including with Dorsey This is perhaps most glaringly obvious in the closing vignettes where no serious spoilers Jack's win is presented as a loss because basically he hasn't yet started a family of his own Bilton's rooting interest is clearIt's perhaps unfair to criticize a book for being about what it's about rather than what you want it to be about But you learn precious little about Twitter as a technology or as a business here The ousting of Ev for instance is clearly a complex story than the Jack as svengali narrative that Bilton presents There's a reason all these top investors with huge money on the line made the decisions they did But it's a story that's glossed over in favor of a reconstruction of Dorsey's garden variety scheming to return to the company Hatching Twitter is a uick read and thick with excellent reporting But in the end Twitter is a lot interesting than Ev or Noah or Jack or Biz I'd have liked to learn about it
• 
  Dino-Jess ✮ The Book Eating Dinosaur ✮

  I FUCKING LOVE THIS BOOKWITH ALL MY HEART ITS EVERYTHING I HOPED FOR AND MOREThis book made my heart hurt a lot I know they say never do business with friends and all that but the ruthlessness with which the start up businesses in Silicon Valley treat their founders and engineers was positively shocking There are so many truth bombs in here the social commentary on today's trends that were shaped BECAUSE OF the creation of Twitter and other new and emerging technologies was absolutely fantastic The writing in this is spectacular I felt like I was a co founder going through the ups and downs of being involved in a technology start up in Silicon Valley myself I can totally see why this has been optioned for television We know which characters we are supposed to like and which ones we are supposed to despise and then there are a few that creep up on you and take you by surprise This book was utterly fascinating I learnt a lot about Twitter about Silicon Valley about venture capitalism about life and about loneliness I cannot recommend this book highly enough It was the fucking best and I have already bought a copy to keep as I have to return this one to the library I will leave you with this uote that really reflects on the real reason that Twitter was originally created to help people feel less lonely In the centre of every big city in the world surrounded by noise and teeming millions of people are lonely people Loneliness is not so much where you are but instead is your state of mind ONE THOUSAND STARSWill read anything this man writes LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVEI imagine Ev as Donald from Silicon Valley MY FAVI was put onto this book after reading this wonderfully educational article about silk road and since the book version of that story is not yet complete I will make do with this bad boy instead
• 
  Andy

  A stunning modern day story of a company trying to find it's identity in a medium social media that barely knows what it is Zuckerberg may have been an a hole but at least he isn't Jack Dorsey
• 
  Bren

  “In the past history was always written by the victors But in the age of Twitter history is written by everyone” ― Nick Bilton Hatching Twitter A True Story of Money Power Friendship and BetrayalWhy is it that when smart executives get together and build something that turns into a billion dollar idea inevitably lawsuites arguments and bitter divides follow? We saw it with Facebook and apparently the inventors of Twitter are no differentNot being a twitter member myself I still had an interest in reading about the makers of it What I discovered wasn't great This book is packed full of information and does a good job explaining to readers the story of how Twitter came to beWhile I enjoyed the book surprisingly alot after awhile I had to skim a bit as all the fighting and arguments between the founders got to be to much It is still a good read though and worth taking a look at
• 
  Nathan

  It's bizarre to read a True Life Story about people you know Writing any kind of history is a fraught project because the nature of the beast is that the people who talk to the author are the ones who get their side of the story preserved It's clear from reading it who had Bilton's ear and who didn't Bill Campbell advisor to the CEO in particular comes across as a very loose unit a testosterone crazed shoot first wingnutThat aside taking the version of history presented at face value it's good to see human complexity and weakness writ large in a business book Most business biographies are hagiographies elevating some worthy CEO to Sainthood Nobody gets a clear pass here because pressure and success amplify faults whether indecision greed naivete sloth This much gels with my experienceEntertaining and perhaps thought provoking than intended because I was closer to it that most readers
• 
  Jonathan Kroopf

  This book is written like a bad valleywag or pando blog post I knew very little going in and did learn a lot Had no idea Dorsey was pushed out of the company and was at odds with the former founders I had also never heard of Noah Glass who was written out thecompany's history despite being on the founding team and coining the name TwitterMy problem was not with the facts but how they were presented The author pits Dorsey vs Williams and makes no attempt to hide that he is so clearly in favor of the latterThe problem is the author over emphasizes Dorsey's mistakes and lets Ev off the hook for his failed vision and lack of execution He just glosses over the fact that Ev didn't see the vision for mobile and Dorsey did As if it was just a minor flaw Doesn't even mentioned that Twitter epically failed to build a mobile app in the beginning letting TweetDeck swoop in I'm sorry but I don't care how good of a guy Ev was That mistake was huge So huge that it could have bought down Twitter and it also most did The author spends a paragraph talking about how Uber media got close to undermining Twitter Dorsey might be an A hole but he is not the dumb luck guy the author makes him out to be He knew mobile was the future He went built another billion dollar company on that That's another point Today it is widely accepted that Twitters entire future is reliant on mobile If your evaluating Jack's leadership ability or design capabilities how do you not treat Suare as an after thought? The board didn't screw Ev over like the author would have you believe They were smart They brought the guy in who can make good decisions Williams missed the boat on mobile and for that he showed ineptitude that is not worthy for a CEO positionWhen Dorsey got pushed out of Twitter he went and built the most disruptive financial product since PayPal Suare is already valued at 3 billion 10x of Blogger What has Williams done since he was pushed out? Dorsey has a lot of flaws as do many successful leaders As much as the author uses this book to bash on Jack he can't argue with the facts
• 
  Marilee Turscak

  A thrilling and vivid narration of the formation of Twitter It contains fascinating stories of the drama surrounding the history of founders Jack Evan Biz and Noah The journalism is incredibly detailed and thorough and the story is a consistent page turner Author Nick Bilton compiles hundreds of interviews with Twitter employees and documents secrets never before revealed It is much interesting than the history of Facebook and also far controversial A group of young brilliant and rebellious geeks from nowhere become friends and accidentally found one of the most successful companies in the world only to lose much of what they earned in bitter rivalry Lots of backstabbing lots of fun personal stories and a fair share of dark humor and irony A brilliant piece of storytelling even if you have no interest in Twitter
• 
  Thor

  Having observed this true story from close uarters I can say that Bilton captures the essence of it at least from a human interest standpoint One could uibble over details that don't really matter but he distills something essential of the startup experience that it's ultimately about human relationships and trust and that these are hard won but easily lost
• 
  Troy Blackford

  A fascinating and in depth account of Twitter's creation and rise from the conditions that led to its founders meeting to the shady and shabby way that the current power structure shook outThis is a seriously intense story As people involved in the creation of the site have pointed out it's a shame that it didn't delve into the technical aspects of the site's creation as that would have been interesting to hear about But the personal intrigues and difficulties are than worthy enough of a book This was intenseOne thing I can say is that fiction definitely has an advantage that this non fiction book doesn't Any fiction book worth its salt that featured a character as conniving backstabbing whiny and obsessive as Jack Dorsey would have dealt with him with satisfying maliciousness by the end Pity that real life isn't as neat and tidy as a novel
• 
  Kelly

  Pretty fascinating to read about the serendipitous nature of how the founders of Twitter got togetherand how they came up with the idea and even the name For example Evan Williams was in a magazine photo before Twitter was even a thought in his head and his neighbor Noah Glass saw the picture recognized the kitchen Evan was in turned toward his window and realized the picture was taken in the apartment he was seeing from his window He introduced himself to Evand the rest is history The failures changing of business models betrayals office politics ruined friendships and marriages as well as several staged coups are unbelievable But I guess you can put up with that rubbish for a while if you end up a billion dollars richer ;