First 20 Million is the Hardest

by Po Bronson

When he dazzled the literary establishment in March, 1995 with Bombardiers , a stunning debut novel that skewered greedy Wall Street bond traders and satirized the inner workings of high finance, readers were scrambling to buy futures on Po Bronson's career.Now, Bronson unleashes his talent (and fury) on Silicon Valley and rips the top off the computer industry, tracking the routes of power, exposing the crisscrossed wiring, and poking fun at its obsolete components.Lloyd Acheson's firm, Omega Logic, needs a next-generation chip to keep its stock price propped up. Hank Menzinger squandered his research lab's cash reserves in a failed IPO and needs Omega Logic's support to save his institution. But master chip designer Francis Benoit's last chip for Omega was dumbed-down by software, and he's vowed to never let it happen again.New at the research lab is Andy Caspar, a young engineer who dreams of becoming a legendary "ironman" -- one of the handful of engineers (like those behind Netscape, Apple, and Intel) whose technological breakthroughs have secured them a place in history.Andy begins work on a new project, not realizing the extent to which he's caught up in the power struggle of the older men. The story reveals the brutal, absurd side of the industry, as Andy pushes forth with his dream but is betrayed at every turn.

Genres: Fiction, Business, Technology, Novels, Finance, Literature

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Po Bronson has built a career both as a successful novelist and as a prominent writer of narrative nonfiction. He has published five books, and he has written for television, magazines, and newspapers, including Time, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and for National Public Radio's Morning Edition. Currently he is writing regularly for New York magazine in the United States and for The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom.

Po Bronson's book of social documentary, What Should I Do With My Life?, was a #1 New York Times bestseller and remained in the Top 10 for nine months. He has been on Oprah, on every national morning show, and on the cover of five magazines, including Wired and Fast Company. His first novel, Bombardiers, was a #1 bestseller in the United Kingdom. His books have been translated into 18 languages. Po speaks regularly at colleges and community "town hall" events. He is a founder of The San Francisco Writer's Grotto, a cooperative workspace for about 40 writers and filmmakers. From 1992 to 2006 he was on the Board of Directors of Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. He lives in San Francisco with his family.

from pobronson.com

Reviews

[Leif Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not near as good as Bombardiers, still I think it's well worth reading, esp if you are from northern California.

[Bill Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this during my recent trip to Iceland. It's a look back at the golden days of Silicon Valley, before the bubble burst. I can't exactly say that I liked it, but the nostalgia factor made up for it. None of the characters were all that likeable - they are all caricatures of the various types of Silicon Valley people: the idealist computer scientist, geeks of several stripes, venture capital sharks, and all the rest. It reminds me a lot of the TV show "Code Monkeys" in a way.

[Doug Stotland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast moving, fun read that presents what feels like a fairly accurate picture of Silicon Valley between the PC and Internet revolution. As with other early Po Bronson books it's funny without being hilarious, provacative without being truly contrarian or insightful.

Hard not to like. Easy not to love.

[Amber Case · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Highly recommended, especially in the new bubble times we live in.

[Ned · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novel about one of the paths for a startup in the Silicon Valley. It's similar to the TV show Silicon Valley, however the book also outlines some of the business decision and technical dilemmas that a startup goes through. Entertaining with a lot of twists.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about a startup.

[Janusz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome history on how modern software business come into existence

[Matthew Kenaston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in my backyard, a quirky fictional tale of deception, cheating, greed, and the triumph of wit and determination. Andy Casper is the friendly ghost engineering wiz with salesman chops.

[PicknPop · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is unreadable in the modern day, since computers have upgraded so fast . The banality of the story underwhelmed me.

[Margot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Coding and politics. Silicon Valley in the early to mid-1990s, before the most recent boom-bust cycle of dot-commery.

We've got Andy Caspar, who reminds me slightly of Howard Roark, the protagonist of The Fountainhead. He is, of course, young and talented, thwarted by his superiors and his peers. What is a young man to do? Burn all his bridges, hopefully. Read if you're interested in the plot, because there's not too much style.

Here's a tiny taste:
"In room 139 was a big red-haired guy who looked like one of those plots of land allowed to return to its natural habitat--he was cavemanish, his beard climbing all the way to his eyes and descending right into his flannel shirt." (13)

"Andy Caspar hadn't expected to suffer this kind of hierarchical bullshit at La Honda--it was one of the reasons he'd accepted the invitation in the first place, to get away from the favoritism and politics at Stanford. But that was perhaps a foolish thing to hope for." (35)

[Aldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and engaging read about the race to design, venture-capitalize, and manufacture chips/computers in Silicon valley.

As a technie myself, I can't say I was stumped by the jargon or concepts in the book. To the author's credit, layman explanations were included to demystify concepts such as "infinite loops". And even if this book was released in the late 90's, the concepts where not too ancient to turn off tech people in the know.

Not unexpectedly, the main characters here are stereotypes such as the spoiled, obnoxious, manipulative, fast-living, but brilliant main chip designer (think Tony Starks of Silicon Valley) Francis; fat, shy, no-girlfriend-for-years computer whiz Tiny, socially-inept Darrell; and technically-smart but business-dumb Andy.

Definitely a must-read for techies.

[Muneer Uddin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel that in this book, Bronson has humanized Silicon Valley to an extent. The main characters in this book are actually fleshed out characters and not stereotyped uber-geeks.

Some of the other reviewers said that the book glosses over the technical aspects of computers too much. I disagree. I don't think Bronson dumbed down the computer explanations as much as summarized them in normal language. Having a lot of technical info in this book would detract from the main thing, which is the story.

All in all, Bronson has written a fine book. The book has lots of twists and turns and is a page turned until the end.

[christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome book - if you have been in startups like I have where you were hustling for seed money or capital, you'll love this book. Set in Woodside, the places will be familiar to you if you're in the Silicon Valley VC/startup world.

[JDK1962 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this. Bought it at the Stanford University bookstore when I was presenting at a conference there, and read it before I left. Reading it in the surroundings of Palo Alto really added a dimension, but it's a great novel of geeks.

[Fussnik · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a very funny and gripping book. I can't understand how this can be the same Po Bronson who writes sappy poetry for The Sun Magazine. Here he is in his author picture looking grunt perfect and masculine lovely. The kind of guy you.... oh yeah, the book, back to the book. You'll love it.

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find Po's books fun to read. They are light, witty and about my home both geographically and generationally. Fun to go back and read now that so much of what seemed futuristic in this book is now almost passé.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite of Po Bronson's books.

[joshua wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

that the first 20mil is hard.

[Kendall]

First Avon Books printing: July 1998

[KellyWells · Rating 3 out of 5]

great book - pretty computer technical, but a great portrayal of silicon valley competition.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, geeky read.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first Bronson book I read.... a must read to establish geek cred.. A satire novel on Apple and Microsoft ...

[Alex Urbanowicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The closest book I could compare this to is "Microserfs". This one is little more chaotic and this is a good thing, because it makes it more lifelike. No obvious ending, tho.

[Manuel Martín-Vivaldi · Rating 5 out of 5]

9. En español

[bookreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable Silicon Valley caper, fairly prescient about virtualization, mini PCs, and other technologies years before their time.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Movie was disappointing ... book was better and funnier