Grumby

by Andy Kessler

In this comic novel a band of hacker-geeks load state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, including working eyes, ears, spy software, and a smart mouth, into a bunch of old Furby dolls, re-christened Grumbies, network them together, sell millions, become rich and famous and make enemies/allies of Mossad, the CIA, Google, Microsoft, IRS, Goldman Sachs, the guys from Google, and Steve Jobs.

Genres: Fiction

408 pages, Hardcover

First published June 10, 2010

About the author

Andy Kessler is an investor, author and businessman.

Andy Kessler has worked for about 20 years as a research analyst, investment banker, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. He was also the Co-founder and President of Velocity Capital Management, an investment firm based in Palo Alto, California, United States.

He has written forThe Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Wired, Forbes, The Weekly Standard, the Los Angeles Times and The American Spectator.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly funny, quick read, highly realistic startup economics, highly unrealistic product development, even less realistic on the recruitment of developers. An indian friend does not magically cause 1,000 great devs to appear. But a fun time, and I liked the spy angle, more books need random spy angles.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced story about a start-up company in silicon valley. A couple intelligent coders start from nothing and eventually go public with a furby type computer/toy that can pretty much do anything they want it to do. Sounds weird but definitely worth reading. Although fictional and some of the technology seems a little far-fetched, I found it highly entertaining and some of it seems to be based on some real facts relating to other tech companies.

[Ric Gwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like Andy Kessler's work. And his previous works have been very revealing of the inner workings of technology and the capital markets. And Grumby is no different. I only hope he misses with this story because if he's right again look out. Great piece of work, definitely worth the time to read

[Nic Brisbourne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous romp through the life of a manic startup this. Mostly interesting because of the all intelligent networked, distributed, supercomputer driven world it describes evolving with unbelievable speed, and without stretching credibility too much..... there are no time machines or teleporters here.

[Martin Linkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendous read on ideas, technology, start ups, raising talent, going public, spending money, hiring and retaining talent.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot and found it hard to put down. The story is engaging. As somebody in the Silicon Valley tech scene, I found the plot and details to be spot on (and funny).

[Jarin Udom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you have any aspirations of doing a tech startup. This book is the new Microserfs :)

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Plot similar the Cory Doctorow's "Makers" but with a stronger emphasis on the investment/financial side. I enjoyed it