Well 4 days ago I took this book from work to read. I picked a little at it during the week and found it and interesting read and only ~260 pages long which means I will be trough with in 1-2 weeks.
What is it about?
Basically it covers stories of how many start-ups started, grew and aether crumbled or set upon a pedestal from which it would be hard to push them . Mostly they are about internet as its a place where viral marketing is at its best but they also cover cases like Tuppleware or Ponzi scheme. But mostly they are about internet starting at story of Hot or Not, telling story of Mosaic/Netscape/IE and a guy who in a way was behind all of them (to my shame I did not know that). Basically those all are stories of internet start-ups that grew exponentially almost out of nothing in such short periods of time that it could seem ridiculous and unreal for people of age before internet.
Why you may find it interesting?
Well as mentioned above this book is about stories of successful exponential growth that mentions how it was achieved and what are the common pitfalls. Basically it is like a two sided sword that cuts in both directions. From one side you should make an interesting product(cheap and “want”) and give means and motivation for people to spread a word + be cheap and efficient on all the steps + being prepared to scale when exponential growth starts to kick in. Bad product will not be able to even start no meter how much advertisement money you pour in it, making it hard to spread will lower it’s virality and being not prepared for scaling you risk to fall under your own weight. But in internet with right idea today it is easier then ever before. All you need is an idea everyone will understand and want quickly + right tools or platform with viral channels and agile scaling on demand.
So if you are in any way interested in bringing webs attention to something be it some product, idea or tool go and find a way to get your hands on it. It will be worth it at least as a food for thoughts and source of motivation.
