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1. Great book!
   It was very interesting to learn this process and sad at the same time. Thank you for sharing your experience and for all your hard work.

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2. The Life of a Business Idea, From Inspiration to Near Success to Crash and Burn
   This was a fun business story told with unusual finesse by Jerry Kaplan. Kaplan has an eye for detail that can make negotiations and other business meetings come alive.The plot tells the story of a high profile venture in the late 90s, Go Inc., from inspiration through fund raising and product development to fame, near success and ultimate failure. Anyone who may have thought about starting a new venture who wants to sit in the passenger seat and observe the whole ride in detail (though not too much detail — it’s an easy read) will enjoy. I wouldn’t say the book is highly educational in a process sense (how to do this, how to do that…), but it does give a lot of high level insight into the difficult tradeoffs and predatory practices that can be confronted in trying to grow a business in high tech. I read it in a few days and enjoyed it thoroughly.

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3. Must read.
   I read this book over the thanksgiving weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed it. This book shows what it takes to be passionate about technology. Startups are not for making quick money, but to solve the real-world problems, fast. There are some very important lessons to be learnt from GO/EO and I think Jerry has done a terrific job at being honest and telling it like a story and not a chronicle of events. I discovered some very talented people through this book (E.g. Mr. Kapor, Campbell) who are an inspiration. There are many parts of the story that one will not forget. For me there were two:1. Death of Jerry’s cat. My heart really pained after reading it.2. Jerry willing to bring on Campbell as the CEO. This showed that he was not part of GO so that he could be the CEO. I think this is a very important quality one must have.Again, a great read.-ranjeet

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4. Classic startup tale
   More than twenty years have passed since GO Corporation was founded (1987), but the lessons described by Jerry Kaplan still ring true today – the name of the company might as well be any new Web 2.0 startup. How do you turn an idea into a company? The financing, the partnership dance, working with your board and executive management, the technology race, and managing your personal life are all interwoven into a complex network of events that is a life of a startup. Aside from being a fascinating story, ‘Startup’ is a great text for any entrepreneur filled with dozens of useful quotes and insights.

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5. Smooth transitions
   It’s no easy feat to change your point-of-view multiple times while still managing to stay true to a cohesive story. This book is a rare find and an excellent tale of the life of a startup founder that holds up to this day.

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6. passes the smell test
   Though not quite as riveting and fascinating as its author probably thought it was, this is still a passably interesting tale of a young tech company founded more on dreams and possibiliy (thanks to venture capitalists) than tangible reality (during its four year existence doesn’t seem to bring any product to the market). This reads as a perfect how not to run a business – borrow too much of other people’s money and underestimate the competition (Microsoft plays the big bad villain here, but there are also jabs at IBM and Apple, probably undeserved) that might be forgiveable if Kaplan was some naive 21 year old techie at the start, but he wasn’t (late 30s).

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7. Engaging and informative but not at the same time
   I enjoyed learning the story of something I had not known about before. I appreciated the information, tidbits, insights, and tips. I wish it was done a little more cohesively. Sometimes you would be wrapped up in narrative only to find that you are slowed down by some long winded definition. At other times you really want to know who, what, why something happened and the book completely skips over it leaving you looking back through pages to find where you should have figured things out. It can be jarring trying to remember people when there are big gaps between their introduction and their usefulness. Or trying to remember a definition that was brought up in the beginning of the book but not referred to until the end. I wish I could have his perspective on both but written separately.

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8. Interesting and fun — this was a very enjoyable book!
   Startup detailed the life of a technical venture from birth to death in a fast-moving and entertaining style. Kaplan does a great job of explaining what it was like to be there and what obstacles they faced in their journey to bring the first pen based computers to market. Kaplan gives an appropriate level of detail when descibing situations without being ‘dry’. While another reader didn’t like this book because of the superfluous descriptions, I thought this made the book even better — it gave me a *feeling* of what it would have been like to be there in person. I missed many “bedtimes” when reading this book and I highly recommend it if you’re interested in business stories, start-ups, or technology stories.

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9. The book is an amazing account of the ups and downs of creating a startup in the Silicon Valley.Kaplan has an immersive storytelling and you feel you were with him during his meetings withVCs, partners and competitors.This book is worth every second you spend with it.

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