dot com bomb

Having read so many stories, anecdotes and news articles on the irrational exuberance, there was no reason for me to buy this book "dot.bomb" except that flipping through it, I thought it might be interesting enough to hold my attention. The back cover also promised a tale spun around a single company - ValueAmerica - and that made it look interesting.

Luckily, the book did turn out to be interesting. It takes you through a roller coaster ride and keeps your attention, like any good thriller. The story is about first hand experience of J David Kuo at ValueAmerica - a company that promised to change the face of retail marketplace with an inventory less model; a company that had the backing and investment of ULLICO (Union Labour life insurance company), Paul Allen of Microsoft and Frederick Smith of Fedex. The CEO was not a 20-something techie, but a seasoned CEO from the old econonmy. All of this together couldnt save ValueAmerica from the crash, and the book seems to place the blame squarely on its CEO, Criag Winn. For the full story do read the book. Its light reading and exciting.

I do feel that even though the author has tried to lay out facts, without drawing inferences of any kind, the book does suffer from hindsight bias. The facts may have twisted around to show certain people as the bad guys and certain as good. Also the contribution of the author himself, good or bad, does not come out clearly in the book. The book seems to suggest that this was a company that built and lost its fortune on the shoulders of its CEO, Craig Winn, rather than the dot.com optimism/lunacy.

Overall the author seems to have done his best to be honest and give the true story, and for that itself, the book is worth a read. You will probably not miss much, if you do skip this book, but learning from mistakes is a good way to help prevent those in future. Recommended reading for anyone with startup ideas/mindset.