Johnson tell the definitive story of what has changed, what it means for businesses today, and how managers, entrepreneurs, and business owners can adapt and thrive in this new era.What do Google, Snapchat, Tinder, Amazon, and Uber have in common, besides soaring market share? They're platforms - a new business model that has quietly become the only game in town, creating vast fortunes for its founders while dominating everyone's daily life. A platform, by definition, creates value by facilitating an exchange between two or more interdependent groups. So, rather that making things, they simply connect people.The Internet today is awash in platforms - Facebook is responsible for nearly 25 percent of total Web visits, and the Google platform crash in 2013 took about 40 percent of Internet traffic with it. Representing the ten most trafficked sites in the U.S., platforms are also prominent over the globe; in China, they hold the top eight spots in web traffic rankings.The advent of mobile computing and its ubiquitous connectivity have forever altered how we interact with each other, melding the digital and physical worlds and blurring distinctions between "offline" and "online." These platform giants are expanding their influence from the digital world to the whole economy. Yet, few people truly grasp the radical structural shifts of the last ten years.

    Topics include: Strategies for risk management, such as market, credit, operating, reputation, legal, and funding riskKey investment banking operations including: venture capital and buyouts, Merger & Acquisitions services, equity underwriting, debt, underwriting securitization, financial engineering, investment management, and securities servicesThe latest information on competition and government regulationsRelationships between leveraged buyout (LBO) funds, hedge funds, and corporate and institutional clients

    In this remarkably instructive book, Ben dissects the entrepreneurship "gene," explaining that everyone has inherited it if they have an idea to make the world a better place. In Casnocha's case, he found a better way for city governments to communicate with constituents on the Web. Six years later, Comcate has dozens of municipal clients, a growing staff, and a record of excellence. This book is the story of his start-up, but also a conversation with his mentors, clients and fellow entrepreneurs about how to make a business idea work—and how to have the time of your life trying. From Pat Lencioni to Marc Benioff of salesforce.com, Ben has won over the best and brightest of the business world—now it's your turn!

     “Deeply reported and bracingly written, this book is an indispensable guide to modern innovation and entrepreneurship.” —Walter Isaacson, New York Times bestselling author of Code BreakerToday, PayPal’s founders and earliest employees are considered the technology industry’s most powerful network. Since leaving PayPal, they have formed, funded, and advised the leading companies of our era, including Tesla, Facebook, YouTube, SpaceX, Yelp, Palantir, and LinkedIn, among many others. As a group, they have driven twenty-first-century innovation and entrepreneurship. Their names stir passions; they’re as controversial as they are admired. Yet for all their influence, the story of where they first started has gone largely untold. Before igniting the commercial space race or jumpstarting social media’s rise, they were the unknown creators of a scrappy online payments start-up called PayPal. In building what became one of the world’s foremost companies, they faced bruising competition, internal strife, the emergence of widespread online fraud, and the devastating dot-com bust of the 2000s. Their success was anything but certain. In The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley, award-winning author and biographer Jimmy Soni explores PayPal’s turbulent early days. With hundreds of interviews and unprecedented access to thousands of pages of internal material, he shows how the seeds of so much of what shapes our world today—fast-scaling digital start-ups, cashless currency concepts, mobile money transfer—were planted two decades ago. He also reveals the stories of countless individuals who were left out of the front-page features and banner headlines but who were central to PayPal’s success. Described as “an intensely magnetic chronicle” (The New York Times) and “engrossing” (Business Insider), The Founders is a story of iteration and inventiveness—the products of which have cast a long and powerful shadow over modern life. This narrative illustrates how this rare assemblage of talent came to work together and how their collaboration changed our world forever.

    Today more than 5,500 P.E. firms own tens of thousands of companies, so it is essential for CEOs and senior management executives to understand exactly how private equity firms operate. This invaluable resource can help you devise a winning P.E. game plan for your own company that offers you greater freedom and financial success. CEO Adam Coffey has almost twenty years of experience building businesses for private equity companies. In this authoritative yet approachable handbook, he covers: · The history and landscape of private equity · Ground rules for finding the right firm to partner with · Techniques for navigating the new governance · Strategies for continued growth in the private equity space · And more. The Private Equity Playbook provides all the coaching you’ll need to compete and win on this new playing field.

    A well-timed purchase or a well-planned merger can boost both the immediate financial position and the long-term outlook for your organization.Conversely, these transactions can quickly spell your company's doom if they are not conceived and executed carefully, legally, and sensibly. Whether you're an M&A veteran or find yourself at the table for the first time, it's crucial to have an authoritative, soup-to-nuts reference to guide you through the many complex steps involved in these major business strategies.Mergers & Acquisitions from A to Z is a practical, hands-on resource for M&A participants on all sides of the transaction. The fully updated second edition covers the latest trends and best practices for structuring profitable deals, new rules and regulations in the age of the Sarbanes-Oxley act, and more. Clear and jargon-free, this authoritative book begins with a thorough overview, and then gives you extensive knowledge of the entire transaction process including:* Preparing for a Merger or Acquisition and Initiating the Deal. Understanding both the seller's and buyer's perspective is key, regardless of what your own role is in the transaction.* Preliminary Considerations and Documentation. The authors present the pros and cons of creating a letter of intent, and how to decide which kind to use (binding, non-binding, or hybrid).* Due Diligence. A thorough legal, financial, and operational analysis of the target business will identify and quantify any areas of concern.* Regulatory Considerations. These include general areas such as environmental, antitrust, securities, and others, as well as those issues specific to your industry or the situation.* Structuring the Deal. The architecture of the transaction will have profound effects on tax, accounting, shareholder, and other financial considerations for all the businesses involved.*Valuation and Pricing. Learn which valuation methods to use, and why the established value is only one component in calculating the actual purchase price.* Financing. How to determine if seller financing, venture capital, securities, and/or other alternatives are proper choices for your transaction.The book also offers complete sample documents including acquisition agreements and other legally required papers, strategies for alleviating post-closing challenges, and ""managing the deal-killers,"" the all-too-common mistakes and pitfalls that can derail even the most promising mergers and acquisitions. Finally, the authors take a look at a few of the alternatives to the M&A approach, including joint ventures, franchising, licensing, strategic alliances, and many others.The power your company can generate in concert with another is immense. With Mergers & Acquisitions from A to Z, you've got the crucial information and versatile tools to make the connection stronger, more durable, and more profitable for all involved."

    Within its pages, you'll find everything you need to successfully raise new business capital with the most attractive terms possible.Using informative case studies, detailed charts, and term sheet exercises, Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur discusses the basic principles of the venture capital method, strategies for raising capital, methods of valuing the early-stage venture, and proven techniques for negotiating the deal. The author leads you step-by-step through:Developing a Financing MapGetting to the First Stepping StoneUnderstanding the Unique Cash Flow and Risk Dynamics of Early Stage VenturesDetermining the Amount of Capital to Raise and What to Spend It onLearning How Venture Capital Firms ThinkCreating a Winning Business PlanFunding Early-Stage CompaniesAgreeing on a Term Sheet with a Venture CapitalistSetting Terms for Splitting the RewardsAllocating Control between Founders/Management and InvestorsAligning the Interests of Founders/Management and InvestorsThis invaluable guide also includes term sheet exercises that test your understanding of various financing situations facing companies. In addition, the book features three extensive case studies: the first covering a fictional start-up company used throughout the book, the second offering a stepping stone map, and the third presenting a term sheet used in practice by venture capitalists.

    This revised edition features amended chapters on choosing a business, adding partners, getting funded, and managing the business structure and employees, and also includes help understanding the latest tax and healthcare reform information and legalities.

    How to lead a "rich" life during trying economic timesIn The Secret of Shelter Island, nationally renowned financial analyst and bestselling author Alexander Green explores the complicated relationship we all have with money and reveals the road map to a rich life.Drawing on some of today's best minds and many of history's greatest thinkers, The Secret of Shelter Island is both a much-needed source of inspiration and an insightful look at the role of both money and values in the pursuit of the good life.Addresses what really matters when it comes to money and how to make smarter decisions with what you have Describes the profound connection between money, character, personal philosophy, and outlook Other bestselling titles by Green: The Gone Fishin' PortfolioIf you want to understand what ultimately provides meaning, contentment, and the satisfaction of a life well-lived, then read The Secret of Shelter Island.

    Blade Runner, The Matrix, Star Wars, Avatar, Star Trek, Ready Player One and Avengers show us futuristic worlds where holograms, intelligent robots, smart devices, virtual avatars, digital transactions, and universe-scale teleportation work together perfectly, somehow seamlessly combining the virtual and the physical with the mechanical and the biological. Science fiction has done an excellent job describing a vision of the future where the digital and physical merge naturally into one — in a way that just works everywhere, for everyone. However, none of these visionary fictional works go so far as to describe exactly how this would actually be accomplished. While it has inspired many of us to ask the question—How do we enable science fantasy to become....science fact? The Spatial Web achieves this by first describing how exponentially powerful computing technologies are creating a great “Convergence.” How Augmented and Virtual Reality will enable us to overlay our information and imaginations onto the world. How Artificial Intelligence will infuse the environments and objects around us with adaptive intelligence. How the Internet of Things and Robotics will enable our vehicles, appliances, clothing, furniture, and homes to become connected and embodied with the power to see, feel, hear, smell, touch and move things in the world, and how Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies will secure our data and enable real-time transactions between the human, machine and virtual economies of the future. The book then dives deeply into the challenges and shortcomings of the World Wide Web, the rise of fake news and surveillance capitalism in Web 2.0 and the risk of algorithmic terrorism and biological hacking and “fake-reality” in Web 3.0. It raises concerns about the threat that emerging technologies pose in the hands of rogue actors whether human, algorithmic, corporate or state-sponsored and calls for common sense governance and global cooperation. It calls for business leaders, organizations and governments to not only support interoperable standards for software code, but critically, for ethical, and social codes as well. Authors Gabriel René and Dan Mapes describe in vivid detail how a new “spatial” protocol is required in order to connect the various exponential technologies of the 21st century into an integrated network capable of tracking and managing the real-time activities of our cities, monitoring and adjusting the supply chains that feed them, optimizing our farms and natural resources, automating our manufacturing and distribution, transforming marketing and commerce, accelerating our global economies, running advanced planet-scale simulations and predictions, and even bridging the gap between our interior individual reality and our exterior collective one. Enabling the ability for humans, machines and AI to communicate, collaborate and coordinate activities in the world at a global scale and how the thoughtful application of these technologies could lead to an unprecedented opportunity to create a truly global “networked” civilization or "Smart World.” The book artfully shifts between cyberpunk futurism, cautionary tale-telling, and life-affirming call-to-arms. It challenges us to consider the importance of today’s technological choices as individuals, organizations, and as a species, as we face the historic opportunity we have to transform the web, the world, and our very definition of reality.

    It also chronicles the creation of the Ethereum blockchain from the mind of inventor Vitalik Buterin to the ragtag group of people he assembled around him to build the second-largest crypto universe after Bitcoin.Celebrated journalist and author Matthew Leising tells the full story of one of the most incredible chapters in cryptocurrency history. He covers the aftermath of the heist as well, explaining the extreme lengths the victims of the theft and the creators of Ethereum went to in order to try and limit the damage. The book covers:The creation of EthereumAn explanation of the nature of blockchain and cryptocurrencyThe activities of a colorful cast of hackers, coders, investors, and thievesPerfect for anyone with even a passing interest in the world of modern fintech or daring electronic heists, Out of the Ether is a story of genius and greed that’s so incredible you may just choose not to believe it.

    Building on lessons learned by studying numerous entrepreneurs, the book details the author's seven domains model for assessing new business ideas. The model is comprised of four market and industry domains and three related to the entrepreneurial team. These seven domains address the central questions in the assessment of any market opportunity: Are the market and industry attractive? Does the opportunity offer compelling customer benefits as well as distinct advantage over othe solutions to the customer's needs? Can the team deliver the results they seek and promise to others?

    Ten times. You can't afford not to hire them. But if you haven't been reading Joel Spolsky's books or blog, you probably don't know how to find them and make them want to work for you.In this brief book, Joel reveals all his secrets--from his years at Microsoft, and as the co-founder of Fog Creek Software--for recruiting the best developers in the world.If you've ever wondered what you should be looking for in a resume, if you've ever struggled to decide whether to hire someone at the end of an interview, or if you're wondering why you can't find great programmers, stop everything and read this book.

    He turned to the audience and shared his idea with the simple slogan: "Coinbase, the easiest way to get started with Bitcoin."For a moment late in 2018, one Bitcoin, which physically amounts to a few electrons blipping on a tiny bit of silicon, was worth $20,000—the same as a pound of gold. Libertarian technologists who believed Bitcoin would be the foundation of a new world order saw the moment as an apotheosis. Everyone else saw a bubble. Everyone else was right, and the bubble burst. But Bitcoin survived, and the battle for its soul rages on. True believers view it as the foundation for a future economy freed from the vicissitudes of Wall Street and government control of currency. Pragmatists believe that bringing Bitcoin into the mainstream will, as the Silicon Valley cliche goes, make the world a better place. But they need buy-in from traditional institutional systems that can prevent the crypto world from devolving into the lawless criminal bazaar it was becoming during the bubble.Journalist Jeff John Roberts drops us into the unfolding drama as he follows the rise, fall, and rebirth of cryptocurrency through the experiences of major players across the globe. We follow Silicon Valley entrepreneur Brian Armstrong and his company, Coinbase, as it tries to make Bitcoin easy to use and available to all while fighting off hackers, thieves, and zealots. Roberts keenly observes the importance of leadership and strategy in the developing field of virtual currencies and what happens when these guardrails are missing. His ability to explain crypto technology clearly and lay out the ramifications of its infiltration into the global financial system makes this book a must-read for leaders in every industry. The amazing story—full of startup hijinks, shady investors, billionaire bros and their Lambos, closed-door meetings with Jamie Dimon, hacking (so much hacking!), Libertarian free-state utopias in New Hampshire, and the Winklevoss twins—make this a page turner that readers will love.

    Based on numerous interviews, this book reveals exclusive new information about how Apple innovates, deals with its suppliers, and is handling the transition into the post Jobs era.