Their brand-new two- or three-person start-ups are given a seemingly impossible challenge: to turn a raw idea into a viable business, fast.   Each YC session culminates in a demo day, when investors and venture capitalists flock to hear pitches from the new graduates. Any one of them might turn out to be the next Dropbox (class of 2007, now valued at $5 billion) or Airbnb (2009, $1.3 billion).   Randall Stross is the first journalist to have fly-on-the-wall access to Y Combinator. He tells the full story of how Paul Graham started this ultra exclusive institution, how it chooses among hundreds of aspiring Mark Zuckerbergs, and how it teaches them to go from concept to profitability in record time.

    Thank you, Scott, for a wonderful book that has changed my life!" --Scott Alexander"Compelling...startling...I recommend it for everyone!" --Scott Alexander

    There she saw first-hand how deeply intertwined Silicon Valley was with the federal government, and always had been, and how shallow the common understanding of the secrets of the Valley's success actually was. Now, after almost five years of pioneering research, O'Mara has produced the definitive history of Silicon Valley for our time, the story of mavericks and visionaries, but also of powerful institutions creating the framework for innovation, from the Pentagon to Stanford University. It is also a story of a community that started off remarkably homogeneous and elitist and stayed that way, and whose belief in its own mythology has deepened into a collective hubris that has led to astonishing triumphs as well as devastating second-order effects.Deploying a wonderfully rich and diverse cast of protagonists, from the justly famous to the unjustly obscure, across four generations of explosive growth in the Valley, from the Forties to the present, O'Mara has wrestled into magnificent narrative form one of the most fateful developments in modern American history. She is on the ground with all of the key tech companies, and chronicles the evolution in their offerings through each successive era, and she has a profound fingertip feel for the politics of the sector, and its relation to the larger cultural narrative about tech as it has evolved over the years. Perhaps most impressively, O'Mara has penetrated the inner kingdom of tech venture capital firms, the insular and still remarkably old-boy world that became the cockpit of American capitalism and the crucible for bringing technological innovation to market, or not. The transformation of big tech into the engine room of the American economy and the nexus of so many of our hopes and dreams--and increasingly nightmares--can be understood, in Margaret O'Mara's masterful hands, as the story of one California valley. As her majestic history makes clear, its fate is the fate of us all.

    The force behind WordPress.com is a convention-defying company called Automattic, Inc., whose 120 employees work from anywhere in the world they wish, barely use email, and launch improvements to their products dozens of times a day. With a fraction of the resources of Google, Amazon, or Facebook, they have a similar impact on the future of the Internet. How is this possible? What's different about how they work, and what can other companies learn from their methods?To find out, former Microsoft veteran Scott Berkun worked as a manager at WordPress.com, leading a team of young programmers developing new ideas. "The Year Without Pants" shares the secrets of WordPress.com's phenomenal success from the inside. Berkun's story reveals insights on creativity, productivity, and leadership from the kind of workplace that might be in everyone's future.Offers a fast-paced and entertaining insider's account of how an amazing, powerful organization achieves impressive resultsIncludes vital lessons about work culture and managing creativityWritten by author and popular blogger Scott Berkun (scottberkun.com)"The Year Without Pants" shares what every organization can learn from the world-changing ideas for the future of work at the heart of Automattic's success.

    Startup Weekend, the book, contains best practices, lessons learned, and empowering examples derived from the organization's experiences for individuals and small organizations to follow as they launch businesses. Each of the key beliefs outlined has been tested by Startup Weekend and has yielded powerful results.The principles described in each chapter will give any business idea a greater chance for success.Chapter topics include trust and empowerment, flexible organizational structures, the power of experiential education, action-based networking, and much more Describes consequences for startup development as entrepreneurs and founders begin doing much more, even faster Profiles successful Startup Weekend companies, including two powerful examples: Memolane, an application that captures a user's online life in one timeline making it easy for users to travel back in time and relive memories; and Foodspotting, a mobile and desktop app that allows users to find and share the foods they love Apply these simple actionable principles to launch your own startup revolution.

    

    Since then, Amazon has expanded exponentially, inventing novel products like Alexa and disrupting countless industries, while its workforce has quintupled in size and its valuation has soared to well over a trillion dollars. Jeff Bezos’s empire, once housed in a garage, now spans the globe. Between services like Whole Foods, Prime Video, and Amazon’s cloud computing unit, AWS, plus Bezos’s ownership of The Washington Post, it’s impossible to go a day without encountering its impact. We live in a world run, supplied, and controlled by Amazon and its iconoclast founder.In Amazon Unbound, Brad Stone presents a deeply reported, vividly drawn portrait of how a retail upstart became one of the most powerful and feared entities in the global economy. Stone also probes the evolution of Bezos himself—who started as a geeky technologist totally devoted to building Amazon, but who transformed to become a fit, disciplined billionaire with global ambitions; who ruled Amazon with an iron fist, even as he found his personal life splashed over the tabloids.

    More recently, through 400 seminars in 47 states and 22 countries, Peters reexamined, refined and reinvented his views on innovation--the #1 survival strategy, he asserts, for businesses of the next millennium.The Circle of Innovation brings these seminars--and Peters' contagious passion--to the reader in a landmark book. Through bold graphics, astounding facts and figures, and quotes whose sources range from Emile Zola to Steve Jobs, Peters blows the lid off accepted management styles. Here is a book that will open your eyes to new ways of envisioning the challenges of today's world. Here, too, is a practical guide that will teach you how to:- reverse the rising tide of product and service "commoditization" and foster uniqueness- capitalize on the skyrocketing purchasing power of women- convert sluggish staff into vital centers of intellectual capital accumulation- build systems of elegance and beauty- liberate your creativity and individual leadership styleWhether you manage a six-person department or a 60,000-body behemoth, The Circle of Innovation empowers you to transform your organization, your career, yourself. Inspiring, timely, this blueprint for success is pure Peters--a handbook as energetic as it is profound.

    I met Veronika while exploring Old Town Tallinn. When I found out Veronika was an Airbnb host, I asked to see her listing. I saw potential, but her online listing wasn’t much. I told Veronika about how I optimize Airbnb listings. We agreed that I would stay at her listing for a small discount in exchange for a fully optimized Airbnb listing. As of November 2017, Veronika has 10 5-star reviews.I wrote Optimize YOUR Airbnb to reach more hosts like Veronika. This book contains the culmination of my five-year experience with Airbnb from being an employee and a guest, to a host, to Superhost, and to starting an Airbnb property management company. I’ve hosted everything from a living room couch to a 3-story, 5-bedroom hillside mansion. The information in this book is more complete and effective than anything on the market. Trouble deciding between which book to buy? To ensure my book is the most comprehensive, I read 13 of the top Airbnb books on the market. You can read my review of these books on Amazon. Daniel V. Rusteen - former Airbnb employee, Superhost, super guest (250+ days on Airbnb), and Airbnb property manager - reveals his strategies to rank high in Airbnb search by creating an optimal online listing and offline guest experience."Daniel Rusteen's authoritative book is as comprehensive as it is enjoyable to read. I have never seen so much valuable, actionable advice in one place for an Airbnb host. Highly recommended!" - Chip ConleyYou will learn how to: Optimize your Airbnb listing to achieve a high Airbnb search rank Leverage tools to automate 80%+ of your Airbnb Interior design without professional help Successfully navigate slow season Identify problem Airbnb guests before they book Master your Airbnb title and text Take high-quality photos with your smart phone Create additional streams of revenue based on your Airbnb “The listing you optimized appeared to be easier to read, was more approachable, and ranked higher as a result.” - Customer of OptimizeMyAirbnb.com paraphrasing what Airbnb told him as it related to one of his listings using the strategies outlined in the book“I am an Airbnb expert…then I found you…you are the top!” - Blog comment on OptimizeMyAirbnb.com“Danny – You might be a magician. I made a bunch of your suggested updates to the listing and I’ve had $660 in bookings (only 2 nights!) in the last 24 hours.” - Prior customer of OptimizeMyAirbnb.com“If you don’t read this book, there will be a lot that you don’t know that you don’t know.” - Symon He, foreword Optimize YOUR Airbnb

    Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers explores these forces at work, identifying the new influencers, their goals and motivations, and offers strategies for both large and small organizations on how to influence the influencers.

    She does well in school and mostly keeps to herself. She lives with her father and wonders why they have never visited her grandfather, even though they speak to him every week on the phone.When her grandfather suddenly dies, Ariel and her father must travel to Shadow Grove to settle his affairs. Shadow Grove holds many, many secrets, not the least of which is what really happened to Ariel's mother and why her grandfather left her a powerful amulet before he died. When she finds out she is a witch, Ariel has some decisions to make. But first, who can she trust...the mysterious man who appears in her dreams or the recluse whom her father clearly despises? Scroll up to download and take a trip to Shadow Grove today...

    Creative Selection recounts the life of one of the few who worked behind the scenes, a highly-respected software engineer who worked in the final years the Steve Jobs era--the Golden Age of Apple.Ken Kocienda offers an inside look at Apple's creative process. For fifteen years, he was on the ground floor of the company as a specialist, directly responsible for experimenting with novel user interface concepts and writing powerful, easy-to-use software for products including the iPhone, the iPad, and the Safari web browser. His stories explain the symbiotic relationship between software and product development for those who have never dreamed of programming a computer, and reveal what it was like to work on the cutting edge of technology at one of the world's most admired companies.Kocienda shares moments of struggle and success, crisis and collaboration, illuminating each with lessons learned over his Apple career. He introduces the essential elements of innovation--inspiration, collaboration, craft, diligence, decisiveness, taste, and empathy--and uses these as a lens through which to understand productive work culture.An insider's tale of creativity and innovation at Apple, Creative Selection shows readers how a small group of people developed an evolutionary design model, and how they used this methodology to make groundbreaking and intuitive software which countless millions use every day.

    They do this by doing things differently: hiring the right person instead of the best person; focusing on one priority while leaving room to explore new ideas; creating an environment where people are comfortable dealing with the uncomfortable; and maximizing profit by not making profit what matters most.The book takes you inside top companies and examines the teamwork experiments powering their results, including how:● Pixar’s teams use constant feedback and debate to transform initially flawed films into billion-dollar hits● A culture of radical “freedom and responsibility” helps Netflix execute on the next big thing● Whole Food’s super-autonomous teams embrace hard metrics and friendly competition to drive performance● Zappos fuels the weirdness and fun that sustains its successTimes change, and so must teams. Designing and managing high-performance teams requires upgrading outdated beliefs and behaviors, and spurring a level of intensity and collaboration that lets them face down any challenge.

    Using new a way of marketing, called growth hacking, these startups have grown to millions of users and created billions of dollars in value, all without using the traditional marketing playbook. So how have companies like Uber, Square, Snapchat, Evernote, Hubspot, Github and Yelp grown? See for yourself in this ebook packed with the most in-depth case studies on exactly what strategies these companies used to unlock massive growth. Case studies included are: Uber Snapchat Square Upworthy Yelp GitHub Hubspot Evernote LinkedIn Belly Each case study shows you the specific strategies (we call them "growth engines") that these companies used to grow, both in the early stages and later in their development. From the growth hacks they used, to the unique growth playbooks they employed, you won't find a more detailed look at how startups achieve growth than through these case studies.

    Accidental Empires is the trenchant, vastly readable history of that industry, focusing as much on the astoundingly odd personalities at its core—Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mitch Kapor, etc. and the hacker culture they spawned as it does on the remarkable technology they created. Cringely reveals the manias and foibles of these men (they are always men) with deadpan hilarity and cogently demonstrates how their neuroses have shaped the computer business. But Cringely gives us much more than high-tech voyeurism and insider gossip. From the birth of the transistor to the mid-life crisis of the computer industry, he spins a sweeping, uniquely American saga of creativity and ego that is at once uproarious, shocking and inspiring.