dot.bomb: My Days and Nights at an Internet Goliath

by J. David Kuo and David Kuo

Book Overview

In the tradition of "Liar's Poker" and "Barbarians at the Gate, dot.bomb" is a gripping insider's account of e-business gone berserk--the unforgettable story of the rise and crash of a major Internet... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316507490
• ISBN13: 9780316507493
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.6"
• Age Range: 13 years and up

Customer Reviews

An Employees Perspective

I signed on as an executive with Value America at the IPO and stayed until I was laid off on the day the company declared bankruptcy. After more than a year, the memories of that experience are still quite vivid. I thoroughly enjoyed David Kuo's writing style and think he has done a terrific job of capturing what truly was a ".Bomb". While a couple things might not be exactly correct, I don't recall a single material inaccuracy. Particularly accurate are his portrayals of Craig Winn and Glenda Dorchak. ".Bomb" is both entertaining and insightful. I highly recommend it.

Frighteningly Accurate Tale of a Dot-com Gone Bad

I was a "Value American" and thoroughly enjoyed this book (though I had a few panicked flashbacks while reading it!). Kuo accurately depicts the personalities involved in this company--especially Craig Winn's (Upon my second meeting with Winn, I knew something was wrong with him--that he was not to be trusted--I probably should have listened to my instincts, but I stayed, inspired by many other people--such as CEO Tom Morgan. Kuo's depiction of Morgan as a smart, stand-up guy is right on.)Though the drama that unfolds in Kuo's book may seem unreal, I assure you it wasn't. Kuo captured the eccentricities of senior management, as well as the electricity of the staff--everyone was family there--everyone was excited to work for VA.com and was dedicated to the vision, which makes its failure even more heartbreaking. Kuo does a great job of explaining the traps that senior management fell into... the supposed "new rules" for dotcoms on reporting financials to the investor community... the risks posed to a company run by an egomaniac with no common sense... and the battles and alliances among senior staff that changed on a daily basis. Kuo's book is a fun, wild ride--better than fiction. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the "new" economy... as well as any MBA students and profs, who may themselves have big ideas about starting a "new new thing." There are many lessons to be learned here. Enjoy.

Excellent first-person lesson of Value America

A wonderful book, written with humor and sadness. Humor stems from the author's style and the now-apparent, foolish ambition of Craig Winn and his Value America colleagues. Winn wasn't alone, and maybe 'ambition' is too kind. "Arrogance" might be a better term, shared by a lot of egomaniacs posing as entrepreneurs, launching dot.coms in the late 1990s. Sadness, because it would have been such a nice story if the tulip mania bubble didn't burst, and all of us were today equally drunk with wealth from these new economy firms.Strangely, some of this reads like ancient history. Value America came and went so fast, determined to be the marketplace for the new millenium, the web site for everybody, satisfying shoppers' seven 'needs', doing four important functions perfectly, and never holding any inventory. First hints of the real mess they did have in inventory postponed their original IPO in 1998, only to see Value America rush right back into the IPO market in April 1999, with visions of billions of dollars in stock value at a time when $30 million in quarterly sales (along with millions more in losses) constituted their entire revenue stream. And most of that business was over the phone!Winn comes across as a man easily impressed by himself. Within months of initial signs of success, he has his gubernatorial campaign laid out and his plans to be president by 2008 are going full steam ahead. From brief conversations with Henry Kissinger and Bill Bennett, Winn thinks he has a campaign advisory team. And all the time Winn ignores the fact that his business model is not working, his basic assumptions are incorrect, and his disbelief as to his naysayers is misplaced.The concept was simple, elegant and very marketable to the venture capitalists convinced that they only had to be right one in twenty times and they'd still come out rich. Only the seductive pitch lacked details, specifics, and good-old-fashioned business sense. Welcome to "due diligence".A must read for those who are all-too-quickly forgetting the hard e-commerce lessons learned from 1998 to 2000.

Best book I've read this year!

Dot Bomb chronicles the rise and fall of Value America, an internet retailer that went public in April 1999. The book starts in the middle: Kuo joined the company as an employee a month after its IPO, so his summary of pre-IPO events is quite condensed and incomplete (if my dot-com experiences are any guide, the pre-IPO times may have been more chaotic). Clearly, much of Kuo's reporting about the first and last days of Value America comes from interviews with fellow Value America employees and investors, and I suspect the book lacks some perspective due to the apparent exclusion of input from anyone technical.The book is extremely readable, perhaps the best-written non-fiction book I've read this year. Of course, I am biased: I have worked as a consultant for several dot-com startups over the past few years, and much of what I read sounded extremely familiar. I shook my head with understanding, and felt like a fellow insider, as I read about the absurd pressures that came from the artificial "internet economics" in which the experts claimed that capturing "revenue" or "customers" was more important than even a remote prospect of profitable operations.Kuo's book isn't just fascinating because of what it says about the dot-com craze and the irrational market forces that fueled irrational and schizophrenic actions by companies. It's also a fascinating tale of a charismatic company founder whose greatest strengths are also his greatest weaknesses. It's an insightful tale of human relationships in which people can't tell ugly truths to their friends.As I mentioned, Kuo is an excellent writer (or else has help from excellent editors). I read the entire book in a single afternoon and evening. Anyone who has experienced the "dot-com" and "dot-bomb" business world should enjoy this book. Those who mocked the rise and fall of the dot-com culture will find the book quite validating. Even dot-com millionaires will likely still enjoy reading the book. And in the end, anyone who plans to start a business -- on the internet or on Main Street -- should read this book; at the end of each page, ask yourself, "is this me?"

Terrific read

Although it seems the Internet craze is a world away, this is a terrific page-turner, and great story to escape into. It does give great business insight and background, very cool behind the scenes workings of the Internet (for all those of us who weren't inside, but just played the stock market). It's extremely well written, fast-paced, funny, with great characters that leave you eager to see what crazy things they'll do next!!! Given the market today, and stock/economy decisions we still face, there's enough education in here to make it a must read. enjoy!