The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World Hardcover – January 31, 2017

I read this at warp speed. Like, I read it in the tube, I read it in a taxi (bad idea,) I read it while code was compiling. I had to know what happens next.Did it address any of the big issues about the sharing economy?Let’s put it this way: the author is very clearly aware of all the questions that come up. The narrative is always set in the context of the impact the sharing economy is having on all of us: those who work in it, those who share in it (and often would not have access to some rather basic services without it), those who invest in it, those who are fighting it, those who win from it and those who stand to lose.But “The Upstarts” is not an economics book or a sociology text.If you’re buying it to find out what’s about to happen to the hotel industry in North America (my take: 5% of the world’s population / 42% of the world’s hotel rooms before AirBnb came out of nowhere, you do the math), you’ve come to the wrong place. If you ordered the book to look for an analysis of how much unpaid tax is being transferred from heretofore protected cab drivers to the city hall and if the rest of us are left better off or worse off, again, you’ve come to the wrong place. Funky observations about how in London AirBnb is threatened with a ceiling on days while in New York it’s having to deal with a floor are conspicuous through their absence.The book does not particularly dwell on the long-term either. The rather rude fact that all money ever made from taxis has historically come from exercising market power? Look elsewhere. Uber and AirBnb’s prospects of dominating markets with only limited network effects? Pass.There’s good news here, though:If you bought “The Upstarts” to get to know Travis Kalanick and Brian Chesky, if you’d like to ride with them from their ramen noodle eating days to the David Guetta-DJ’d super parties, you have come to the right place. You could not possibly be in better hands than Brad Stone’s.If this book (which, let’s admit it, is a business book) had been written as a novel, it would still be pretty awesome. You get fed new faces only when they help develop the story and they’re woven into the narrative at a pace that will not leave you guessing. There is significant character development here too, as you witness young idealists transform into steely capitalists and, if you’re paying attention, there’s a bonus waiting for you in the shape of an mini-course in entrepreneurship!The author is not afraid to tell you why these guys are doing the winning, but he does not want to you take his word. He does the necessary work to get the view out of somebody else’s mouth. The director of Y Combinator, for example, leaves you in no doubt that the founders of AirBnb succeeded for one reason only: they were “cockroaches” who refused to die. So they kept it alive long enough on their own, until their “world is my oyster, I’m busy on a million better things” Harvard-grad, former teenage spamming industry millionaire friend deigned to turn his magic to their project. Significantly, the author is NOT making it up as he goes, he knows it all and he knows it first-hand. He’s on first-name basis with everybody in the industry that counts and he has not been shy about getting the story straight from the horse’s mouth, doing his own “cockroach” thing and stalking the young CEOs to the other side of the globe if that is what it will take to get an audience.I’m sure a lot of the detail is how “the good guys” see it (for example, do we really believe it was Travis who broke up with his girlfriend?) but the point is Brad Stone is only ever quoting first-hand here. He really is the man to write this story and he tells it in a style that would leave Quentin Tarantino breathless, jumping from Uber to AirBnb, via Zimride and Didi and all the regulators and competitors too. “Jumping” as in jumping and “jumping” as in tracking them all down to talk to them and giving them their chance to tell their story. It’s tremendous stuff. It never sags, it never lets up and it brings it all the way up to a couple hours before publication.Anything I didn’t like? Actually, yes: how about editing out every single instance of “this turned out to be the best investment he / she / it had ever made!” Not only does it get tiring, but most of these guys have not yet taken profit, have they? The story is compelling enough on its own, besides.

The book remains captivating by alternating between the stories of Airbnb and Uber every successive chapter. As you read through the book, both companies grow together (and often their stories overlap, such as whenever Travis and Brian meet). The parallels between the companies are obvious: run by young and relatively inexperienced leaders; grow by trending grey areas of legality; periods of turmoil and horrible PR gaffes; and a passionate user base that have become their biggest advocates in their fight against encroaching regulation.A lot of what is written about silicon valley goes back decades to follow the stories of companies such as Intel and Apple. These stories are of course fascinating, but don't leave much mystery as to what the future holds. And yet many of the books I've read which cover a more recent history of tech companies haven't been nearly as interesting as this book is.The book, unfortunately, trails off just before the turmoil at Uber really intensified. The aggressive tactics Uber has employed to fuel their expansion is very well covered, as are several PR failings of the company, but much of it was framed as only temporary setbacks. It would have been interesting to see if this re-framed the story at all, but perhaps it's still premature for a follow up.

Ironically, mostly in the back of Lyft and Uber’s on the way to one of the properties I manage on Airbnb.Here’s a quote from p. 13 when I suspected I was going to be pleased by the end of the book:“It is not a comprehensive account of either company, since their extraordinary sorties are still unfolding. It is instead a book about pivotal moments in the century-long emergence of a technological society. It’s about a crucial era during which old regimes fell, new leads emerged, new social contracts were forged between strangers, the topography of cities changed, and the upstarts roamed the earth.”Translation: This book dives deeper into fewer issues in the 9-year history of both companies rather than covering a vast amount of topics with little detail.Even though Airbnb and Uber are in the title of the book, it must have been about 70% Uber.Overall, I felt the book was really well researched and well put together from a storyline point of view. The Uber/Airbnb stories crisscrossed nicely. Actually, I was surprised at the amount of overlap from the founders both attending the 2008 presidential inauguration (though, from different perspectives) to friendships formed between Chesky and Kalanick in the early days that last through today.The book didn’t try to cover every topic over the past 8 years. Instead Brad Stone focused on fewer topics while adding more substance to them. As a prior Airbnb employee and an early adopter of Lyft and Uber, I still learned much from reading this book. Not to mention it was entertaining and more so based on storytelling rather than analyzing past events.I was pleased to learn that my memory of history is accurate (well, kind of). The Uber as we know it today has Lyft to thank. In 2012 when Lyft put those pink mustaches on their cars in San Francisco and popularized ride-sharing as we know it today, Uber was still a black car service for rich people. Uber copied Lyft about six months later and started allowing anyone to drive while offering lower cost alternatives to passengers. In reality, SideCar beat Lyft by about 2 months, but they no longer exist.The book went into an interesting history of Uber’s Chinese competitor, Didi Kuaidi (which means ‘honk-honk speedy’ in English) starting p. 303. It put some color to the news headlines, ‘Uber loses in China, sells to Didi.’A couple interesting factoids:Lyft was originally named Zimrides (short for Zimbabwe rides). Designer Harrison Bowden came up with ‘Lyft’.On New Yeas Eve 2015, 550K guests slept in Airbnbs; on NYE 2016, it was 1.3M; by the middle of 2016, 1.3M guests per night was the average.

A must read to understand the sharing economy. Very good insights and insides from the titanics of our time!Go on!

It is great to get an impartial story of how everything happened. The autjor manages to mention the good the bad about the companies and their founders. To me the on,y thing missing would be a picture of the cereal boxes.

just finished, its a great read if you want to know the story of Air BnB and Uber. the writer has done a good job to present the story in a detail and understandable way. language is simple and easy to understand. in the middle part some pages drags a little but its a part of the story so manageable. Uber story is great and the way it started and still fighting. Air Bnb start is inspiring and its growth remarkable. so there story becomes saturated after some time but uber continues to thrill you like a suspense drama. must read for everyone.

Brad Stone beschreibt den Aufstieg der zwei Tech-Giganten Airbnb und Uber sowie deren Parallelen. Sowohl Airbnb als auch Uber haben Milliarden an Risikokapital aufgenommen, teilweise von den gleichen Investoren. Ebenso lieferten sich beide Unternehmen heftige Gefechte mit den Behörden, aufgrund der Gesetztesverstöße. Beide Unternehmen sind vor rund acht Jahren auf Ba­sis des Smart­pho­ne-Booms in­ner­halb kür­zes­ter Zeit zu mil­li­ar­den­schwe­ren Technik-Giganten geworden. Ein sehr interessantes, gut geschriebenes Buch über die Entstehung zweier Start-ups aus denen Milliardenkonzerne geworden sind und wie diese die Welt verändern möchten. Brad Stone ist ganz nah dran und liefert viele Details. Ich kann dieses Buch uneingeschränkt weiterempfehlen!

Excelente libro. Narra y analiza muy bien el mundo de las startups a partir de los casos de Uber y Airbnb.