eBoys : The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work

Customer Reviews

What is really useful about the book in the context of the post-web-bubble experience is the excellent way it captures the mood and thinking of the time and the story behind some ventures whose outcomes were still unknown when the book was first published. We now know of e-Bay's staying power and WebVan's demise as well as the stories of several other companies discussed in the book.

Benchmark is still going strong with a talented team and an enviable portfolio. It would be wonderful to get a follow up article (maybe it has already been done) that shows how the Benchmark team handled the heat of the web meltdown and what their current portfolio thinking is. And, of course, it would be nice to get information on the whys and wherefores of Benchmark's foray into the international arena (it was contemplated in this book and, from the Benchmark website, it is now a reality).

This is well done (even if the language is real-life rough) and I am very glad to have read it. I recommend it highly.

The author's description of the prevailing attitudes and lingo at Benchmark and other venture firms seems out of place. He seems to be describing the macho environment of an investment bank rather than the more subdued approach of venture capitalists. But maybe that's the way things actually were at Benchmark in the late 1990s.

As a venture capitalist myself, I was surprised by the apparent lack of due diligence and the thin premises upon which the partners seemed to make their investment decisions. I'm sure this perception is in part a consequence of the author's intentional decision to gloss over the nitty gritty details. But explicit dialogue between the partners shows that the partners did in fact have a shoot-from-the-hip style. I am hardly qualified to question the partners' instincts when they were so successful. But I do think it is a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the industry as a whole.

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