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Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal
Twitter seems like a perfect start-up success story. In barely six years, a small group of young, ambitious programmers in Silicon Valley built an $11.5 billion business out of the ashes of a failed podcasting company. Today Twitter boasts more than 200 million active users and has affected business, politics, media, and other fields in innumerable ways.
Now Nick Bilton of the New York Times takes readers behind the scenes with a narrative that shows what happened inside Twitter as it grew at exponential speeds. This is a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles as the four founders—Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass—went from everyday engineers to wealthy celebrities, featured on magazine covers, Oprah, The Daily Show, and Time’s list of the world’s most influential people.
Bilton’s exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting—drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails—have enabled him to write an intimate portrait of fame, influence, and power. He also captures the zeitgeist and global influence of Twitter, which has been used to help overthrow governments in the Middle East and disrupt the very fabric of the way people communicate.
Now Nick Bilton of the New York Times takes readers behind the scenes with a narrative that shows what happened inside Twitter as it grew at exponential speeds. This is a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles as the four founders—Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass—went from everyday engineers to wealthy celebrities, featured on magazine covers, Oprah, The Daily Show, and Time’s list of the world’s most influential people.
Bilton’s exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting—drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails—have enabled him to write an intimate portrait of fame, influence, and power. He also captures the zeitgeist and global influence of Twitter, which has been used to help overthrow governments in the Middle East and disrupt the very fabric of the way people communicate.
299 pages, Hardcover
First published November 5, 2013
About the author
Nick Bilton
7 books1,401 followersNick Bilton is a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, where he writes about technology, politics, business and culture. He is also a contributor to CNBC, and a former columnist and reporter for The New York Times.
He has written three books, including The New York Times bestseller, “Hatching Twitter,” which chronicled the turmoil and chaos inside Twitter as it grew from a fledgling startup to a multi-billion dollar company.
He has written three books, including The New York Times bestseller, “Hatching Twitter,” which chronicled the turmoil and chaos inside Twitter as it grew from a fledgling startup to a multi-billion dollar company.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,230 reviews
December 4, 2013
This book, in less than 140 characters: Nick Bilton really, really hates Jack Dorsey.
Hatching Twitter ultimately has a lopping, meta-quality to it: It's about the fight between the four founders for control of both the company and the origin story. But it is, itself, part of the fight between the four founders for control of both the company and the origin story. This is a fight that Biz, Noah, and Ev win even as it's a fight that they've more or less lost in real life.
But their victory in the book is so complete as to be suspicious. Bilton is so skeptical of Dorsey's motives, and so trusting of the other founders, that the account begins to read as overwhelmingly one-sided, even as it's deeply reported (including with Dorsey). This is perhaps most glaringly obvious in the closing vignettes, where -- no serious spoilers -- Jack's win is presented as a loss because, basically, he hasn't yet started a family of his own. Bilton's rooting interest is clear.
It's perhaps unfair to criticize a book for being about what it's about rather than what you want it to be about. But you learn precious little about Twitter as a technology or as a business here. The ousting of Ev, for instance, is clearly a more complex story than the Jack-as-svengali narrative that Bilton presents. There's a reason all these top investors with huge money on the line made the decisions they did. But it's a story that's glossed over in favor of a reconstruction of Dorsey's garden-variety scheming to return to the company.
Hatching Twitter is a quick read and thick with excellent reporting. But in the end Twitter is a lot more interesting than Ev or Noah or Jack or Biz. I'd have liked to learn more about it.
Hatching Twitter ultimately has a lopping, meta-quality to it: It's about the fight between the four founders for control of both the company and the origin story. But it is, itself, part of the fight between the four founders for control of both the company and the origin story. This is a fight that Biz, Noah, and Ev win even as it's a fight that they've more or less lost in real life.
But their victory in the book is so complete as to be suspicious. Bilton is so skeptical of Dorsey's motives, and so trusting of the other founders, that the account begins to read as overwhelmingly one-sided, even as it's deeply reported (including with Dorsey). This is perhaps most glaringly obvious in the closing vignettes, where -- no serious spoilers -- Jack's win is presented as a loss because, basically, he hasn't yet started a family of his own. Bilton's rooting interest is clear.
It's perhaps unfair to criticize a book for being about what it's about rather than what you want it to be about. But you learn precious little about Twitter as a technology or as a business here. The ousting of Ev, for instance, is clearly a more complex story than the Jack-as-svengali narrative that Bilton presents. There's a reason all these top investors with huge money on the line made the decisions they did. But it's a story that's glossed over in favor of a reconstruction of Dorsey's garden-variety scheming to return to the company.
Hatching Twitter is a quick read and thick with excellent reporting. But in the end Twitter is a lot more interesting than Ev or Noah or Jack or Biz. I'd have liked to learn more about it.
August 31, 2016
I FUCKING LOVE THIS BOOK
WITH ALL MY HEART
ITS EVERYTHING I HOPED FOR AND MORE!
This book made my heart hurt, a lot. I know they say never do business with friends and all that, but the ruthlessness with which the start up businesses in Silicon Valley treat their founders and engineers was positively shocking.
There are so many truth bombs in here - the social commentary on today's trends that were shaped BECAUSE OF the creation of Twitter and other new and emerging technologies was absolutely fantastic.
The writing in this is spectacular. I felt like I was a co-founder, going through the ups and downs of being involved in a technology start up in Silicon Valley myself. I can totally see why this has been optioned for television. We know which characters we are supposed to like, and which ones we are supposed to despise, and then there are a few that creep up on you and take you by surprise.
This book was utterly fascinating! I learnt a lot about Twitter, about Silicon Valley, about venture capitalism, about life and about loneliness.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It was the fucking best and I have already bought a copy to keep, as I have to return this one to the library.
I will leave you with this quote, that really reflects on the real reason that Twitter was originally created, to help people feel less lonely......
ONE THOUSAND STARS
Will read anything this man writes. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I imagine Ev as Donald from Silicon Valley. MY FAV.
I was put onto this book after reading this wonderfully educational article about silk road and since the book version of that story is not yet complete, I will make do with this bad boy instead.
WITH ALL MY HEART
ITS EVERYTHING I HOPED FOR AND MORE!
This book made my heart hurt, a lot. I know they say never do business with friends and all that, but the ruthlessness with which the start up businesses in Silicon Valley treat their founders and engineers was positively shocking.
There are so many truth bombs in here - the social commentary on today's trends that were shaped BECAUSE OF the creation of Twitter and other new and emerging technologies was absolutely fantastic.
The writing in this is spectacular. I felt like I was a co-founder, going through the ups and downs of being involved in a technology start up in Silicon Valley myself. I can totally see why this has been optioned for television. We know which characters we are supposed to like, and which ones we are supposed to despise, and then there are a few that creep up on you and take you by surprise.
This book was utterly fascinating! I learnt a lot about Twitter, about Silicon Valley, about venture capitalism, about life and about loneliness.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It was the fucking best and I have already bought a copy to keep, as I have to return this one to the library.
I will leave you with this quote, that really reflects on the real reason that Twitter was originally created, to help people feel less lonely......
"In the centre of every big city in the world, surrounded by noise and teeming millions of people, are lonely people. Loneliness is not so much where you are, but instead is your state of mind."
ONE THOUSAND STARS
Will read anything this man writes. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I imagine Ev as Donald from Silicon Valley. MY FAV.
I was put onto this book after reading this wonderfully educational article about silk road and since the book version of that story is not yet complete, I will make do with this bad boy instead.
November 6, 2013
A stunning modern day story of a company trying to find it's identity in a medium, social media, that barely knows what it is. Zuckerberg may have been an a-hole, but at least he isn't Jack Dorsey.
February 12, 2020
“In the past, history was always written by the victors. But in the age of Twitter, history is written by everyone.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal
Why is it that when smart executives get together and build something that turns into a billion dollar idea, inevitably lawsuites, arguments and bitter divides follow? We saw it with Facebook and apparently the inventors of Twitter are no different.
Not being a twitter member myself, I still had an interest in reading about the makers of it. What I discovered wasn't great. This book is packed full of information and does a good job explaining to readers the story of how Twitter came to be.
While I enjoyed the book (surprisingly alot) after awhile I had to skim a bit as all the fighting and arguments between the founders got to be to much. It is still a good read though and worth taking a look at.
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal
Why is it that when smart executives get together and build something that turns into a billion dollar idea, inevitably lawsuites, arguments and bitter divides follow? We saw it with Facebook and apparently the inventors of Twitter are no different.
Not being a twitter member myself, I still had an interest in reading about the makers of it. What I discovered wasn't great. This book is packed full of information and does a good job explaining to readers the story of how Twitter came to be.
While I enjoyed the book (surprisingly alot) after awhile I had to skim a bit as all the fighting and arguments between the founders got to be to much. It is still a good read though and worth taking a look at.
January 4, 2014
This book is written like a bad valleywag or pando blog post. I knew very little going in and did learn a lot . Had no idea Dorsey was pushed out of the company and was at odds with the former founders. I had also never heard of Noah Glass, who was written out the
company's history despite being on the founding team and coining the name Twitter.
My problem was not with the facts, but how they were presented. The author pits Dorsey vs Williams and makes no attempt to hide that he is so clearly in favor of the latter.
The problem is the author over emphasizes Dorsey's mistakes and lets Ev off the hook for his failed vision and lack of execution. He just glosses over the fact that Ev didn't see the vision for mobile and Dorsey did. As if it was just a minor flaw. Doesn't even mentioned that Twitter epically failed to build a mobile app in the beginning, letting TweetDeck swoop in. I'm sorry, but I don't care how "good of a guy" Ev was . That mistake was huge. So huge that it could have bought down Twitter and it also most did. The author spends a paragraph talking about how Uber media got close to undermining Twitter.
Dorsey might be an A-hole, but he is not the dumb luck guy the author makes him out to be. He knew mobile was the future. He went built another billion dollar company on that! That's another point. Today , it is widely accepted that Twitters entire future is reliant on mobile. If your evaluating Jack's leadership ability or design capabilities how do you not treat Square as an after thought? The board didn't screw Ev over, like the author would have you believe. They were smart. They brought the guy in who can make good decisions. Williams missed the boat on mobile and for that he showed ineptitude that is not worthy for a CEO position.
When Dorsey got pushed out of Twitter, he went and built the most disruptive financial product since PayPal. Square is already valued at 3 billion, 10x of Blogger. What has Williams done since he was pushed out?
Dorsey has a lot of flaws, as do many successful leaders. As much as the author uses this book to bash on Jack, he can't argue with the facts.
company's history despite being on the founding team and coining the name Twitter.
My problem was not with the facts, but how they were presented. The author pits Dorsey vs Williams and makes no attempt to hide that he is so clearly in favor of the latter.
The problem is the author over emphasizes Dorsey's mistakes and lets Ev off the hook for his failed vision and lack of execution. He just glosses over the fact that Ev didn't see the vision for mobile and Dorsey did. As if it was just a minor flaw. Doesn't even mentioned that Twitter epically failed to build a mobile app in the beginning, letting TweetDeck swoop in. I'm sorry, but I don't care how "good of a guy" Ev was . That mistake was huge. So huge that it could have bought down Twitter and it also most did. The author spends a paragraph talking about how Uber media got close to undermining Twitter.
Dorsey might be an A-hole, but he is not the dumb luck guy the author makes him out to be. He knew mobile was the future. He went built another billion dollar company on that! That's another point. Today , it is widely accepted that Twitters entire future is reliant on mobile. If your evaluating Jack's leadership ability or design capabilities how do you not treat Square as an after thought? The board didn't screw Ev over, like the author would have you believe. They were smart. They brought the guy in who can make good decisions. Williams missed the boat on mobile and for that he showed ineptitude that is not worthy for a CEO position.
When Dorsey got pushed out of Twitter, he went and built the most disruptive financial product since PayPal. Square is already valued at 3 billion, 10x of Blogger. What has Williams done since he was pushed out?
Dorsey has a lot of flaws, as do many successful leaders. As much as the author uses this book to bash on Jack, he can't argue with the facts.
December 14, 2013
It's bizarre to read a True Life Story about people you know. Writing any kind of history is a fraught project, because the nature of the beast is that the people who talk to the author are the ones who get their side of the story preserved. It's clear from reading it who had Bilton's ear, and who didn't. Bill Campbell, advisor to the CEO, in particular comes across as a very loose unit, a testosterone-crazed shoot-first wingnut.
That aside, taking the version of history presented at face value, it's good to see human complexity and weakness writ large in a business book. Most business biographies are hagiographies, elevating some worthy CEO to Sainthood. Nobody gets a clear pass here because pressure and success amplify faults, whether indecision, greed, naivete, sloth. This much gels with my experience.
Entertaining, and perhaps more thought-provoking than intended because I was closer to it that most readers.
That aside, taking the version of history presented at face value, it's good to see human complexity and weakness writ large in a business book. Most business biographies are hagiographies, elevating some worthy CEO to Sainthood. Nobody gets a clear pass here because pressure and success amplify faults, whether indecision, greed, naivete, sloth. This much gels with my experience.
Entertaining, and perhaps more thought-provoking than intended because I was closer to it that most readers.
March 9, 2022
Mostly this just made me nostalgic for a time when we weren’t so connected online. Other takeaways include 1) Jack Dorsey is an absolute menace and 2) I will read anything Nick Bilton writes. Nick: if you’re seeing this I WOULD READ YOUR GROCERY LISTS
March 13, 2021
“In the past, history was always written by the victors. But in the age of Twitter, history is written by everyone.” ~ Nick Bolton
This is a biographical human interest tale of the four founders of Twitter and the power struggles which ensued in the company. Well told and well researched by a NY Times reporter.
Start-up four:
Biz Stone
Evan Williams
Noah Glass
Jack Dorsey
History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.~ Julian Barnes.
The intent of Blogger, Odeo, and ultimately Twitter was to give people from all over the planet an equal voice, to help those without power stand up against those who abuse power. ( There were already social media who served the purpose, such as Facebook and MySpace, Blogger, etc.) This is the story of how Twitter barged in with an initial 140-character service, initially intended to target mobile phones as an alternative to laptop computers for news. It leeched off telephone companies' SMS services by using the same technology to provide a free service. They later had to pay the telephone companies after backlash and lawsuits.
The struggle between Facebook and Twitter, the lies, deceit and betrayal: all elements which keep the tale riveting. (Aftermath: Facebook would later launch Whatsapp after Twitter owners reject Mark Zuckerberg's offer of a take over.)
The start-up techies who were employed by the Twitter co-founders to get things rolling were known at the time as 'hacktivists'-attacking anything contrary to their believes and ideals. They were part of an emerging group of protesters who used laptops instead of picket signs and blogs instead of bullhorns and who marched down the internet instead of paved streets. Their targets were bankers and governments. Havoc was the name of the game for someone like "Rabble" (real name Even Henshaw-Plath), who would be one of the new techies in the team. Blaine and Rabble posse, sticking to their anarchistic, antieverything mentality.
Big Tech is nothing different from politics or anything else where money and power is at stake. So this saga is nothing new really. The massive rise of Twitter's role in world politics, news media and social connection forced four young start-up individuals and their friends to evolve from anti-establishment youths to grown ups in a very short period of time.
Worth a read. A 2013 publication.
Now, in 2021, a totally different scenario exists. New social media start ups, massive movements away from Twitter and Facebook, the impact of Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal, Gab, Tik Tok, et al. It's a dog-eat-dog scenario with vicious competition and more wars. Facebook, Google and Twitters' political involvement in controlling content spurred the establishment of new social media platforms to counter the loss of free speech. More political and governmental involvement, etc. What started out as a social phenomenon ended up being something totally different. Question: Did Twitter, Google and Facebook become the abusers of power?
This is the real story of Twitter. Not the one Jack Dorsey would like the world to believe - according to Nick Bolton. The sequel(s) to this saga might be even more interesting. Although the evolving of technology is a fast-track saga which render any book capturing the tales dated in a short period of time, Nick Bolton wrote this one to set a record straight. For history's sake.
The story is worth telling. And worth following, I would say.
This is a biographical human interest tale of the four founders of Twitter and the power struggles which ensued in the company. Well told and well researched by a NY Times reporter.
Start-up four:
Biz Stone
Evan Williams
Noah Glass
Jack Dorsey
History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.~ Julian Barnes.
The intent of Blogger, Odeo, and ultimately Twitter was to give people from all over the planet an equal voice, to help those without power stand up against those who abuse power. ( There were already social media who served the purpose, such as Facebook and MySpace, Blogger, etc.) This is the story of how Twitter barged in with an initial 140-character service, initially intended to target mobile phones as an alternative to laptop computers for news. It leeched off telephone companies' SMS services by using the same technology to provide a free service. They later had to pay the telephone companies after backlash and lawsuits.
The struggle between Facebook and Twitter, the lies, deceit and betrayal: all elements which keep the tale riveting. (Aftermath: Facebook would later launch Whatsapp after Twitter owners reject Mark Zuckerberg's offer of a take over.)
The start-up techies who were employed by the Twitter co-founders to get things rolling were known at the time as 'hacktivists'-attacking anything contrary to their believes and ideals. They were part of an emerging group of protesters who used laptops instead of picket signs and blogs instead of bullhorns and who marched down the internet instead of paved streets. Their targets were bankers and governments. Havoc was the name of the game for someone like "Rabble" (real name Even Henshaw-Plath), who would be one of the new techies in the team. Blaine and Rabble posse, sticking to their anarchistic, antieverything mentality.
Big Tech is nothing different from politics or anything else where money and power is at stake. So this saga is nothing new really. The massive rise of Twitter's role in world politics, news media and social connection forced four young start-up individuals and their friends to evolve from anti-establishment youths to grown ups in a very short period of time.
Worth a read. A 2013 publication.
Now, in 2021, a totally different scenario exists. New social media start ups, massive movements away from Twitter and Facebook, the impact of Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal, Gab, Tik Tok, et al. It's a dog-eat-dog scenario with vicious competition and more wars. Facebook, Google and Twitters' political involvement in controlling content spurred the establishment of new social media platforms to counter the loss of free speech. More political and governmental involvement, etc. What started out as a social phenomenon ended up being something totally different. Question: Did Twitter, Google and Facebook become the abusers of power?
This is the real story of Twitter. Not the one Jack Dorsey would like the world to believe - according to Nick Bolton. The sequel(s) to this saga might be even more interesting. Although the evolving of technology is a fast-track saga which render any book capturing the tales dated in a short period of time, Nick Bolton wrote this one to set a record straight. For history's sake.
The story is worth telling. And worth following, I would say.
November 6, 2013
A thrilling and vivid narration of the formation of Twitter. It contains fascinating stories of the drama surrounding the history of founders Jack, Evan, Biz, and Noah. The journalism is incredibly detailed and thorough, and the story is a consistent page-turner. Author Nick Bilton compiles hundreds of interviews with Twitter employees and documents secrets never before revealed. It is much more interesting than the history of Facebook, and also far more controversial. A group of young, brilliant, and rebellious geeks from nowhere become friends and accidentally found one of the most successful companies in the world, only to lose much of what they earned in bitter rivalry. Lots of backstabbing, lots of fun personal stories, and a fair share of dark humor and irony. A brilliant piece of storytelling (even if you have no interest in Twitter).
November 21, 2013
Having observed this true story from close quarters I can say that Bilton captures the essence of it, at least from a human interest standpoint. One could quibble over details that don't really matter, but he distills something essential of the startup experience--that it's ultimately about human relationships and trust, and that these are hard won but easily lost.
August 10, 2016
This is the story of the founders of Twitter. I have heard about Twitter but have never used it or been on its site so all this information is new to me. I knew nothing about Twitter until reading this book. I did not even know it was a local San Francisco company.
Bilton tells the story of Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass and Christopher Stone the four founders of the company. The four men were working at a startup company called Odeo. Apparently at a brain storming session, they decided to build a mobile phone version of the “status updates” popularized by AOL. According to Bilton the growth into a global publicity machine just happened by accident. Glass was the one that came up with the name Twitter for the company. Bilton states that the company plunged from one operational fiasco to another.
Bilton describes Glass as an erratic moper, Williams as a slow indecisive leader; Dorsey is the one Bilton cast in the role of a schemer, narcissist, incompetent and inept. Dorsey was demoted from CEO and blamed Williams who he set out to destroy. The way Bilton told the story I felt sorry for Dorsey in the beginning because of the way he was deposed as CEO, but as the story progressed he lost my sympathy due to his vindictive behavior. Glass appears to have been left behind particularly in the area of money. I had sympathy for Glass as I felt he was poorly treated by his co-founders.
The book is well written and a fascinating read. Bilton did extensive research including interviews of the founders. The author primarily discussed what is wrong but they must have done many things right to build the company into a popular financial success. In many ways this book reads like a soap opera rather than a business book.
Daniel May does a good job narrating the book. May is an actor who also narrates audiobooks.
Bilton tells the story of Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass and Christopher Stone the four founders of the company. The four men were working at a startup company called Odeo. Apparently at a brain storming session, they decided to build a mobile phone version of the “status updates” popularized by AOL. According to Bilton the growth into a global publicity machine just happened by accident. Glass was the one that came up with the name Twitter for the company. Bilton states that the company plunged from one operational fiasco to another.
Bilton describes Glass as an erratic moper, Williams as a slow indecisive leader; Dorsey is the one Bilton cast in the role of a schemer, narcissist, incompetent and inept. Dorsey was demoted from CEO and blamed Williams who he set out to destroy. The way Bilton told the story I felt sorry for Dorsey in the beginning because of the way he was deposed as CEO, but as the story progressed he lost my sympathy due to his vindictive behavior. Glass appears to have been left behind particularly in the area of money. I had sympathy for Glass as I felt he was poorly treated by his co-founders.
The book is well written and a fascinating read. Bilton did extensive research including interviews of the founders. The author primarily discussed what is wrong but they must have done many things right to build the company into a popular financial success. In many ways this book reads like a soap opera rather than a business book.
Daniel May does a good job narrating the book. May is an actor who also narrates audiobooks.
January 9, 2014
A fascinating and in-depth account of Twitter's creation and rise, from the conditions that led to its founders meeting to the shady and shabby way that the current power structure shook out.
This is a seriously intense story! As people involved in the creation of the site have pointed out, it's a shame that it didn't delve more into the technical aspects of the site's creation more, as that would have been interesting to hear about. But the personal intrigues and difficulties are more than worthy enough of a book. This was intense!
One thing I can say is that fiction definitely has an advantage that this non-fiction book doesn't: Any fiction book worth its salt that featured a character as conniving, backstabbing, whiny, and obsessive as Jack Dorsey would have dealt with him with satisfying maliciousness by the end. Pity that real life isn't as neat and tidy as a novel.
This is a seriously intense story! As people involved in the creation of the site have pointed out, it's a shame that it didn't delve more into the technical aspects of the site's creation more, as that would have been interesting to hear about. But the personal intrigues and difficulties are more than worthy enough of a book. This was intense!
One thing I can say is that fiction definitely has an advantage that this non-fiction book doesn't: Any fiction book worth its salt that featured a character as conniving, backstabbing, whiny, and obsessive as Jack Dorsey would have dealt with him with satisfying maliciousness by the end. Pity that real life isn't as neat and tidy as a novel.
April 1, 2014
Pretty fascinating to read about the serendipitous nature of how the founders of Twitter got together...and how they came up with the idea and even the name. For example, Evan Williams was in a magazine photo (before Twitter was even a thought in his head) and his neighbor (Noah Glass) saw the picture, recognized the kitchen Evan was in, turned toward his window and realized the picture was taken in the apartment he was seeing from his window. He introduced himself to Ev...and the rest is history. The failures, changing of business models, betrayals, office politics, ruined friendships and marriages as well as several staged coups are unbelievable. But, I guess you can put up with that rubbish for a while if you end up a billion dollars richer ;-)
January 9, 2014
Not only was Hatching Twitter informative about the history of Twitter, but after reading it I notice that Bilton was definitely much less biased towards one side (or any of the three other sides) when reporting on the events that transpired in Twitter's extremely volatile history. In Hatching Twitter Bilton does not shine an extremely positive, they-can-do-no-wrong light on all of the original cofounders of Twitter, which is the opposite of the prevalent theme in Kirkpatrick's descriptions of Zuckerberg in The Facebook Effect. Bilton makes it very clear that the birth of Twitter was filled with hopes and aspirations of achieving friendship, but quickly grew into a terribly complicated and painful struggle for power by the cofounders and, as expected, the inescapable conflict of investors looking for money.
There is a huge laundry list of things Bilton does better than Kirkpatrick, but perhaps thats just a classic Twitter vs Facebook clash. In the argument of Hatching Twitter against The Facebook Effect, I definitely do think the Twitter story has an advantage because it is simply a more recent event in history. Twitter's history is heavily intertwined with news sources and reporters that lead their respective industry's journalism departments like Om Malik and celebrities whose experiences with Twitter are examples of its tremendous growth and reach like Ashton Kutcher. Twitter's unique product leads to unique, interesting events. Who would have thought Snoop Dogg would show up at Twitter HQ one day for a business meeting only to end up inadvertently kicking off a lunch-room rave in the middle of the day filled with rapping and weed? All of this is complemented by Bilton's handling of the Twitter story. Sometimes it seems like Bilton is jumping from point to point without much of a connection between the two, but in a way that's the essence of Twitter: you jump from one 140-or-less-characters story to the next.
In the end, the story of Twitter can be summarized as a Game of Thrones; the position of CEO at Twitter has changed hands so often with so many viable competitors willing to do anything to betray a former coworker or oftentimes a lifelong friend that it almost seems like a well-crafted fiction story. Regardless of all the drama, it makes for some very interesting storytelling.
There is a huge laundry list of things Bilton does better than Kirkpatrick, but perhaps thats just a classic Twitter vs Facebook clash. In the argument of Hatching Twitter against The Facebook Effect, I definitely do think the Twitter story has an advantage because it is simply a more recent event in history. Twitter's history is heavily intertwined with news sources and reporters that lead their respective industry's journalism departments like Om Malik and celebrities whose experiences with Twitter are examples of its tremendous growth and reach like Ashton Kutcher. Twitter's unique product leads to unique, interesting events. Who would have thought Snoop Dogg would show up at Twitter HQ one day for a business meeting only to end up inadvertently kicking off a lunch-room rave in the middle of the day filled with rapping and weed? All of this is complemented by Bilton's handling of the Twitter story. Sometimes it seems like Bilton is jumping from point to point without much of a connection between the two, but in a way that's the essence of Twitter: you jump from one 140-or-less-characters story to the next.
In the end, the story of Twitter can be summarized as a Game of Thrones; the position of CEO at Twitter has changed hands so often with so many viable competitors willing to do anything to betray a former coworker or oftentimes a lifelong friend that it almost seems like a well-crafted fiction story. Regardless of all the drama, it makes for some very interesting storytelling.
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September 7, 2019روایت نیک بیلتون، خبرنگار نیویورک تایمز از خلق و پیشرفت توئیتر. در این کتاب بیشتر با مؤسسان و افراد تأثیرگذار در سرنوشت توئیتر، زندگی و روابط آنها روبهرو هستیم.
کتاب همانطور که انتظار میرود زیاد وارد مسائل فنی نمیشود و بیشتر به بازتعریف مشکلاتی میپردازد که برای مؤسسان جوان و بیتجربهی توئیتر پیش آمده است. در این میان، مدام اشخاص مشهور دنیای سیاست و سینما و موسیقی چاشنی داستان هستند و با خواستههای خود به شهرت توئیتر میافزایند بهمرور و گاهی هم به باری روی شانههای آن تبدیل میشوند.
خوانش این کتاب برای دوستداران توئیتر جذابیتهای خاص خود را دارد اما برای آنها که قصدشان راهاندازی کسبوکاری جدید است و میخواهند با معضلات موجود در مسیر و راهحلهای احتمالی آشنا شوند، چندان راهگشا نیست هرچند میتواند برای این دسته از خوانندگان هم ایدههایی در بر داشته باشد.
کتاب همانطور که انتظار میرود زیاد وارد مسائل فنی نمیشود و بیشتر به بازتعریف مشکلاتی میپردازد که برای مؤسسان جوان و بیتجربهی توئیتر پیش آمده است. در این میان، مدام اشخاص مشهور دنیای سیاست و سینما و موسیقی چاشنی داستان هستند و با خواستههای خود به شهرت توئیتر میافزایند بهمرور و گاهی هم به باری روی شانههای آن تبدیل میشوند.
خوانش این کتاب برای دوستداران توئیتر جذابیتهای خاص خود را دارد اما برای آنها که قصدشان راهاندازی کسبوکاری جدید است و میخواهند با معضلات موجود در مسیر و راهحلهای احتمالی آشنا شوند، چندان راهگشا نیست هرچند میتواند برای این دسته از خوانندگان هم ایدههایی در بر داشته باشد.
September 3, 2022
I consider myself a super casual user of Twitter, and I wouldn't say I had a strong interest to learn more about the inevitable skeletons in the closet. I also feel I may be approaching my limit on stories about Silicon Valley tech bros. However, after reading American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road recently, I was really impressed by Nick Bilton's investigative reporting and his ability to tell a super engaging story, so I decided to pick up another one of his books. I was impressed once again.
I was a very late adopter of Twitter and I didn’t really pay much attention to it until probably around 2015, so I was mostly unaware of all the drama of the early days and the power struggles among the four founders. By the time I started using the platform, the name Jack Dorsey was synonymous with Twitter. Turns out that wasn’t always the case, and this book tells the fascinating story of the genesis of Twitter, the chaos of Twitter's exponential rise to popularity and unimaginable influence, and the constant betrayals among the founders.
This actually ended up being a very timely read given the recent whistleblower allegations from Twitter's former head of security. The struggles with the stability of the platform and the alarming security vulnerabilities are well covered in the book. However, this is a book about Silicon Valley, so you should definitely expect numerous egocentric men, lots of hemming and hawing about stock options, and some impressive celebrity name dropping (as well as the obligatory anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg's awkwardness…although I did find this one really entertaining!). I think Bilton did a great job of keeping the flashy Silicon Valley stuff as a subtopic (I actually don't think I rolled my eyes once during the book!) and instead focused on the friendships and the spirit of Twitter in the early days.
If you're looking for some solid investigative journalism and a captivating story about friendship versus power, this book is worth a read.
I was a very late adopter of Twitter and I didn’t really pay much attention to it until probably around 2015, so I was mostly unaware of all the drama of the early days and the power struggles among the four founders. By the time I started using the platform, the name Jack Dorsey was synonymous with Twitter. Turns out that wasn’t always the case, and this book tells the fascinating story of the genesis of Twitter, the chaos of Twitter's exponential rise to popularity and unimaginable influence, and the constant betrayals among the founders.
This actually ended up being a very timely read given the recent whistleblower allegations from Twitter's former head of security. The struggles with the stability of the platform and the alarming security vulnerabilities are well covered in the book. However, this is a book about Silicon Valley, so you should definitely expect numerous egocentric men, lots of hemming and hawing about stock options, and some impressive celebrity name dropping (as well as the obligatory anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg's awkwardness…although I did find this one really entertaining!). I think Bilton did a great job of keeping the flashy Silicon Valley stuff as a subtopic (I actually don't think I rolled my eyes once during the book!) and instead focused on the friendships and the spirit of Twitter in the early days.
If you're looking for some solid investigative journalism and a captivating story about friendship versus power, this book is worth a read.
November 11, 2013
Who comes out best? Biz, with Ev #2.
Who comes out worst? Bill Campbell. Jack a close #2.
What can a budding young tech CEO take away from this book? Never, ever hire Bill Campbell to be your CEO coach.
Honestly, if there were a licensing committee for CEO coaches, if the tale in this book is true, Bill Campbell should be disbarred. It's a minor part of the book, but as someone who knew much of this while it was going on, it is by far the most shocking thing in the book.
The rest of the book is solid. I would have loved more of the later days - Dick's monetization tactics, the board reshuffle, Jack's less-than-stellar return. But still. This is a book that needed to be written, and I thank Nick Bilton for doing it. Brilliant move. Way more of a story here than with Facebook.
Who comes out worst? Bill Campbell. Jack a close #2.
What can a budding young tech CEO take away from this book? Never, ever hire Bill Campbell to be your CEO coach.
Honestly, if there were a licensing committee for CEO coaches, if the tale in this book is true, Bill Campbell should be disbarred. It's a minor part of the book, but as someone who knew much of this while it was going on, it is by far the most shocking thing in the book.
The rest of the book is solid. I would have loved more of the later days - Dick's monetization tactics, the board reshuffle, Jack's less-than-stellar return. But still. This is a book that needed to be written, and I thank Nick Bilton for doing it. Brilliant move. Way more of a story here than with Facebook.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 19, 2013
I guess I am in the minority with only four stars, but he lost a star for his writing style. I thought it was choppy, with more grammatical/typographical errors than I would have expected, and it was poorly divided up. For example, after a chapter/section heading of "#Jack" it would start with a story about Jack and then flip backwards to stories about Biz, or Bijan, or Ev. Which is fine it just didn't flow. It is clear that he is a journalist, and not a novelist.
That being said, he put together an amazingly accurate factual history (I am friends with someone high up at Twitter who knows and confirmed this) based on emails and tweets, and that must have taken some serious time. The story itself is fascinating and I love that it all took place in San Francisco, (where I live) so I could literally picture each scene with total clarity.
On the last day I was reading it, on the bus, I looked up and saw Jack Dorsey walking down the street, earbuds in, sparkly white tennis shoes on. It was crazy - I thought I had imagined it at first.
The story itself is fascinating. It is also sad, and haunting, and should be a lesson, but probably won't be.
That being said, he put together an amazingly accurate factual history (I am friends with someone high up at Twitter who knows and confirmed this) based on emails and tweets, and that must have taken some serious time. The story itself is fascinating and I love that it all took place in San Francisco, (where I live) so I could literally picture each scene with total clarity.
On the last day I was reading it, on the bus, I looked up and saw Jack Dorsey walking down the street, earbuds in, sparkly white tennis shoes on. It was crazy - I thought I had imagined it at first.
The story itself is fascinating. It is also sad, and haunting, and should be a lesson, but probably won't be.
January 31, 2022
If anybody wrote fiction startup drama novels, they would surely be less dramatic than Twitter’s early history.
Morals for me:
• avoid working with your best friends;
• egos and power are more important than money – you can repay money, but revenge leads to more aggression;
• when stakes are high it’s “hunt or be hunted” situation;
• you can change the world;
• avoid drama.
Morals for me:
• avoid working with your best friends;
• egos and power are more important than money – you can repay money, but revenge leads to more aggression;
• when stakes are high it’s “hunt or be hunted” situation;
• you can change the world;
• avoid drama.
January 7, 2017
Kisah ini belum selesai ... !!
Hal inilah yang terlintas di benak saya ketika menyelesaikan buku ini. Nick Bilton hanya sempat menceritakan kisah di balik layar yang penuh intrik dan pengkhianatan dari Twitter, hingga Dick Costolo menjadi CEO. Saya rasa Nick masih bisa membuat buku selanjutnya yang bercerita tentang kisah ketika Jack kembali menjadi CEO, seperti saat ini.
Buku ini menceritakan dengan sisi pandang orang ketiga yang seolah mengetahui segala hal di balik Twitter. Mulai dari keberhasilan Ev Williams menjual Blogger kepada Google, yang kemudian membawanya bertemu Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey, dan Biz Stone. Mereka kemudian membangun sebuah startup podcasting bernama Odeo, dengan Ev sebagai investor utamanya.
Ketika menyadari kalau Odeo akan gagal, mereka pun mulai mencari proyek lain. Jack hadir dengan konsep berbagi status, Noah memberinya nama Twitter, Ev membuat arah bisnis dan menjadi investor utama, dan Biz mengerjakan segala hal yang tidak dikerjakan oleh tiga rekannya tersebut.
Kericuhan pertama yang terjadi di Twitter adalah keputusan Ev untuk mengeluarkan Noah dari proyek tersebut, dan menunjuk Jack sebagai CEO. Sadar kalau Jack belum layak sebagai CEO, ia pun turut mengeluarkannya dan menjadikan dirinya sendiri sebagai CEO Twitter. Seperti mendapat karma, Ev sendiri kemudian diturunkan dari posisinya sebagai CEO. Dick Costolo menjadi CEO, dan Jack kembali masuk ke lingkungan internat Twitter.
Beberapa pelajaran yang bisa kita ambil dari buku ini adalah:
- Tidak disarankan untuk memilih teman dekat untuk menjadi rekan bisnis. Terkadang mereka tidak cukup kompeten, dan juga tidak terbukti lebih setia dibandingkan jika kita memilih orang lain.
- Seorang pemimpin harus waspada terhadap segala hal, baik ancaman dari luar maupun dari dalam perusahaan.
- Persiapkan segala hal agar produk kamu tidak mati atau berantakan di saat-saat yang genting. Twitter hampir mengalami masalah ketika mereka berhadapan dengan Oprah dan Presiden Rusia yang ingin mengirimkan tweet pertama.
- Terakhir, jangan berpikir kalau penggulingan kekuasaan CEO atau semacamnya hanya terjadi di startup Silicon Valley seperti Twitter. Hal ini pun sudah terjadi lho di dunia startup tanah air :)
Hal inilah yang terlintas di benak saya ketika menyelesaikan buku ini. Nick Bilton hanya sempat menceritakan kisah di balik layar yang penuh intrik dan pengkhianatan dari Twitter, hingga Dick Costolo menjadi CEO. Saya rasa Nick masih bisa membuat buku selanjutnya yang bercerita tentang kisah ketika Jack kembali menjadi CEO, seperti saat ini.
Buku ini menceritakan dengan sisi pandang orang ketiga yang seolah mengetahui segala hal di balik Twitter. Mulai dari keberhasilan Ev Williams menjual Blogger kepada Google, yang kemudian membawanya bertemu Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey, dan Biz Stone. Mereka kemudian membangun sebuah startup podcasting bernama Odeo, dengan Ev sebagai investor utamanya.
Ketika menyadari kalau Odeo akan gagal, mereka pun mulai mencari proyek lain. Jack hadir dengan konsep berbagi status, Noah memberinya nama Twitter, Ev membuat arah bisnis dan menjadi investor utama, dan Biz mengerjakan segala hal yang tidak dikerjakan oleh tiga rekannya tersebut.
Kericuhan pertama yang terjadi di Twitter adalah keputusan Ev untuk mengeluarkan Noah dari proyek tersebut, dan menunjuk Jack sebagai CEO. Sadar kalau Jack belum layak sebagai CEO, ia pun turut mengeluarkannya dan menjadikan dirinya sendiri sebagai CEO Twitter. Seperti mendapat karma, Ev sendiri kemudian diturunkan dari posisinya sebagai CEO. Dick Costolo menjadi CEO, dan Jack kembali masuk ke lingkungan internat Twitter.
Beberapa pelajaran yang bisa kita ambil dari buku ini adalah:
- Tidak disarankan untuk memilih teman dekat untuk menjadi rekan bisnis. Terkadang mereka tidak cukup kompeten, dan juga tidak terbukti lebih setia dibandingkan jika kita memilih orang lain.
- Seorang pemimpin harus waspada terhadap segala hal, baik ancaman dari luar maupun dari dalam perusahaan.
- Persiapkan segala hal agar produk kamu tidak mati atau berantakan di saat-saat yang genting. Twitter hampir mengalami masalah ketika mereka berhadapan dengan Oprah dan Presiden Rusia yang ingin mengirimkan tweet pertama.
- Terakhir, jangan berpikir kalau penggulingan kekuasaan CEO atau semacamnya hanya terjadi di startup Silicon Valley seperti Twitter. Hal ini pun sudah terjadi lho di dunia startup tanah air :)
September 23, 2015
I know this is a true story but I was still so disappointed by the ending! Hah. Such a great read- I flew through it. So interesting to hear the background of Twitter from all the different sides of the story.
August 20, 2017
Have you ever wondered what would "Game of Thrones" look like in the modern world? This is the scariest book I have ever read, full dreadfully cruel office politics, mistakes, but also inspiration, leadership, and business lessons. The world will never be the same for me.
Would I recommend this book to anyone close to the startups world? Hell yes, this should be your next book. Are you wondering what startup world looks like? Read the book. Interested in the story of how Twitter was born, and how it was growing up? You will find the answers in this book.
Would I recommend this book to anyone close to the startups world? Hell yes, this should be your next book. Are you wondering what startup world looks like? Read the book. Interested in the story of how Twitter was born, and how it was growing up? You will find the answers in this book.
December 13, 2013
Reads like a high-tech soap opera but interesting nonetheless. What sticks for me is not the story of the company but the tale of how people who claim to be friends can be such schmucks to each other.
March 5, 2021
Reading this book, it is amazing how Twitter is so successful despite being run by 4 people who have great vision and a brain for developing products but very few people skills to actually run a company. Mr. Bilton makes no secret for his distaste for Jack Dorsey and how much of an asshole he is. He tries to paint Ev as the tragic hero despite many flaws in his leadership style. Biz seems to bend whichever way the wind blows, and Noah, who I sorta feel bad for, has no street smarts whatsoever. This was a great narrative account into all the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that made Twitter what it was today.
As for the writing, I found it a little odd that some chapters were only 4 pages when a few could be meshed together. The cliffhangers kinda felt like they led to nowhere or they were buried in the next chapter, and there were a lot of random chapters in there that were cool side notes but really didn't add to the story.
Cool book to read about something that I vividly remember, but this is not a good profile on Twitter and again I am shocked that this company is a big as it is.
As for the writing, I found it a little odd that some chapters were only 4 pages when a few could be meshed together. The cliffhangers kinda felt like they led to nowhere or they were buried in the next chapter, and there were a lot of random chapters in there that were cool side notes but really didn't add to the story.
Cool book to read about something that I vividly remember, but this is not a good profile on Twitter and again I am shocked that this company is a big as it is.
August 9, 2014
With more drama than a Mexican telenovela, this book tells the story of twitter.
This book gives you the background of each of the founders and how they came together to create what we today call twitter. I was a big fan of Jack Dorsey but sadly this book took that away :)
At first I was a little put off with the author's style. To me it seemed a bit pretentious because he started on an overly dramatic tone and you would think the author thought he was writing a novel. After I got further into the book I realized that any other type of narrative would've made this book really boring, so the style that at first I thought would take away at least one star from my review ended up pulling me into the story and wanting to know what happened next like a mystery novel.
I listened to the audio version which had a great narrator.
This book gives you the background of each of the founders and how they came together to create what we today call twitter. I was a big fan of Jack Dorsey but sadly this book took that away :)
At first I was a little put off with the author's style. To me it seemed a bit pretentious because he started on an overly dramatic tone and you would think the author thought he was writing a novel. After I got further into the book I realized that any other type of narrative would've made this book really boring, so the style that at first I thought would take away at least one star from my review ended up pulling me into the story and wanting to know what happened next like a mystery novel.
I listened to the audio version which had a great narrator.
November 13, 2013
It was a fast-paced read, and quite interesting for someone who remembers all of the growing pains. Had the company been managed more pragmatically, would we have been so familiar with the fail whale? The best sections were the early ones, while the last section seemed to just be an excuse to tell the Snoop anecdote. It's a good story, but that section covers years in a matter of pages. Biz is really the only one who comes out not looking like an asshole in the end. Bilton adds unnecessary color at times, but doesn't seem to have an axe to grind.
September 1, 2014
Compelling narrative peels back layers of hype about Twitter. It is a rather sad story in many ways that might change your opinion about some people involved in the company. The book is particularly entertaining if you were using Twitter since the Fail Whale days. Good job by @NickBilton mining the social media record from a time when people were not as aware they were writing their own histories 140 characters at a time.
May 16, 2018
This was such an interesting read! I'm not a twitter user and haven't cared enough about the company to follow it's growth over the years, so all of this information was new to me. I am a fan of Nick Bilton, I read American Kingpin last year and thought it was amazing. Hatching Twitter is just as well written and researched, I highly recommend it to tech lovers and non-fiction aficionados.
January 16, 2023
I was so bored and this book is pretty dated now.
August 31, 2020
It's like Game of Thrones without the murder... but it actually happened. Turns out people can be quite big cunts when money and power are on the line.
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