Disrupted: My Misadventures in the Startup Bubble

Thoughts

Oh boy is this a fun read! My recent books have all been business, self-help, or some other factual work, where it’s just kind of someone re-telling information to the reader. This was a great story and one that really resonated because I’ve been there before. I guess I liked the writing from the start and it made sense as I found out that Dan Lyons, was a creative writer behind the HBO show, Silicon Valley. His takes were hysterical and perfectly retold the life inside of a startup tech company. It’s scary to think that it’s true, but I can almost say that it is.

It’s a classic story of being laid off, the world is coming for you, you have no income, no health insurance, so Dan has to turn and switch careers in his mid-fifties to work at this start-up. The conversations, down to the office are all so classic silicon valley, most often dramatized in these movies and TV shows, but it’s reality. Money is tossed around like nothing, there’s no signs of leadership, and lack of direction. Dan’s take on the whole world, might also be coming from a different generation and his struggle to fit in to the company, Hubspot. A company that hasn’t turned a profit, blows money like nothing, and apparently has no good product to even sell, but the market doesn’t care.

From his tales with his boss, conversations with co-workers, and detailed inner workings at Hubspot, I finished this book on a plane in two sessions on the plane ride two and from on a recent trip. His writing is comedy, engaging, and you can tell he has this very blunt comedy with his co-workers that no one seems to get. I kinda agree being in the tech space that everyone believes they are changing the world, when in reality most people who don’t get sucked into the cult are just there to get a paycheck.