I've been anticipating Jessica Livingston's "Founders at Work" for some time, and I have not been disappointed. Livingston, one of the partners at angel capital firm Y-Combinator, has a genuine knack for painting captivating portraits of the people behind the most renowned startups, many of which grew up to be global behemoths. And the most humbling part of this collection of tales is the raw humanity, the candor that Livingston elicits from the interviewees: these are people who had their trepidation, had their hard knocks, and persisted even when things weren't fair but were instead very dark.

In other words, this book achieves what Bob Walsch's "Micro-ISV" set out to achieve: to equip those who would follow in the footsteps (or, dare I say, stand on the shoulders) of these giants with an honest account of what it takes. Where Walsch, it may be argued, offers more tangible advice on putting together a business, Livingston gives us a sizable collection of stories that are no less useful and which actually inspire to a greater degree.

In short, this book is just what the fledgling entrepreneur needs. It is packed with riveting, sometimes terrifying, stories that unfolded behind the scenes of gloss-print ads and suits at a podium. Real-life startup chutzpah mod Bob Walsch equals Jessica Livingston's beefy collection of startup accounts.

And even those less inclined to run out and found their own business will find more than enough close-calls, intrigue, and American gumption to satisfy. A whole-hearted recommendation.

well, it's not really a book but series of stories...

this is a must read for anyone who wants or is in the process of starting a startup (mostly technology related). there are some amazing and sometime shocking stories from founders' perspective. i got the book few days ago and it's about 450 pages and haven't finish it yet. the good thing is that you can pick a chapter (each chapter is a founder's story) and read that one only. so far, i have read 8 of them so far.

hands-down, the hotmail story, told by Sabeer Bhatia, is the most amazing one. some very inspiring and sad conte-de-faits mostly involving valuation, term sheets, and legal matters. A must-read.

why did i give this great book 4 stars? i am not going to read all of those stories probably but out of those 9 i have read so far, some are a bit like a wired magazine type of stories: i-want-to-show-the-world-i-am-humble style or i-only-had-10-dollars-in-my-pocket-when-arrived-to-usa... although these stories have some elements of truth in them, they have been way exaggerated in the last 10 years. the other thing i didn't like was the fact that the title is not matching the content. i'm not exactly sure but out 32 chapters, 10 of so-called-founders are not founders but early employees. there is a distinct line between founders and early employees in term of equity, functions, early pitches, funding hassles, discipline and work ethic, connections, etc...

writer's questions were precise and inviting for discussion. i personally felt that it was watching a television interview.

kudos to the writer anyway. it's a very good book.

I'm the founder of an early-stage startup, and I can wholeheartedly say that this book has enlightened me. The usual problem with books of this vein is that the author only has one core idea and then fluffs it up to get 300 pages. Founders@Work however is like reading a pile of books written by successful founders, each with their own insights and tidbits of useful advice.

You end up reading these real-life, down-to-earth stories about the early days at Apple and Yahoo and PayPal, and you're seeing you and your co-founder right there. Hey! I code in a towel sometimes too! They aren't telling you the glorified stories their PR guys tell them to say. This is the real deal. It's awfully inspiring.

I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of starting, or is currently running a startup.

The best part about this book is the format--interviews. The author does a nice job of asking simple, open-ended questions that get the founders talking. You really get to hear about the startups in their words and their feelings.

Honestly the chapter on Steve Wozniak and Apple is worth the entire price of the book. What an amazing story.

1) I often hear advice in the form 'Do this' or 'Do not do that.' I have a hard time internalizing that kind of advice because it's hard to remember. This book tells the stories behind the advice, which is more entertaining and easier to internalize.

2) This book is meaty. It's 400 pages of small print, so there is a lot of information.

3) It is easy to read in a random access fashion. Each chapter stands on its own, and each page has it's own question and answer in the dialog.

4) You get the back stories. I read many things about Fog Creek and Viaweb that I never knew[..].