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3.84 AVERAGE
While the book does manage to expose some of the silicon valley's dark secrets, much of it is simply a 50 something person griping about not being able to fit in a job that was beneath his abilities, in a company that operates with the millennial employees at it's core and with the colleagues that were not ready to accept him. While he has all the valid reasons to do so, and some of it makes for a fun read, the constant complaining gets repetitive and boring. Still it's a must read if you work in tech industry and are on your way to the "executive club".
It was really hard for me to not take this book personally, at first. A lot of times, it felt like a jab at my career in marketing automation where, yes, we talk in TLAs and sometimes have silly buzzwords that have been made up so others in our industry know what we're talking about in as few words as possible. It's a fast-paced career and I don't have time to waste breath by saying "Top of the Funnel content" 40x a week.
That said, it really is a fair view of not only startups, but the corporate world, in general. There were so many instances where his criticisms of Hubspot translated into everyday corporate life, as well. For example, not knowing who made a decision (the nebulous "they") and people being promoted to their level of incompetence. Trust me - this happens in most corporate SMBs, not just startups.
And oh God, the bullshit. Bringing a teddy bear to meetings? Give me a break. Marketers already have to battle enough criticism about being fluffy a-hole sitting around with coloring books. Bringing a teddy bear to meetings to represent the customer is NOT helping.
I loved reading about Hubspot in general (maybe that has something to do with my cult-like dedication to Marketo, which you'd have to pry from my cold, dead hands), but now I'm also terrified about the fact I'm old AF. I'm terrified of what's going to happen to me in this career now, as it seems like I'm about a year away from being considered over-the-hill at 35. It scares the crap out of me, and age-ism in tech really needs to be addressed.
That said, it really is a fair view of not only startups, but the corporate world, in general. There were so many instances where his criticisms of Hubspot translated into everyday corporate life, as well. For example, not knowing who made a decision (the nebulous "they") and people being promoted to their level of incompetence. Trust me - this happens in most corporate SMBs, not just startups.
And oh God, the bullshit. Bringing a teddy bear to meetings? Give me a break. Marketers already have to battle enough criticism about being fluffy a-hole sitting around with coloring books. Bringing a teddy bear to meetings to represent the customer is NOT helping.
I loved reading about Hubspot in general (maybe that has something to do with my cult-like dedication to Marketo, which you'd have to pry from my cold, dead hands), but now I'm also terrified about the fact I'm old AF. I'm terrified of what's going to happen to me in this career now, as it seems like I'm about a year away from being considered over-the-hill at 35. It scares the crap out of me, and age-ism in tech really needs to be addressed.
Old man yells at cloud. Old man fails to see his own bias while criticizing those of others. Old man looks ridiculous.
Wow talk about mixed reviews for this one. As a twenty something year old who works for a tech startup, I feel that I have a pretty good idea of what it’s like to work in these types of environments. And I will say I have either not had enough Koolaid or it’s beginning to wear off, so I sympathize with Lyons. The tech space is definitely full of narcissists and ridiculous, over the top offices full of young, eager kids. It works and VCs love it. Lyons did a great job of shedding light on the way startups prey on kids right out of school, working them to death and barely paying them anything. Most of the kids don’t know any better or they hope to get a piece of the pie when the startup goes public, but in the grand scheme of things they rarely get a sizable chunk of the shares to begin with. There’s also the mythology around these start ups that are “changing the world” and yes they make an impact on technology and users, but you aren’t curing cancer here.
Lyon’s has a wonderful, sharp wit that makes this memoir all the more entertaining. He keeps you leaning in begging for the next dramatic episode. Overall, I think the book is very interesting and does make quite a few good points about the tech industry. I also think that he could’ve tried harder to make the job work for him, which may have led him to a different story. At the end of the day I felt like he had an axe to grind, so it may have over dramatized certain things.
If you do choose to read this, I would suggest that you don’t take everything said here at face value. I urge you to make your own conclusions.
Lyon’s has a wonderful, sharp wit that makes this memoir all the more entertaining. He keeps you leaning in begging for the next dramatic episode. Overall, I think the book is very interesting and does make quite a few good points about the tech industry. I also think that he could’ve tried harder to make the job work for him, which may have led him to a different story. At the end of the day I felt like he had an axe to grind, so it may have over dramatized certain things.
If you do choose to read this, I would suggest that you don’t take everything said here at face value. I urge you to make your own conclusions.
Finished this book in two days - the writing style keeps you engaged and it is pretty funny. I will say, he does come off a bit whiny, but it gives you a view into what startup culture looks like in a way that is engaging and illuminating. I like how he ties his personal experience into the wider structural changes that are happening in the workforce and market economy.
Disclaimer : Saya bekerja di sebuah startup, namun saya berusaha untuk tetap objektif menilai buku ini.
Dan Lyons, seorang jurnalis senior di usia 50an tahun, terpaksa harus hijrah dari dunia jurnalisme untuk masuk ke dalam sebuah startup bernama HubSpot. Di sana, ia mengalami sebuah pengalaman yang menurutnya kurang menyenangkan, dan menceritakannya dalam buku ini. Namun saat membaca buku ini, saya akhirnya bisa menyimpulkan mengapa ia mengalami pengalaman seperti itu.
Bagi yang belum tahu, HubSpot adalah sebuah startup Inbound Marketing, di mana mereka membuat software yang bisa membantu para pemilik usaha untuk melakukan usaha pemasaran secara online. Kamu bisa membayar biaya berlangganan untuk bisa terus menikmati layanan HubSpot.
Dan Lyons menggambarkan HubSpot sebagai sebuah tempat yang diisi oleh banyak anak muda yang tidak mempunyai pengalaman (sebanyak dirinya). Menurutnya, sang founder tidak membangun startup tersebut sebagai bisnis, melainkan sebuah 'agama' di mana ia mencuci otak para karyawan dan konsumen mereka demi mendapat keuntungan. Uang yang mereka dapat juga bukan dari keuntungan bisnis, melainkan dari pendanaan (funding) dan proses masuknya mereka ke bursa saham (IPO).
Benarkah begitu?
Sempat bekerja di Forbes, Dan Lyons akhirnya hijrah ke perusahaan media lain yang bernama Newsweek. Karena guncangan ekonomi yang melanda media cetak, perusahaan tersebut (yang sekarang sudah tutup) akhirnya memecat Dan. Padahal saat itu istri Dan baru saja berhenti bekerja. Sebagai seorang suami dengan istri dan seorang anak, ia pun panik. Ia merasa iri dengan teman-teman seusianya yang telah hidup mapan.
Ia pun meminta pekerjaan ke sana ke mari, hingga akhirnya ia mendapat pekerjaan di media bernama ReadWrite. Namun ia pun tidak puas karena harus bekerja di San Fransisco, jauh dari anak istrinya. Saat itulah ia terpikir untuk bekerja di sebuah startup. Apa yang ia cari? Uang.
Dan Lyons mencibir bisnis yang dijalankan startup sebagai sebuah bisnis 'main-main'. Mereka mengalami kerugian, tapi malah mendapat pendanaan besar, dan para pendirinya menjadi kaya raya. Ia berpendapat kalau suatu saat nanti akan terjadi 'bubble' yang menghancurkan semua startup tersebut. Namun sebelum 'bubble' itu datang, ia tertarik untuk mencicipi keuntungan dari bekerja di startup.
Saat itulah tawaran dari HubSpot hadir.
Dan Lyons sempat merasa kalau ia mendapat tawaran pekerjaan di HubSpot karena pengalamannya sebagai jurnalis handal. Ia akhirnya kecewa karena ia hanya mendapat pekerjaan untuk menulis blog, dengan tema yang ia tidak kuasai. Pertanyaannya, mengapa ia tidak menanyakan hal tersebut ketika menerima tawaran HubSpot?
Kemudian, mulailah Dan mencibir setiap hal yang ia temui di HubSpot. Mulai dari permen yang tersedia dengan gratis, rekan kerja yang tidak bisa bercanda seperti dirinya (di bagian lain dari buku, penulis kemudian bekerja menulis script untuk serial Silicon Valley, dan ia senang karena di sana ia bisa bercanda 'jorok'), hingga ketidakmampuan HubSpot dalam menangani masalah PR.
Dan Lyons juga mengisi sebagian besar buku ini dengan 'penghakiman' terhadap rekan-rekan kerjanya di HubSpot. Mulai dari atasan yang lebih muda dan menurutnya pasti tidak berpengalaman, sepasang editor yang suka tertawa dan ia langsung menyimpulkan kalau mereka membicarakan tentang dirinya, hingga menertawakan rekan kerjanya dalam hati ketika mereka melontarkan ide aneh (di bagian lain buku ini, Dan juga melontarkan ide-ide aneh, dan dia menganggapnya keren).
Ia pun kemudian menceritakan hal-hal tersebut kepada orang lain, yang dekat dengan dirinya, dan tidak tahu dengan jelas bagaimana kondisi di HubSpot. Wajar kemudian kalau orang-orang tersebut memihak dirinya. Dan sejak itu ia menyimpulkan kalau bekerja di Hubspot merupakan keputusan yang salah. Ia pun ingin keluar, namun ia tetap menunggu sampai mendapat pekerjaan lain, dan sampai HubSpot masuk bursa saham (agar ia bisa mendapat banyak uang sebelum keluar).
---
Secara umum, buku ini sangat menarik karena menceritakan sebuah pengalaman berbeda dari seorang jurnalis senior yang bekerja di startup penuh anak muda. Sayangnya Dan Lyons terlalu mengedepankan emosi ketika membicarakan tentang rekan kerjanya di HubSpot dan dunia startup secara umum, sehingga terkadang hal tersebut membuatnya tidak objektif.
Alih-alih berusaha mensejajarkan diri dengan rekan kerjanya yang lebih muda, seperti yang dilakukan Robert di Niro dalam film The Intern, Dan Lyons justru menempatkan dirinya di posisi yang tinggi. Ia seperti menjaga jarak dengan orang-orang di HubSpot, namun menganggap kalau mereka lah yang tidak bisa diajak bergaul dengan asyik.
Dan Lyons mengisahkan bagaimana HubSpot adalah sebuah startup yang tidak transparan, dan menjalankan bisnis yang tidak bisa bertahan lama. Hal tersebut bisa jadi benar. Namun kemudian ia membuat penilaian yang sama terhadap startup-startup lain. Ia seperti lupa (atau tidak tahu) kalau setiap startup punya karakter yang berbeda-beda. Dengan pengalaman yang panjang sebagai jurnalis teknologi, seharusnya ia tahu hal tersebut.
---
Saya sendiri bekerja di sebuah startup, dan merasakan betul bagaimana uniknya budaya kerja di sana. Kami terbiasa untuk bekerja keras (kadang tidak mengenal jam kerja yang baku), demi memenuhi target yang telah ditetapkan. Namun saya pribadi melihat hal tersebut bukan sebagai 'kerja rodi' seperti yang disebutkan Dan Lyons. Saya menganggapnya sebagai sebuah pengalaman berharga, yang bisa bermanfaat bagi saya di kemudian hari.
Startup memang bukan tempat bekerja yang tepat untuk semua orang.
Dan Lyons, seorang jurnalis senior di usia 50an tahun, terpaksa harus hijrah dari dunia jurnalisme untuk masuk ke dalam sebuah startup bernama HubSpot. Di sana, ia mengalami sebuah pengalaman yang menurutnya kurang menyenangkan, dan menceritakannya dalam buku ini. Namun saat membaca buku ini, saya akhirnya bisa menyimpulkan mengapa ia mengalami pengalaman seperti itu.
Bagi yang belum tahu, HubSpot adalah sebuah startup Inbound Marketing, di mana mereka membuat software yang bisa membantu para pemilik usaha untuk melakukan usaha pemasaran secara online. Kamu bisa membayar biaya berlangganan untuk bisa terus menikmati layanan HubSpot.
Dan Lyons menggambarkan HubSpot sebagai sebuah tempat yang diisi oleh banyak anak muda yang tidak mempunyai pengalaman (sebanyak dirinya). Menurutnya, sang founder tidak membangun startup tersebut sebagai bisnis, melainkan sebuah 'agama' di mana ia mencuci otak para karyawan dan konsumen mereka demi mendapat keuntungan. Uang yang mereka dapat juga bukan dari keuntungan bisnis, melainkan dari pendanaan (funding) dan proses masuknya mereka ke bursa saham (IPO).
Benarkah begitu?
Sempat bekerja di Forbes, Dan Lyons akhirnya hijrah ke perusahaan media lain yang bernama Newsweek. Karena guncangan ekonomi yang melanda media cetak, perusahaan tersebut (yang sekarang sudah tutup) akhirnya memecat Dan. Padahal saat itu istri Dan baru saja berhenti bekerja. Sebagai seorang suami dengan istri dan seorang anak, ia pun panik. Ia merasa iri dengan teman-teman seusianya yang telah hidup mapan.
Ia pun meminta pekerjaan ke sana ke mari, hingga akhirnya ia mendapat pekerjaan di media bernama ReadWrite. Namun ia pun tidak puas karena harus bekerja di San Fransisco, jauh dari anak istrinya. Saat itulah ia terpikir untuk bekerja di sebuah startup. Apa yang ia cari? Uang.
Dan Lyons mencibir bisnis yang dijalankan startup sebagai sebuah bisnis 'main-main'. Mereka mengalami kerugian, tapi malah mendapat pendanaan besar, dan para pendirinya menjadi kaya raya. Ia berpendapat kalau suatu saat nanti akan terjadi 'bubble' yang menghancurkan semua startup tersebut. Namun sebelum 'bubble' itu datang, ia tertarik untuk mencicipi keuntungan dari bekerja di startup.
Saat itulah tawaran dari HubSpot hadir.
Dan Lyons sempat merasa kalau ia mendapat tawaran pekerjaan di HubSpot karena pengalamannya sebagai jurnalis handal. Ia akhirnya kecewa karena ia hanya mendapat pekerjaan untuk menulis blog, dengan tema yang ia tidak kuasai. Pertanyaannya, mengapa ia tidak menanyakan hal tersebut ketika menerima tawaran HubSpot?
Kemudian, mulailah Dan mencibir setiap hal yang ia temui di HubSpot. Mulai dari permen yang tersedia dengan gratis, rekan kerja yang tidak bisa bercanda seperti dirinya (di bagian lain dari buku, penulis kemudian bekerja menulis script untuk serial Silicon Valley, dan ia senang karena di sana ia bisa bercanda 'jorok'), hingga ketidakmampuan HubSpot dalam menangani masalah PR.
Dan Lyons juga mengisi sebagian besar buku ini dengan 'penghakiman' terhadap rekan-rekan kerjanya di HubSpot. Mulai dari atasan yang lebih muda dan menurutnya pasti tidak berpengalaman, sepasang editor yang suka tertawa dan ia langsung menyimpulkan kalau mereka membicarakan tentang dirinya, hingga menertawakan rekan kerjanya dalam hati ketika mereka melontarkan ide aneh (di bagian lain buku ini, Dan juga melontarkan ide-ide aneh, dan dia menganggapnya keren).
Ia pun kemudian menceritakan hal-hal tersebut kepada orang lain, yang dekat dengan dirinya, dan tidak tahu dengan jelas bagaimana kondisi di HubSpot. Wajar kemudian kalau orang-orang tersebut memihak dirinya. Dan sejak itu ia menyimpulkan kalau bekerja di Hubspot merupakan keputusan yang salah. Ia pun ingin keluar, namun ia tetap menunggu sampai mendapat pekerjaan lain, dan sampai HubSpot masuk bursa saham (agar ia bisa mendapat banyak uang sebelum keluar).
---
Secara umum, buku ini sangat menarik karena menceritakan sebuah pengalaman berbeda dari seorang jurnalis senior yang bekerja di startup penuh anak muda. Sayangnya Dan Lyons terlalu mengedepankan emosi ketika membicarakan tentang rekan kerjanya di HubSpot dan dunia startup secara umum, sehingga terkadang hal tersebut membuatnya tidak objektif.
Alih-alih berusaha mensejajarkan diri dengan rekan kerjanya yang lebih muda, seperti yang dilakukan Robert di Niro dalam film The Intern, Dan Lyons justru menempatkan dirinya di posisi yang tinggi. Ia seperti menjaga jarak dengan orang-orang di HubSpot, namun menganggap kalau mereka lah yang tidak bisa diajak bergaul dengan asyik.
Dan Lyons mengisahkan bagaimana HubSpot adalah sebuah startup yang tidak transparan, dan menjalankan bisnis yang tidak bisa bertahan lama. Hal tersebut bisa jadi benar. Namun kemudian ia membuat penilaian yang sama terhadap startup-startup lain. Ia seperti lupa (atau tidak tahu) kalau setiap startup punya karakter yang berbeda-beda. Dengan pengalaman yang panjang sebagai jurnalis teknologi, seharusnya ia tahu hal tersebut.
---
Saya sendiri bekerja di sebuah startup, dan merasakan betul bagaimana uniknya budaya kerja di sana. Kami terbiasa untuk bekerja keras (kadang tidak mengenal jam kerja yang baku), demi memenuhi target yang telah ditetapkan. Namun saya pribadi melihat hal tersebut bukan sebagai 'kerja rodi' seperti yang disebutkan Dan Lyons. Saya menganggapnya sebagai sebuah pengalaman berharga, yang bisa bermanfaat bagi saya di kemudian hari.
Startup memang bukan tempat bekerja yang tepat untuk semua orang.
Some gems hidden amongst some whining and sniping. Chapter on age discrimination is excellent.
Listened to the audiobook. One of the things that made me enjoy it so much is that Dan Lyons, the author (and also currently a writer for the very funny HBO series Silicon Valley), also reads the audiobook, so he does the voices and he is just as sharp and sarcastic as I feel about many of the same issues. The book recounts his time working for HubSpot, which is a marketing automation company. In my line of work, HubSpot is a big deal, but I forget that not everyone knows what it is. What he finds there is that, in his early 50s and surrounded by 20-somethings, he is the old guy, and he quickly feels alienated. Not only that, but he is subject to some pretty incredible treatment. And a lot of the people are simply ridiculous.
The parts that were most intriguing to me were those in which he talks about the people, their behavior, and the treatment he received at the hands of others. Also, and perhaps most importantly, how some of these marketers get complexes about themselves where their egos just inflate to unbelievable extents and they really do think they're the some kind of celebrities. I've got to be honest here: I've met lots of people in the marketing world (as some kind of transplant into it through my job) whom I really like. But I've also observed people I absolutely cannot stand. My intuition about people is rarely off by much, and the level of bullshit that goes on and the way people lie and cheat their way through is astounding sometimes. There is no shortage of shepherds and sheep. Dan Lyons is not wrong when he compares it to a cult. Long before I listened to this book, there were certain groups of people huddling around "influencers" (whose names mean literally nothing to most of the world but who for some reason have an enormous sense of self-importance) that I compared in all seriousness to Scientology because I'm really, REALLY troubled by how they all look to a leader to tell them what they should think or do or what their plan should be. I'm troubled by how people will believe whatever one of these leaders tells them without asking their own questions or even TRYING to find their own answers. It's puzzling. It's brainwashing. It's people who literally can't or won't put the pieces together to look at the big picture and just want someone to tell them what they think it should be showing.
The epilogue was the most interesting part to me because it tells of how there were HubSpot executives who found themselves part of an FBI investigation for trying to illegally obtain a copy of this book, so concerned were they about what was in it, and were thus fired from their jobs there.
If you have no interest in the tech world or the marketing world or startups, this isn't going to be your cup of tea since it deals primarily with all of that. And while there are times that I think Dan Lyons is perhaps just a bit hard on some of the office perks (not all of them, but some of them), overall, I tend to agree with his criticisms and think that he is a wonderful storyteller, so it was fun and funny to listen to him tell of his experiences at HubSpot.
The parts that were most intriguing to me were those in which he talks about the people, their behavior, and the treatment he received at the hands of others. Also, and perhaps most importantly, how some of these marketers get complexes about themselves where their egos just inflate to unbelievable extents and they really do think they're the some kind of celebrities. I've got to be honest here: I've met lots of people in the marketing world (as some kind of transplant into it through my job) whom I really like. But I've also observed people I absolutely cannot stand. My intuition about people is rarely off by much, and the level of bullshit that goes on and the way people lie and cheat their way through is astounding sometimes. There is no shortage of shepherds and sheep. Dan Lyons is not wrong when he compares it to a cult. Long before I listened to this book, there were certain groups of people huddling around "influencers" (whose names mean literally nothing to most of the world but who for some reason have an enormous sense of self-importance) that I compared in all seriousness to Scientology because I'm really, REALLY troubled by how they all look to a leader to tell them what they should think or do or what their plan should be. I'm troubled by how people will believe whatever one of these leaders tells them without asking their own questions or even TRYING to find their own answers. It's puzzling. It's brainwashing. It's people who literally can't or won't put the pieces together to look at the big picture and just want someone to tell them what they think it should be showing.
The epilogue was the most interesting part to me because it tells of how there were HubSpot executives who found themselves part of an FBI investigation for trying to illegally obtain a copy of this book, so concerned were they about what was in it, and were thus fired from their jobs there.
If you have no interest in the tech world or the marketing world or startups, this isn't going to be your cup of tea since it deals primarily with all of that. And while there are times that I think Dan Lyons is perhaps just a bit hard on some of the office perks (not all of them, but some of them), overall, I tend to agree with his criticisms and think that he is a wonderful storyteller, so it was fun and funny to listen to him tell of his experiences at HubSpot.
Insightful on issues such as age discrimination at startups but gets grating near the end especially when he’s shocked to be reprimanded on Facebook postings and getting fired after giving 6 full weeks notice.
File this on the "it's funny because it's true" shelf.
A fifty-something journalist is forced to reinvent himself in a crazy world of tech startups. Lyons reveals his entire experience working for HubSpot: crazy office parties, "Fearless Fridays,"unintelligible acronyms, lack of structure, and a company whose "value" is in the billions yet does not make a profit.
The story hit very close to home; I was the white twenty-something employee the author openly loathes in the book. That fact aside, it was hilarious and fast-paced and a really good read. My only gripe is that the author sometimes comes off as a grumpy old man... though that is coming from my perspective as a damn millenial.
A fifty-something journalist is forced to reinvent himself in a crazy world of tech startups. Lyons reveals his entire experience working for HubSpot: crazy office parties, "Fearless Fridays,"unintelligible acronyms, lack of structure, and a company whose "value" is in the billions yet does not make a profit.
The story hit very close to home; I was the white twenty-something employee the author openly loathes in the book. That fact aside, it was hilarious and fast-paced and a really good read. My only gripe is that the author sometimes comes off as a grumpy old man... though that is coming from my perspective as a damn millenial.