Startup

In 1987 Jerry Kaplan founded GO Corporation, which for several years ranked among the hottest young companies in Silicon Valley. His account follows the company as it tried to open up a market for hand-held computers controlled with a pen rather than a keyboard. Kaplan describes assembling a talented but quarrelsome team of engineers, investors and software designers, and lurching from one crisis to the next while holding on to his passion for the idea. Along the way he recounts dealings with eccentric staff, venture capitalists hooked on risk, and industry figures including Mitchell Kapor, John Sculley and Bill Gates. Kaplan turns the same sharp wit on himself as on everyone else.

Bill Gurley named it among a set of books he recommends that startups read. In an interview, freelance software engineer Scott Johnson listed it among the company case studies he suggests for anyone considering a career in high tech.