In the launch pad, randall stross, author of eboys and planet google, takes a behind-the-scenes look at how tomorrow's hottest startups are being primed for greatness. Twice a year, in the heart of silicon valley, a small investment firm called y combinator selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs. Months of intense work culminates in demo day, when investors and venture capitalists flock to hear their pitches. Any one of them might turn out to be the next dropbox (class of 2007), or airbnb (class of 2009). Randall stross was granted unprecedented access to y combinator, enabling a unique inside tour of the world of software startups. He tells the full story of this ultra-exclusive institution, how it chooses the aspiring mark zuckerbergs, and how it teaches them to go from concept to profitability in record time. This is the definitive story of a seismic shift in the business world, in which coding skill beats job experience, pairs of undergraduates take on goliaths, and invest

The Launch Pad

Business & Money

Stross; Randall

Industries

Penguin

A Practical Education: Why Liberal Arts Majors Make Great Employees

The liberal arts major is often lampooned: lacking in "skills," unqualified for a professional career, underemployed. But studying for the joy of learning turns out to be surprisingly practical. Unlike career-focused education, liberal education prepares graduates for anything and everything―and nervous "fuzzy major" students, their even more nervous parents, college career center professionals, and prospective employers would do well to embrace liberal arts majors. Just look to Silicon Valley, of all places, to see that liberal arts majors can succeed not in spite of, but because of, their education. A Practical Education investigates the real-world experiences of graduates with humanities majors, the majors that would seem the least employable in Silicon Valley's engineering-centric workplaces. Drawing on the experiences of Stanford University graduates and using the students' own accounts of their education, job searches, and first work experiences, Randall Stross provides heartening demonstrations of how multi-capable liberal arts graduates are. When given a first opportunity, these majors thrive in work roles that no one would have predicted. Stross also weaves the students' stories with the history of Stanford, the rise of professional schools, the longstanding contention between engineering and the liberal arts, the birth of occupational testing, and the popularity of computer science education to trace the evolution in thinking about how to prepare students for professional futures. His unique blend of present and past produces a provocative exploration of how best to utilize the undergraduate years. At a time when institutions of higher learning are increasingly called on to justify the tangible merits of the liberal arts, A Practical Education reminds readers that the most useful training for an unknowable future is the universal, time-tested preparation of a liberal education.

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Redwood Press

Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know: Library Edition

A New York Times columnist and author of eBoys draws on interviews with Google's CEO and the heads of its newest businesses to trace the story of the company's ambitions and influence, covering such topics as its acquisition of YouTube to its role in reshaping business and culture. 100,000 first printing.

Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan To Organize Everything We Know

Biography & History

Free Press

"In this spellbinding behind-the-scenes look, Stross leads readers through Google’s evolution…the unfolding narrative reads like a suspense novel" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Based on unprecedented access to the "Googleplex," Planet Google goes deep inside the company to unveil the extraordinary scope and scale of its ambition to become the master gate-keeper of "all the world’s information," including its users’ most personal information. New York Times columnist Randall Stross provides a lively tour through Google’s flurry of new information gathering initiatives. Will Google stay true to its famous "Don’t Be Evil" mantra? Will it protect all of the personal information it collects? Planet Google is a much-needed wake-up call about how powerful the Google juggernaut has become.

Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know

Planet Google

Simon & Schuster Ome

Randy Stross reveals for the first time Googles audacious new strategy for the future of the web and explores the profound implications not only for the business world but also for our culture at large.

Blackstone Pub

Number of teams that applied to Y Combinator’s summer 2011 batch: 2,089Teams interviewed: 170
Minutes per interview: 10
Teams accepted and funded: 64 
Months to build a viable startup: 3
Possibilities: BOUNDLESS
Investment firm Y Combinator is the most sought-after home for startups in Silicon Valley. Twice a year, it funds dozens of just-founded startups and provides three months of guidance from Paul Graham, YC’s impresario, and his partners, also entrepreneurs and mostly YC alumni. The list of YC-funded success stories includes Dropbox (now valued at $5 billion) and Airbnb ($1.3 billion).
Receiving an offer from YC creates the opportunity of a lifetime — it’s like American Idol for budding entrepreneurs.
Acclaimed journalist Randall Stross was granted unprecedented access to Y Combinator’s summer 2011 batch of young companies, offering a unique inside tour of the world of software startups. Most of the founders were male programmers in their mid-twenties or younger. Over the course of the summer, they scrambled to heed Graham’s seemingly simple advice: make something people want.
We watch the founders work round-the-clock, developing and retooling products as diverse as a Web site that can teach anyone programming, to a Wikipedia-like site for rap lyrics, to software written by a pair of attorneys who seek to “make attorneys obsolete.”
Founders are guided by Graham’s notoriously direct form of tough-love feedback. “Here, we don’t fire you,” he says. “The market fires you. If you’re sucking, I’m not going to run along behind you, saying, ‘You’re sucking, you’re sucking, c’mon, stop sucking.’” Some teams would even abandon their initial idea midsummer and scramble to begin anew.
The program culminated in “Demo Day,” when founders pitched their startup to several hundred top angel investors and venture capitalists. A lucky few attracted capital that gave their startup a valuation of multiple millions of dollars. Others went back to the drawing board.
This is the definitive story of a seismic shift that’s occurred in the business world, in which coding skill trumps employment experience, pairs of undergraduates confidently take on Goliaths, tiny startups working out of an apartment scale fast, and investors fall in love.

The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's Most Exclusive School for Startups

Portfolio

A behind-the-scenes look at how tomorrow’s hottest startups are being primed for greatness Investment firm Y Combinator is the most sought-after home for startups in Silicon Valley. Twice a year, it funds dozens of just-founded startups and provides three months of guidance from Paul Graham, YC’s impresario, and his partners. Receiving an offer from YC creates the opportunity of a lifetime. Acclaimed journalist Randall Stross was granted unprecedented access to Y Combinator, enabling a unique inside tour of the world of software startups. Over the course of a summer, we watch as a group of founders scramble to make something people want. This is the definitive story of a seismic shift in the business world, in which coding skill trumps experience, undergraduates confidently take on Goliaths, and investors fall in love.

The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator

Penguin Publishing Group

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stross; Randall. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Stross; Randall

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stross; Randall. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Launch Pad

A Practical Education: Why Liberal Arts Majors Make Great Employees

Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan To Organize Everything We Know

Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know

Planet Google

Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know: Library Edition

A Practical Education: Why Liberal Arts Majors Make Great Employees

The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's Most Exclusive School for Startups

The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator