The Venture Alchemists

How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power

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Pub Date 14 May 2024 | Archive Date 30 Sep 2024
Columbia University Press | Columbia Business School Publishing

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Description

Shortlist, 2024 Best in Business Book Awards, Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing

We once idolized tech entrepreneurs for creating innovations that seemed like modern miracles. Yet our faith has been shattered. We now blame them for spreading lies, breaking laws, and causing chaos. Yesterday’s Silicon Valley darlings have become today’s Big Tech villains. Which is it? Are they superheroes or scoundrels? Or is it more complicated, some blend of both?

In The Venture Alchemists, Rob Lalka demystifies how tech entrepreneurs built empires that made trillions. Meta started as a cruel Halloween prank, Alphabet began as a master’s thesis that warned against corporate deception, and Palantir came from a campus controversy over hateful speech. These largely forgotten origin stories show how ordinary fears and youthful ambitions shaped their ventures—making each tech tale relatable, both wonderfully and tragically human. Readers learn about the adversities tech entrepreneurs overcame, the troubling tradeoffs they made, and the tremendous power they now wield. Using leaked documents and previously unpublished archival material, Lalka takes readers inside Big Tech’s worst exploitations and abuses, alongside many good intentions and moral compromises.

But this story remains unfinished, and The Venture Alchemists ultimately offers hope from the people who, decades ago, warned about the risks of the emerging Internet. Their insights illuminate a path toward more responsible innovations, so that technologies aren’t dangerous weapons but valuable tools that ensure progress, improve society, and enhance our daily lives.
Shortlist, 2024 Best in Business Book Awards, Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing

We once idolized tech entrepreneurs for creating innovations that seemed like modern miracles. Yet our...

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EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780231210263
PRICE US$35.00 (USD)
PAGES 504

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