Join tech journalist Dan Lyons in conversation with Herb Kim for the Manchester launch of his book Disrupted: My Misadventures in the Start-up Bubble, where he will share his often hilarious experience of the world of start-ups.
Dan Lyons is a novelist, journalist, and screenwriter. Previously, he was co-producer and writer for the HBO series “Silicon Valley”. Lyons was technology editor at Newsweek and Forbes magazines and the creator of the ground-breaking viral blog “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs” (aka “The Fake Steve Jobs”).
As Technology Editor at Newsweek Magazine Dan Lyons was a magazine writer at the top of his profession. One Friday morning he received a phone call: his job no longer existed. Fifty years old and with a wife and two young kids, Dan was unemployed and facing financial oblivion. Then an idea hit. Dan had long reported on Silicon Valley and the tech explosion. Why not join it? HubSpot, a Boston start-up, was flush with $100 million in venture capital. They offered Dan a pile of stock options for the nebulous role of “marketing fellow.” What could possibly go wrong?
What follows is a hilarious and excoriating account of Dan’s time at the start-up and a revealing window onto the dysfunctional culture that prevails in a world flush with cash and devoid of experience. Filled with stories of meaningless jargon, teddy bears at meetings, push-up competitions and all-night parties, this uproarious tale is also a trenchant analysis of the dysfunctional start-up world, a de facto conspiracy between those who start companies and those who fund them. It is a world where bad ideas are rewarded with hefty investments, where companies blow money lavishing perks on their post-collegiate workforces, and where everybody is trying to hang on just long enough to cash out with a fortune.
Dan will be joined by Herb Kim, Co-Founder of Thinking Digital Manchester and the Chair of Tech North.