An ugly spotlight on the dog-eat-dog culture of Silicon Valley
Antonio Garcia Martinez rains on the Silicon Valley cheerleading parade in his blistering memoir ‘Chaos Monkeys’. The haloed money-making apparatus of the Valley, apparently, has an obverse side. A side only insiders are privy to.
Outsiders only gawk at what gets published in newspapers or what gets reported on TV. They rarely get a peek into behind-the-scenes liaisons.
Thanks to Martinez, you get a guided tour into Silicon Valley’s dark secrets.
“In the startup game, there are no real rules, only laws, and weakly enforced ones at that. In the end, success would forgive any sins, as it did for Gates and Jobs.” – Antonio Garcia Martinez
Not much separates Silicon Valley from the Sicilian mafia if you leave out the ‘bumping people off’ part. Both operate on the same principles.
Getting deals done via backdoor negotiations, ordering legal hits on ex-members to nip their ventures in the bud, backstabbing your partners to earn management stripes, it all happens in the Valley.
Pre-Facebook
Before joining Facebook as its first product manager for ads targeting, Martinez had sold his infantile startup Adgrok to Twitter for $4 million; a paltry sum in the context of Silicon Valley.
His entrepreneurial gig got off to a bad start though when a former boss sued him for allegedly stealing the technology.
Martinez perfectly captures the travails of a tech entrepreneur.
The story of Martinez running the gauntlet at the Valley’s top accelerator Y-Combinator, setting up AdGrok and selling it immediately thereafter, forms the most riveting part of the book.
All those poor souls who ever messed with Martinez get their reputations blown to smithereens.
Murthy Nukala, founder of Adchemy and author’s former employer, who hounded him with lawsuits gets the worst stick of all. Martinez effectively pounds Murthy’s credibility to a pulp.
Here’s the author on his former employer’s sartorial tastes, “In his ill-fitting polyester polo shirts with color palettes stolen from the late ’70s, Murthy reminded me of the bored auto-rickshaw drivers in front of Connaught Place, Delhi.”
Yes, he does opine like a giant flaming gasbag, but, it is Martinez’ colorful language that sets the narrative up a notch or two. His deep insights into the cutthroat startup machine – when he is not throwing vengeful punches – are just priceless.
From explaining more commonplace stuff such as the cap table, pre-money valuation, etc. to the more obscure matters like ‘consideration‘ given to investors and price per employee at the time of startup sale, Martinez wins you over with his smart-alecky wisdom and scathing observations.
“If you want to be a startup entrepreneur, get used to negotiating from positions of weaknesses.” – Antonio Garcia Martinez
The final third of the book meanders into technical minutiae of ads targeting. Those who love the wonkish nitty-gritty of how an ads exchange works would cherish the author’s efforts. The non-wonks might have to thumb through the pages.
Author’s portrayal of his against-all-odds project at Facebook and its subsequent sidestepping by the top brass comes across as grumbling of sorts. He spearheaded FBX, Facebook’s foray into ads exchange business.
The project soon ran into internal politics and turf wars. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, took a call. She weened FBX away from any more resources to shift focus to mobile ads.
Facebook shut down FBX post-Martinez’ departure and it doesn’t look like Zuckerberg and co. are any worse off without FBX. On the contrary, Facebook as its stands today earns 87% of its ad revenues from mobile advertising, thus vindicating Sandberg’s stand to maroon the ads exchange business.
Conclusion
The sole reason why Chaos Monkeys sold well is Antonio Garcia Martinez and his epic storytelling craft.
From stem to stern, the book brims with genius wordplay and in-the-face humor. His biting remarks and incisive insights in the realm of entrepreneurship are deep, provocative and wide-ranging.
The Valley faithful might call him a tub-thumper. They might label his work a vindictive rant of a disgruntled employee. Martinez is in a league of his own. And his book is a genuine how-not-to piece on striking it rich in Silicon Valley.
One final word of caution. Chaos Monkeys is not a book for purists.
The narrative is riddled with F-bombs and obscenities fly with horrifying frequency. Martinez drops names and dresses them down with aplomb.
He mentions the sensitive company-policy-violation stuff without bother. Any other author, in my opinion, would have skirted around a host of issues mentioned in the book, not Martinez. He is of a different constitution.
Here’s him on winning:
“Men with nothing to lose will stop at nothing to win.” – Antonio G. Martinez
