Review: The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World

The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World by Brad Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I should probably specify that I might be a bit biased when it comes to Airbnb. I've used their services all over the world, and never had a bad experience. But my parents also rented their place out on Airbnb. Since they weren't in the country, they had an independent "manager/agent" handle the comings, goings, cleaning, etc. Everything worked well for a year or so, and then suddenly Airbnb changed their payment system (apparently without any notification) and started sending the money to the manager account, rather than the owner account. My parents, being out of the country, didn't realize this right away. When they did it became a big issue, since the manager basically had around $10K he wasn't supposed to have. Long story short, my parents never got the money back. Granted, the manager was a crook, but it was definitely a crime of opportunity, and it was never clear why Airbnb suddenly diverted which account they were sending money to. I called them several times (I kept getting sent to different departments), and I half expected them to tell me my parents had messed something up, but apparently they hadn't. It was just their system. 

Also because of all this, this book resonated with me, in the sense that Uber always had the more bellicose reputation, while Airbnb seemed to be much more 'people' oriented. Well it turns out they are pretty much the same. 

Regardless, I found this an extremely interesting and insightful look into the tech scene of the early 2010's, the machinations of some great startups, as well as other factoids (the Samwer brothers really need a book about them as well, as does Didi). 

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Review: Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--and How to Make Them Work for You

Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--and How to Make Them Work for You by Geoffrey G. Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book would be a tad outdated at this point, but by and large it is all still quite relevant. This is probably required reading for anyone working in any sort of platform company, and in fact will be useful to anyone who even uses platforms for their work, since it gives a much more in depth understanding of the structure of platforms and how they differ from classic supply chain businesses.

The last chapter is probably the most interesting during these days of Coronavirus, since many of the changes the authors predicted were slow to catch on, but seem to be accelerated just during these past couple weeks. Who knows how far it will go?


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