A winners tale of greed and glory in the internet wars.
Charles Ferguson was a founder of Vermeer Technologies, the company that created Frontpage, technology now owned by Microsoft.
This book is in two sections, first covering the rollercoaster ride of Vermeer, the second, smaller section an analysis of the potential future(s) of the big players in the industry.
The first section describes both the creation and growth of the company and the background against which the company was being made. It contains many insights into the strategic decisions involved in manouvering a company through internet time and into the bright new future we were making back then. Along side some good information about the paucity of strategy from some of the upstart startups of the day. Netscape, for all the furore they were generating, were unable to really think about what they were doing, they were run by arrogant but inexperienced engineers.
The story takes us from initial idea, through putting together a team, getting first round funding, creating the technology, mezzanine funding, developing the technology, hunting for a CEO, generating buzz, second round through to eventual exit. All done with enough analysis to explain how and why he took the choices he did.
I got the impression he is quite full of himself, somehow, but to some extent that is justified, he’s clearly got a better idea of how the industry works than I have. How much of it was retrofitted after some years of thinking about it rather than thoughts at the time is difficult to tell.
The second section explores the outlook (as seen from the year 1999) of the big players in the internet industry. Again this is an interesting strategic analysis, if a little tainted with the arrogance of the armchair CEO.
A very worthwhile read for anyone in the tech industry, especially those with an eye on setting up their own company.