by Kara Swisher
First published 1998
Steve Case faces a seemingly impossible task. As a young marketing executive, he must transform a struggling startup into a major player in the emerging online world. Wealthy competitors like CompuServe and Prodigy dismiss his company as insignificant. Microsoft's Bill Gates threatens to acquire or destroy America Online entirely. Technical failures and public relations disasters make headlines and anger subscribers. The media repeatedly predicts AOL's demise. Yet Case refuses to surrender. He envisions something different from his rivals: not just an online shopping mall or business service, but a true virtual community where millions can connect. As Case fights off corporate suitors and fixes one crisis after another, he builds AOL into the world's largest online company with over eleven million users. The story begins with Bill Von Meister, an eccentric entrepreneur whose wild ideas and excessive spending created the foundation for what would become AOL. But Case must finish what Von Meister started, navigating battles over free speech and family values while creating a new kind of digital gathering place that will reshape American culture.
Genres: history, business, computers, non-fiction, technology, 21st-century
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: against-all-odds, underdog
Setting: America, CompuServe, Prodigy, Microsoft
Period: Emerging Online World
333 pages · Hardcover · Crown Business