First published 2016
Antonio García Martínez takes readers inside the tech industry's most powerful companies in this irreverent memoir. After leaving Wall Street, García Martínez founded his own startup before joining Facebook's advertising team, where he helped transform user data into massive profits for executives like Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg. His tenure ended abruptly following an internal battle over the company's monetization strategy, leading him to rival Twitter. Along the way, he flooded Zuckerberg's desk while brewing illegal beer on campus, lived on a sailboat, raced cars on Highway 101, and fathered two children with a woman he barely knew. García Martínez argues that tech entrepreneurs function as "chaos monkeys," testing society's systems by disrupting transportation, lodging, entertainment, and dating through companies like Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, and Tinder. He reveals the trade secrets and power dynamics among Silicon Valley's visionaries, opportunists, and money-driven players who are reshaping our world through social media and digital marketing.
Genres: business, memoir, non-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-perspective, memoir
Setting: Facebook, Silicon Valley, Twitter
Period: 21st Century
528 pages · ebook · Harper