by Dan Lyons
First published 2016
Dan Lyons chronicles his jarring transition from seasoned magazine writer to startup employee after Newsweek eliminates his position. At fifty, with a family to support, Lyons accepts a "marketing fellow" role at HubSpot, a Boston company backed by $100 million in venture funding. He enters a workplace that resembles a college fraternity crossed with a religious movement, where employees half his age sell email marketing software while claiming to improve the world. Lyons sits on a bouncy ball chair, watching coworkers engage in Nerf battles and Friday night parties that turn shower pods into hookup spots. Push-up clubs meet in the lobby while his absent manager sends coded messages about employees who have "graduated" from the company. Surrounded by walking meetings and startup jargon, Lyons documents the absurdity of venture capital culture, sales tactics, and the collision between traditional journalism and Silicon Valley's youth-obsessed ecosystem.
Genres: business, contemporary, non-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water
Setting: Boston, Silicon Valley
Period: 21st Century
256 pages · Kindle Edition · Grand Central Publishing