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Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining story about the start-up of Netscape
Review: Clark entertains us with his remarkable story about the start-up of Netscape. I liked his garage stories with the young programers he hires that play foot hockey and eat pizza during breaktime. Clark almost admits being narcacistic. No doubt, this man has a huge ego! But that's one of the entertaining parts of the book. I would have liked to have learned more about Andreeson, his chief programer and inventor of Mosaic. But Clark is so caught up with himself, he doesn't think to waste time expanding about others. But once again, his ego makes the book entertaining. To give him credit, he has a great nose for business. He knows how to treat his people and take advantage of new ideas. A real pionneer in the technology age.
Rating:
Summary: Rivals Larry Ellison's ego
Review: Fascinating story- especially from the founder himself rather than someone who 'thinks' he knows how it started. Interesting to read all the behind-the-scenes politics behind the sucesses. Some DOT COM'S are failing not because of a lack of technology or ideas, but the lack of competent people and realistic vision to shape a releasable, quality product. You are not a "Senior" if you've worked 2 years....... I would have reviewed this higher if there was more content on the AOL merger (Jim's true feelings) and included an epilogue of the dot coms that he and Marc are involved in right now. A bridge from the beginnings to the future would have made this book seem more complete. Aside: look at the quality Netscape 6 now that the leadership has changed today!
Rating: 
Summary: "If you want to join a parade...jump in the front of it"
Review: Having had the honor to work with the ABC team(Andreesen,Barksdale and Clark)during the birthing pains of electric media, Netscape and the internet as a viable, ubiquitous commerce medium. I found the book a great insigtht of a good leader and an inspiration to future entrepeneurs; the truth is the absolute defense, and for those that sailed the toiled waters along with the DR.captain... Bring it on, we would all do it all again...and we are now ready for whatever comes!
Rating: 
Summary: Fun to read...Clark needs to take a chill pill
Review: I couldnt put the book down. The level of detail about the building of Netscape and who did what was fascinating. Though demanding, it sounds as though Clark loved every minute of it - even the psychological battles with University of Illinois idiots. What drove me up the wall is Jim Clark's utter and total hypocrosy. Who does this guy think he is? Though no doubt extremely talented, Clark, despite his constant insistence otherwise, has been lucky three times. He was not the brainchild of ANY of his three ventures. Least of all Netscape. Andreesen would have been just fine without Clark, but you cant say the same for Clark without Andreesen. But what gets me most about Clark's arrogance is his seething hatred and jealousy of Microsoft. Just another whiner. This guy would do nothing short of killing to be on top but hates Gates for doing much less. That part I had to weed through, though it was strategically placed throughout each chapter. All-in-all, a very entertaining read - I would recommend it. Just wish Jim Clark would calm down and realize that Microsoft is on top for one reason and one reason only - they produce the best software products on the market, year after year. The American consumer has proved that. Thats why less than 10% of Internet users browse with Netscape.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, shame about the author
Review: I found the book to be a reasonably enjoyable read, however I must say that the author's high opinion of himself seems to shine through on almost every page and really put me off. We don't want to know about his boats, wealth, etc... just the story would do. I read a different version, and the cover had just him on the front with a really self satisfying grin. And there were NO photos in the book to relate the story to! Could have been much better.
Rating:
Summary: The "Real Thing" for Those Who Read The New New Thing
Review: If you liked Michael Lewis' book, The New New Thing, about Jim Clark,
I think you will like Jim Clark's ruminations even more in this book
about what he learned at Silicon Graphics and how he helped create
Netscape. I also recommend this book as a superb case history
concerning key lessons about entrepreneurship in the Internet age.
If you don't know Clark's and Netscape's story, here's a quick
summary. Jim Clark uncovered a software approach to creating 3D
graphics while an academic. He left to found Silicon Graphics, and
eventually suffered from conflicts with his hand-picked CEO.
Frustrated by the inability to redirect the company towards a low-end
workstation and PC-based business, he resigned at age 50 with stock
worth about $15 million. Looking around for something to do, one of
his SGI colleagues suggests he meet Marc Andresson, the 23 year old
who had primarily co-written Mosaic, the first browser (along with
Eric Bina). Clark's first use of Mosaic was to e-mail Andresson.
They quickly decided to do something together, and Clark agreed to
fund it up to three million dollars. After two false starts on a
concept, they decide to create a "Mosaic Killer." The
strategy then becomes to hire all the people who had worked on Mosaic
at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the
University of Illinois. That, too, is quickly accomplished. The
young men except for Bina have to wait to graduate from college, and
then a company is built around them as "rock star"
developers under Andresson's technical leadership. Within months, the
first release of what will become Navigator is up on the Web for free
downloading. Netscape quickly begins to sell licenses to major
companies, Jim Barksdale is hired as CEO, and the company goes public
to an astonishingly positive reaction. The company soon decides to
concentrate on software as its business rather than becoming a content
provider. Microsoft soon notices a new competitor, and the allegedly
anticompetitive actions now being ajudicated in the courts take place.
Netscape is sold to AOL. Clark later goes on to found his third
company, which is the subject of The New New Thing. But, you
probably knew all or most of that. Why read this book then? To
me, the value of what I found here was that Jim Clark seemed to be
pretty candid about why he decided to do or not do certain things that
had a very large impact on SGI's and Netscape's success. As a result,
this is an excellent study in entrepreneurship that considers how the
Internet changes everything. Whether your business is in the old or
the new economy, I think you can learn many valuable lessons from this
thought process and its consequences. Here are the successes:
First, one important thing he did right was to fund the start-up
initially with his own money. His purpose was to get a bigger piece
of the pie for himself and the key developers. As founder of SGI, he
had received only about 1.5 percent of the company's market cap.
Early use of venture capitalists had cost him money in his view, and
he was probably right. A software start-up doesn't need tremendous
amounts of money. Founders and angels can often fund round one. This
made it easier for him to work with Andresson to attract the
development team, and reward them properly. Second, his initial
strategy was to focus on getting all of the Mosaic development talent
into Netscape. That also was a good decision. In a new technology
area, the people are usually more important than the intellectual
property. Spyglass focused on getting the intellectual property
without the people, and did not do very well. This looks like another
good decision. Third, he began selling software licenses early.
This gave him credibility, cash flow, and access to more financings at
an attractive price. Fourth, he overcame his error in picking a
leader at SGI and chose Jim Barksdale. Clearly, Barksdale was a good
choice. I suggest you read Clark's thinking about why entrepreneurs
should usually find someone else to run the company for them. In
Clark's case, he just isn't interested in working on all of the
details and hanging around. But every business needs a CEO who does.
Fifth, he went along with Andresson's preferences to "release
early and often" and to make the software free. This speeded up
development time, and the company's growth. This was a key strategic
decision. Clark quickly grasped that Internet businesses needed
faster action and could provide it than hard asset businesses
could. He also made some errors. Here they are: First, and most
importantly, he knew that he was taking on Microsoft ultimately, but
did not properly prepare. As Sun Tzu suggests, your strategy should
either ensure that you do not have to fight or that the fight is under
circumstances so favorable that you cannot lose. Machiavelli suggests
that you always kill your enemy, because wounded enemies are lethal.
Netscape needed more and more powerful allies, and a way to insulate
itself from the inevitable Microsoft browser product buried in a
Windows package for free. I suspect that the error here was that he
didn't fully realize that he had the potential to create another
Microsoft. Second, he focused the company on browser software to the
exclusion of content opportunities. All of the later Web successes
like Amazon, Yahoo and eBay could have been innovated by Netscape at
that point. Clark didn't want to split the company's focus, and the
browser product was hot. In retrospect, he probably left 99 percent
of the opportunity on the table. In this case, he probably did not
fully appreciate the future potential of the Internet. A better
solution would have been to start-up new companies with partner and VC
funding to put these operations together. They would have been
outside of Netscape and had their own focus and funding. Netscape
could have been an even more successful version of CMGI. Third, he
ruffled the feathers of the people at the University of Illinois. He
waited until they were annoyed before making peace. This disagreement
wasted a lot of time and money, and slowed down corporate acceptance
of Netscape. He needed a diplomat on his team earlier on. As you
can see, that's a lot to think about in one book. After you have
finished absorbing and applying these lessons, I suggest that you ask
yourself where your pursuit of opportunities and examination of
potential risks may be too limited. Learn from Jim Clark's
experiences to take full advantage of the potential of where you are,
and then you will not need a new new thing. Lead others and yourself
into greater prosperity!
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Jim Clark offers an adventurous account of the birth and volatile life of Netscape Communications Corp., the company that produced the Web browser that helped make the Internet a household tool. If the rags-to-riches dot-com start-up story has become cliché, bear in mind that when Netscape Navigator arrived on the market, the Internet was still largely the semi-private domain of a few academic oddballs. Due to the seminal role that Netscape played in turning the Internet into the omnipresent force that it is today, Clark's book does indeed represent an important first draft of history. The key phrase, of course, is first draft. If nothing else, Clark is a salesman and a promoter, and his goal here is to promote Netscape's version of history - a particularly important goal at a time when the U.S. courts are weighing the fate of the company's arch nemesis, Microsoft. Nevertheless, future historians will use this book in cobbling together the true tale of the Internet's origins, as well as the genesis of the stock mania of the late 1990s. We at getAbstract recommend this dramatic, and sometimes even suspenseful book, to all professionals, whose future decisions concerning the Internet will benefit from the de-mythologizing effect of historic perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Good read, except...
Review: The title neglected to tack onto the end "and lost". An otherwise good book is, to me, lowered by the constant complaining about Microsoft's tactics. I'm not defending those tactics, or saying that the tactics were legal, nice or anything like that, but it just got a bit monotonous listening to them. Of course, it's understandable how Clark could be angry about what happened, but it still makes the book less pleasant to read, trying to find 10 pages without a shot at Microsoft. Clark is a good writer. The story of how Netscape started is an interesting one. It's one that I've read in one form or another a few times, so that part of the book wasn't that exciting. There were two parts of the book I found interesting and make the book well worth reading: 1 - Jim Barksdale - the right stuff (chapter 12). Jim Clark is a man who knows what kind of a leader he is, and knows what kind of leader is needed when. Picking Jim Barksdale to be CEO of Netscape was a smart thing, and took a lot of guts. I'd recommend a close reading of this chapter for anyone who thinks they might want to be a leader someday. 2 - The best of enemies (chapter 18). It starts off with the Greeks who beat the Italians in World War 2, and in the process, attracted the attention of the Germans, who flattened them. There is an obvoius lesson there (eventually you lose - Rome was sacked), and Clark adds the non-obvious one: Eventually you will fight a battle you lose. But can you afford to avoid that battle? So, the book has useful thoughts on leadership and business, interesting insights into the world of funding and Venture Capital and the birth of the Internet as most of us know it. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Good read, except...
Review: The title neglected to tack onto the end "and lost". An otherwise good book is, to me, lowered by the constant complaining about Microsoft's tactics. I'm not defending those tactics, or saying that the tactics were legal, nice or anything like that, but it just got a bit monotonous listening to them. Of course, it's understandable how Clark could be angry about what happened, but it still makes the book less pleasant to read, trying to find 10 pages without a shot at Microsoft. Clark is a good writer. The story of how Netscape started is an interesting one. It's one that I've read in one form or another a few times, so that part of the book wasn't that exciting. There were two parts of the book I found interesting and make the book well worth reading: 1 - Jim Barksdale - the right stuff (chapter 12). Jim Clark is a man who knows what kind of a leader he is, and knows what kind of leader is needed when. Picking Jim Barksdale to be CEO of Netscape was a smart thing, and took a lot of guts. I'd recommend a close reading of this chapter for anyone who thinks they might want to be a leader someday. 2 - The best of enemies (chapter 18). It starts off with the Greeks who beat the Italians in World War 2, and in the process, attracted the attention of the Germans, who flattened them. There is an obvoius lesson there (eventually you lose - Rome was sacked), and Clark adds the non-obvious one: Eventually you will fight a battle you lose. But can you afford to avoid that battle? So, the book has useful thoughts on leadership and business, interesting insights into the world of funding and Venture Capital and the birth of the Internet as most of us know it. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but flawed
Review: To all these 1 and 2 star reviewers: What planet are you on? This book is excellent. Easy to read. Really well written. And with much insight from the voice of someone who's been thru the business battleground. Clark's simile on page 134 about how Netscape's offices looked a few months into the start-up, the manic, hectic, pressurized pace left the offices looking "like a conceptual art exhibit at a state mental institution" qualifies the author as a first class wordsmith. And I second that opinion that Clark could make yet another fortune as a writer.
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