Disrupted

March 15, 2016
An inside-out look at the frenzied and at times surreal work environment of tech startup HubSpot. In 2012, at the age of 51, longtime journalist Lyons was "unceremoniously dumped" from his position at Newsweek. The magazine, like so many other traditional media publications, was struggling to cope with digitization. (The irony is that the author covered technology for the magazine.) Forced to reinvent his career, Lyons took a risk by accepting the position of "marketing fellow" at HubSpot, a software-as-a-service marketing and sales company that had become "one of the hottest tech start-ups on the East Coast." As the writer behind the satirical blog Fake Steve Jobs, the author could not have imagined a place so ripe for parody as HubSpot. Every detail of the hip office space, incompetent management, and delusional workforce described by Lyons in his hilarious and unsettling expose is like something out of a scripted comedy (the author writes for HBO's Silicon Valley). But beneath the showy display of unlimited candy, beer, and other sundry perks enjoyed by HubSpot's employees, the culture Lyons experienced was ruthless, predatory, and unforgiving. Employees were routinely "graduated" (i.e., fired) without warning, oftentimes by younger, inexperienced managers. (The theme of ageism plays throughout.) HubSpot pitches itself as a mission-based company whose software will not only help their customers save money and increase profits, but also make the world a better place. These examples of Orwellian doublespeak and utopian jargon are commonplace at tech companies, and they are strategically employed to whip up fervor among employees, investors, and the press as well as disguise the fact that their business models are often ineffective. Lyons sums up the startup model: "Grow fast, lose money, go public." For Lyons, his adventure at HubSpot was a case study in drudgery, and it turned out to be more pernicious than he could have guessed. An exacting, excoriating takedown of the current startup "bubble" and the juvenile corporate culture it engenders.

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May 15, 2016
This is an East Coast spin on the start-up explosion. Finding himself at the crossroads of 50 and unemployed in an age-discriminating time, journalist and author Lyons took a career detour to tech start-up HubSpot, an e-mail spam seller. It didn't take long for him to figure out that the Boston-based company wasn't exempt from the Silicon Valley start-up craziness, including unorthodox practices like being forced to talk to a teddy bear and take a multitude of IQ tests. Lyons mingled with a cast of characters, including executives dubbed Cranium and Wingman, along with much younger coworkers in a culture of company perks in what he likens to a cultall confirming tech-bubble stereotypes. Although Lyons admits his job was little more than banging out blog posts and recording podcasts, his work takes a backseat to the tales of strained interactions, the company's investments in harebrained ideas, and the unscrupulous tactics of profit-driven management. This slice-of-life narrative leaves us with a unique insight into the tech boom and the culture it creates.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)