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"PointCast executives and investors, meanwhile, reject analogies to other Silicon Valley meteors -- General Magic, GO, Catapult, Wolff New Media, Hayes modems -- that once streaked across the sky."-- Ken Auletta, "The Last Sure Thing," Atlantic, November 9, 1998.
By the standards of the books we usually review on ERCB, Burn Rate is nearly content-free. You can pretty much make your way through to the last page without ever figuring out what exactly it was that Michael Wolff and his company invented, marketed, or delivered (if anything). The focus throughout is on building "mind share" with the aid of the "Old Media" who are terrorized and yet fascinated by the "New Media," hoodwinking venture capitalists, selling the company or taking it public, and cashing out.
I didn't like this book much at the outset. Wolff's writing seemed arrogant, pretentious, shallow, even narcissistic. But in the end, I was impressed at how well Wolff described his ride on a business, financial, ethical, and emotional roller-coaster -- from flamboyance and invincibility, to cynicism and moral bankruptcy (at one point, Wolff swindles one of his investors out of $150K to meet payroll), and finally to despair and disillusionment.
Today, Wolff is biding his time as a columnist for The Industry Standard. It seems safe to predict that although Wolff flamed out spectacularly once, the venture capitalists will be hearing from him again. Despite the title of his book, the Gold Rush Years on the Internet have barely begun.
-- Ray Duncan (duncan@cerf.net)
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Explanation of ERCB rating scale: No stars = unacceptable, 1 Star = marginal, 2 Stars = average, 3 Stars = above average, 4 Stars = exceptional.