The venture alchemists

• Verfasst von: Lalka, Rob [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: The venture alchemists
• Titelzusatz: how big tech turned profits into power
• Mitwirkende: Abernathy, Chris [ErzählerIn]
• Verf.angabe: Rob Lalka
• Ausgabe: [First edition].
• Verlagsort: [Old Saybrook, Connecticut]
• Verlag: Tantor Media, Inc.
• E-Jahr: 2025
• Jahr: [2025]
• Umfang: 1 online resource (1 audio file (16 hr., 43 min.))
• Fussnoten: Online resource; title from title details screen (O’Reilly, viewed March 4, 2025)
• ISBN: 9798855590531
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: Industries de pointe
• Sach-SW: Capital à risques
• Sach-SW: Industries de pointe ; Biographies
• Form-SW: Audiobooks
• Form-SW: Livres audio
• K10plus-PPN: 1921169079
• K10plus-PPN:
  Universitätsbibliothek
• Lokale URL UB: Zum Volltext
• Lokale URL UB: Bibliothek der Medizinischen Fakultät Mannheim der Universität Heidelberg
• Bibliothek/Idn: UW / m4696533638
• Lokale URL Inst.: Zum Volltext

Abstract

We once idolized tech entrepreneurs for creating innovations that seemed like modern miracles. We now blame them for spreading lies, breaking laws, and causing chaos. Yesterday's Silicon Valley darlings have become today's Big Tech villains. Which is it? Are they superheroes or scoundrels? Or is it more complicated? In The Venture Alchemists, Rob Lalka demystifies how tech entrepreneurs built empires that made trillions. Meta started as a Halloween prank, Alphabet began as a master's thesis that warned against corporate deception, and Palantir came from a campus controversy over hateful speech. These largely forgotten origin stories show how ordinary fears and youthful ambitions shaped their ventures. Listeners learn about the adversities tech entrepreneurs overcame, the troubling tradeoffs they made, and the tremendous power they now wield. Using leaked documents and previously unpublished archival material, Lalka takes listeners inside Big Tech's worst exploitations and abuses, alongside many good intentions and moral compromises. But this story remains unfinished, and The Venture Alchemists offers hope from the people who, decades ago, warned about the risks of the emerging Internet. Their insights illuminate a path toward more responsible innovations, so that technologies aren't dangerous weapons but valuable tools.