Alpha Girls
The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A Financial Times Summer Book of 2019
'The addictive stories of four incredible women who did things their own way and rewrote the code of a whole industry' Emerald Street
Described as 'the book that the world needs right now' (Adam Fisher, author of Valley of Genius), Alpha Girls is perfect for fans of Hidden Figures, Lean In and The Social Network.
Silicon Valley has long been at the forefront of innovation, but it is renowned for its archaic sexist culture. Alpha Girls is the unforgettable story how a group of talented women achieved success in a tech world run by 'bro-grammers' through sheer grit and determination. Despite the instrumental role they played in building some of the foremost companies of our time, these women have been written out of history - until now. In Alpha Girls, award-winning writer Julian Guthrie reveals their untold stories.
*Magdalena Yesil who arrived in America from Turkey with $43 to her name and would go on to help Marc Benioff build Salesforce.
*Mary Jane Elmore - one of the first women in the United States to make partner at a venture capital firm.
*Theresia Gouw, who helped land and build companies including Facebook, Trulia, Imperva and ForeScout.
*Sonja Hoel, the first woman investing partner at Menlo Ventures who invested in McAfee, Hotmail, Acme Packet and F5 Networks as well as founding an all-women's investment group and a national nonprofit for girls.
These women, juggling work and family, shaped the tech landscape we know today while overcoming unequal pay, actual punches, betrayals and the sexist attitudes prevalent in Silicon Valley. Despite the setbacks, they would rise again to rewrite the rules for an industry they love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Guthrie (How to Make a Spaceship) serves up a much-needed, if fluffy, look at some of the first of those all-too-rare women who made it as venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. She profiles Mary Jane Elmore of the firm IVP; Sonja Hoel of Menlo Ventures; Magdalena Ye il, the first investor in cloud-based computing company Salesforce; and Theresia Gouw, cofounder of Aspect Ventures. She relates their experiences of hard-won survival, humiliation Ye il, needing time off for childcare during a divorce, was forced by her Accel partners to call the firm's main investors to tell them one by one and triumph. Guthrie also explores the omnipresent "second shift" and, most poignantly, shares stories of the first time, out of many, that her subjects found themselves the only woman in the room. This is a worthwhile story, but it's disappointing that Guthrie often describes the women primarily by appearance, such as a "fresh-faced girl next door." Her storytelling is winningly energetic, and it's easy to see this narrative making for a successful film or TV series and indeed, film and TV rights have already been sold but the book would have been stronger without its off-putting strain of condescension.
