This is a summary review of Disrupted containing key details about the book.

What is Disrupted About?

“Disrupted” by Dan Lyons offers a humorous and scathing critique of startup culture and the tech industry, based on his experience working at HubSpot.

Disrupted Summary Review

Dan Lyons’ memoir, “Disrupted,” provides an incisive and often humorous look into the chaotic realm of Silicon Valley startups. Hailed as “the best book about Silicon Valley” by the Los Angeles Times, this instant New York Times bestseller takes readers on a journey through the eccentricities of fad-chasing venture capitalists, sales-oriented bros, and social climbers found in today’s tech startups.

The narrative unfolds with the abrupt end of Lyons’ twenty-five-year career as a magazine writer. Facing unemployment at fifty years old with a family to support, he decides to embark on a new venture by joining HubSpot, a Boston startup flourishing with $100 million in venture capital. The offer comes with a vague role as a “marketing fellow” and a pile of stock options – a seemingly irresistible opportunity.

Within the pages of “Disrupted,” Lyons portrays the bizarre world of HubSpot where the office environment resembles a mix of a frat house and a cult compound. The startup’s employees, known as HubSpotters, are committed to making the world better by selling email spam. From wild Friday night parties that extend into the early morning to “shower pods” doubling as hook-up dens, Lyons navigates this peculiar corporate culture.

Despite the age gap – Lyons being twice the age of the average HubSpot employee – he finds himself entangled in an absurd world of walking meetings, Nerf gun fights, and cryptic emails about employees who have “graduated” (read: been fired). As he sits at his desk on a bouncy-ball “chair,” Lyons contemplates the strange dynamics of an organization promoting an unconventional and, at times, bewildering corporate culture.

The author delves into the ageism prevalent in the tech industry, a theme that resonates throughout the memoir. Lyons expresses his discontent with being surrounded by younger colleagues and highlights the challenges faced by individuals over 40 in the fast-paced tech world. The narrative raises questions about age discrimination and corporate culture within the startup ecosystem.

Lyons also touches upon the discrepancies between the idealized image of startups and the reality of their operations. HubSpot, while promoting a corporate culture of innovation, free food, and perks like exercise rooms, faces its share of challenges, including issues that lead to internal conflicts, firings, and even an FBI investigation.

The book explores the clash between traditional journalism values and the new-age, fast-paced startup culture. Lyons’ experiences at HubSpot are intertwined with broader reflections on the changing landscape of journalism, ageism in the workplace, and the ethical dilemmas faced by individuals working in the tech industry.

“Disrupted” is not merely a memoir of one man’s experience but a critical examination of Silicon Valley’s startup culture. Lyons employs humor and wit to convey the surreal aspects of his time at HubSpot, while also shedding light on the complexities and challenges inherent in the tech world. This book serves as a thought-provoking and entertaining exploration of modern corporate culture and its impact on individuals.

Who is the author of Disrupted?

Daniel Lyons is an American writer. He was a senior editor at Forbes magazine and a writer at Newsweek before becoming editor of ReadWrite.

How long is Disrupted?

• Print length: 272 pages

What genre is Disrupted?

Nonfiction, Business, Memoir

What are good quotes from Disrupted?

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit” seems like the motto not just for Chopra but for the entire conference. Benioff and his philanthropy, the dry ice and fog machines, the concerts and comedians: None of this has anything to do with software or technology. It’s a show, created to entertain people, boost sales, and fluff a stock price.”

“Any place with a founder who brings a teddy bear to meetings,” he writes, “is a step away from Jonestown.”

“These are the bozos. They are graspers and self-promoters, shameless resume padders, people who describe themselves as “product marketing professionals,” “growth hackers,” “creative rockstar interns,” and “public speakers.”

“Grow fast, lose money, go public, get rich. That’s the model.”

“There’s an adage in Silicon Valley that people who use online services are not the customers. We’re the product. As”

“You tell them that you’re doing this not because you want to save money on office space but because this is how their generation likes to work.”

“You don’t get rewarded for creating great technology, not anymore,” says a friend of mine who has worked in tech since the 1980s, a former investment banker who now advises start-ups. “It’s all about the business model. The market pays you to have a company that scales quickly. It’s all about getting big fast. Don’t be profitable, just get big.”

“I’m worried,” I tell him. “This place seems out of control.” Harvey says everything I’m describing about HubSpot is absolutely normal. “You know what the big secret of all these start-ups is?” he tells me. “The big secret is that nobody knows what they’re doing. When it comes to management, it’s amateur hour. They just make it up as they go along.”

“A lot of these new start-up founders are somewhat unsavory people. The old tech industry was run by engineers and MBAs; the new tech industry is populated by young, amoral hustlers, the kind of young guys (and they are almost all guys) who watched The Social Network and its depiction of Mark Zuckerberg as a lying, thieving, backstabbing prick—and left the theater wanting to be just like that guy.”

“At Newsweek, I get paid to meet amazing people and write about subjects that fascinate me: fusion energy, education reform, supercomputing, artificial intelligence, robotics, the rising competitiveness of China, the global threat of state-sponsored hacking.”

“The thing about bozos is that bozos don’t know that they’re bozos. Bozos think they’re the shit, which makes them really annoying but also incredibly entertaining, depending on your point of view.”

“One day Spinner, the woman who runs PR tells me, “I like that idea, but I’m not sure that it’s one-plus-one-equals-three enough.” What does any of this nutty horseshit actually mean? I have no idea. I’m just amazed that hundreds of people can gobble up this malarkey and repeat it, with straight faces. I’m equally amazed by the high regard in which HubSpot people hold themselves. They use the word awesome incessantly, usually to describe themselves or each other. That’s awesome! You’re awesome! No, you’re awesome for saying that I’m awesome! They pepper their communication with exclamation points, often in clusters, like this!!! They are constantly sending around emails praising someone who is totally crushing it and doing something awesome and being a total team player!!! These emails are cc’d to everyone in the department. The protocol seems to be for every recipient to issue his or her own reply-to-all email joining in on the cheer, writing things like “You go, girl!!” and “Go, HubSpot, go!!!!” and “Ashley for president!!!” Every day my inbox fills up with these little orgasmic spasms of praise. At first, I ignore them, but then I feel like a grump and decide I should join in the fun. I start writing things like, “Jan is the best!!! Her can-do attitude and big smile cheer me up every morning!!!!!!!” (Jan is the grumpy woman who runs the blog; she scowls a lot.) Sometimes I just write something with lots of exclamation points, like, “Woo-hoo!!!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!! You totally rock!!!!!!!!!!!!” Eventually, someone suspects that I am taking the piss, and I am told to cut that shit out.”