Behind the Startup - by Benjamin Shestakofsky (Paperback)

About the Book

"As dreams of our technological future have turned into nightmares, some blame harmful algorithms or greedy CEOs for the negative consequences of innovation. Behind the Startup takes a different approach. Drawing on 19 months of participant-observation research inside a successful Silicon Valley startup, this book examines how the company was organized to meet the needs of the venture capital investors who funded it. Investors push startups to 'scale' as quickly as possible to inflate the value of their asset. I show how these demands created organizational problems that managers could only solve by combining high-tech systems with low-wage human labor. With its focus on the financialization of innovation, Behind the Startup explains how the gains generated by Silicon Valley companies are funneled into the pockets of a small cadre of elite investors and entrepreneurs. Readers will come away from the book with the understanding that if we want to promote innovation that benefits the many rather than the few, we need to focus less on fixing the technology and more on changing the financial infrastructure that supports it"--

Book Synopsis

"Readers . . . will find a real-life 'The Office, ' Silicon Valley version, alternately comical and poignant."―New York Times​

This systematic analysis of everyday life inside a tech startup dissects the logic of venture capital and its consequences for entrepreneurs, workers, and societies.

In recent years, dreams about our technological future have soured as digital platforms have undermined privacy, eroded labor rights, and weakened democratic discourse. In light of the negative consequences of innovation, some blame harmful algorithms or greedy CEOs. Behind the Startup focuses instead on the role of capital and the influence of financiers. Drawing on nineteen months of participant-observation research inside a successful Silicon Valley startup, this book examines how the company was organized to meet the needs of the venture capital investors who funded it.

Investors push startups to scale as quickly as possible to inflate the value of their asset. Benjamin Shestakofsky shows how these demands create organizational problems that managers solve by combining high-tech systems with low-wage human labor. With its focus on the financialization of innovation, Behind the Startup explains how the gains generated by these companies are funneled into the pockets of a small cadre of elite investors and entrepreneurs. To promote innovation that benefits the many rather than the few, Shestakofsky compellingly argues that we must focus less on fixing the technology and more on changing the financial infrastructure that supports it.

From the Back Cover

"Plenty has been said about what venture capitalists can do for young firms. But we know very little about what venture capital actually does to firms and especially the people who work for them. Based on a year and a half of deep fieldwork, Benjamin Shestakofsky shows us how venture capital's demands and expectations shaped the concerns, the jobs, and the lives of the founders, engineers, and contractors employed by a startup that developed one of the first online labor platforms. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Shestakofsky pulls back the tech economy's curtain to reveal why only a handful of those who labor in Silicon Valley's vineyards ever taste the wine they produce. Behind the Startup is bound to become a parable for our economic times. It deserves a wide audience."--Stephen R. Barley, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, UC Santa Barbara, and Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

"This captivating, fast-paced study of AllDone--a pseudonym for a Silicon Valley unicorn--offers something no other profile of the platform economy or gig work has to date: a clear view of the elitist practices that pump venture capital into young startups' work routines to produce that elusive ingredient known as disruption. While we have studies that trace the histories of Big Tech incumbents and narratives of scrappy inventors-in-garages, sociologist Benjamin Shestakofsky brings skillful attention to an overlooked piece of the organizational puzzle of the dot.com world: how investments in the very idea of tech upstarts deploy capital to upend consumer and labor norms more than anything of tangible value. The outcome is not so much the making of individual millionaires as the structural maintenance of logics of wealth accumulation through old-fashioned valuing of some human labor at the cost of others' daily routines. Shestakofsky's approach turns venture capital itself into a character that ensnares Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, and the Philippines, constantly upending and remaking what AllDone's global workforce sees as their role in filling the valuation lag that ultimately looks like an animal frantically chasing its tail. This book is both a valuable time capsule and a harbinger of what awaits us all if thinking like a venture capitalist invades every nook and cranny of our global economy."--Mary L. Gray, MacArthur Fellow and coauthor of Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass

"Through captivating ethnographic storytelling, Behind the Startup by Benjamin Shestakofsky reveals the financial incentives that structure startup life and the organizational logics that animate the tech industry. This is a deeply insightful and important exploration of the high-stakes world where innovation, money, and labor collide."--danah boyd, author of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

"Shestakofsky takes us inside the world of Silicon Valley startups by centering venture capital's imprint on technology companies. This meticulous organizational ethnography examines the cultures of a globe-spanning firm whose workforce stretches from San Francisco and Las Vegas to the Philippines. A must-read for anyone interested in how technological innovations reproduce global and intersectional inequalities."--Kimberly Kay Hoang, Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago, and author of Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets and Dealing in Desire: Asian Ascendancy, Western Decline, and the Hidden Currencies of Global Sex Work

"Behind the Startup stands to be a groundbreaking ethnography that will shift the conversation about technology, automation, and the future of work by refocusing our attention on the problem of venture capital. This book gave me a whole new way to understand how the gig economy works."--Ben Snyder, Williams College

"Behind the Startup reveals the inner workings of a high-tech startup and exposes how venture capitalists' demands drive inequality among startup workers. Shestakofsky's thought-provoking insights draw from rich ethnographic data of both onshore and offshore sites. A phenomenal study and a must-read!"--Megan Tobias Neely, Assistant Professor, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School

Review Quotes

"Offers organizational scholars a critical view of the idolized, if ephemeral, organizational form that is the VC-backed startup. Along the way, readers will find new research questions in the aspirations (and desperations) of the small companies that may one day dominate markets."-- "Administrative Science Quarterly"

"Benjamin Shestakofsky's new book Behind the Startup: How Venture Capital Shapes Work, Innovation, and Inequality gives an experiential account . . . providing a first-person glimpse into how the imperatives of venture capital determine the modalities of working life inside a start-up."-- "Los Angeles Review of Books"

"Behind the Startup: How Venture Capital Shapes Work, Innovation, and Inequality is vital and timely reading for professional and non-professional readers with an interest in economics, venture capitalism, income inequality, and corporate evaluations."-- "Midwest Book Review"

"Readers . . . will find a real-life 'The Office, ' Silicon Valley version, alternately comical and poignant."-- "New York Times"

About the Author

Benjamin Shestakofsky is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is affiliated with AI at Wharton and the Center on Digital Culture and Society.