REVIEW: Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble

Nonfiction by Dan Lyons

Disrupted is hilarious and scary in equal measure. Lyons, former technology editor of Newsweek, is summarily let go from his position after decades in journalism. Over 50 and professionally adrift, Lyons decides to hop on the start-up train and joins software company HubSpot. During a painful year, Lyons learns that it’s not a train so much as a dangerously precarious bubble he’s boarded.

Lyons describes HubSpot as a cultish, Orwellian nightmare, a software company that creates anti-spam campaigns complete with t-shirts while, in essence, basing their business on generating spam–all the while somehow brainwashing employees into thinking they are making the world a better place.  Lyons’ coworkers and, even more frighteningly, his superiors are sycophantic, idiotic, deranged, vengeful, criminal, and, only very occasionally, smart and competent.

Through all this, Lyons paints a grim picture of the start-up paradigm: make a product or service (it doesn’t have to be good), sell the product (using cheap labor under immense pressure), demonstrate growth (not even actual profit!), then go public and prosper (but only if you’re an owner or investor, not if you’re an employee or customer). This would all be too sad and terrifying if Lyons weren’t a hilarious writer (he also writes for HBO’s Silicon Valley, so check that out if you enjoy the book); you’ll laugh-cringe all the way through this one.

— Reviewed by Sarah Burriss, Main Library, Charleston, S.C.

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