Deborah Perry Piscione is an achiever and winner, and the author of Secrets of Silicon Valley. In 2007, after living for 18 years in Washington DC and working as a White House staffer among other experiences, she moved with her family to Silicon Valley for better weather.
Her six years there render her awestruck at the different way innovators work on this side of the US and she has written a half-idiot’s guide to the culture there.
Glossing quickly over a failed job application to Google, she falls for the ‘nicer’ approach to business rather than the Machiavellian methods she was inured to in Washington.
She takes the reader back to the Californian Gold Rush and through the technology cycles that the Valley has been through, and introduces the innovators who were responsible for its growth.
It is a competent, albeit short, book although the final chapter (Can Silicon Valley be replicated?) is slight and completely ignores technology hubs in Europe and Africa, concentrating on Israel and Africa.
RATING: 6.5/10
Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.
