Netscape Time: The Making of the Billion-Dollar Start-Up That Took on Microsoft

Netscape Time: The Making of the Billion-Dollar Start-Up That Took on Microsoft by Clark, Jim. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780312199340.

From the cofounder of Netscape and the inspiration for Michael Lewiss bestselling The New, New Thing, comes a thrilling insiders account of the race to beat Microsoft for control of the Internet. Netscape was a tiny start-up company that ultimately revolutionized business and communications for the entire world. Jim Clark tells the fascinating story of how he, Marc Andreessen, and a core group of programmers turned an esoteric computer program into a visionary new technology used by millions. Challenged from the start by competition, a seemingly bottomless pit of expenses, and a need for secrecy from the roving eye of Microsoft, Clarks programmers spent days at a stretch in front of their computer screens, rushing to produce their revolutionary Web browser under the enormous pressure of time. Clark vividly re-creates the tense, thrilling atmosphere of the start-up company in a nail-biting tale of drama and suspense. Netscape Time is also an inspiring manual for anyone who wishes to take advantage of the endless business possibilities of todays technology. Indeed, Clark, the only person ever to found three multibillion-dollar start-ups, is perhaps more qualified than any businessman today to show how its done. As a business book, as a reflection of our technology culture, and as a purely enjoyable read, Netscape Time is perhaps the most significant book about the rise of the Internet ever to be published.