Hatching Twitter

A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

By: Nick Bilton

Narrated by: Daniel May

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Twitter seems like a perfect start-up success story. In barely six years, a small group of young, ambitious programmers in Silicon Valley built an $11.5 billion business out of the ashes of a failed podcasting company.

Today Twitter boasts more than 200 million active users and has affected business, politics, media, and other fields in innumerable ways.

Now Nick Bilton of the New York Times takes readers behind the scenes with a narrative that shows what happened inside Twitter as it grew at exponential speeds. This is a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles as the four founders - Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass - went from everyday engineers to wealthy celebrities, featured on magazine covers, Oprah, The Daily Show, and Time's list of the world's most influential people.

Bilton's exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting - drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails - have enabled him to write an intimate portrait of fame, influence, and power. He also captures the zeitgeist and global influence of Twitter, which has been used to help overthrow governments in the Middle East and disrupt the very fabric of the way people communicate.

©2013 Nick Bilton (P)2013 Penguin Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“Fast-paced and perceptive.” (The New York Times Book Review)

"Exhaustively researched...extensively detailed...unexpectedly addictive." (The Wall Street Journal)

"With a cinematic approach befitting its eclectic cast of characters, the perceptive read…is rife with Byzantine-like intrigue, character clashes and broken dreams.” (USA Today)

Well narrated!!!!!

Held my interest from beginning to end. The narrator was awesome. Enjoy Every min of the book. Shared this audio with some friends.

Great insight into the turmoil of formation

We see a big brand and assume that the mission and leadership were always on a straight path to success. Hatching Twitter provides insight into the many struggles behind the product we know today.

It is a really cool and interesting story!

Any additional comments?

The title of the book really sums it up what its really about. I enjoyed it a lot!

Better than Twitter!

Would you listen to Hatching Twitter again? Why?

Unbelievable story! Great reading, Character development and story telling.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Biz. Never heard of this guy that is undoubtable the spirit of Twitter.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Easily could have been listened to non-stop.

Any additional comments?

Listen to it. You will pull many great insights.

Nicely told but gives a biased feeling

It is well written and the writing style keeps you on your toes and eager to learn more in essentially a history book. However, some characters are so negatively portrayed that it feels like the author has a thing for them.

All in all a recommended book

The narrative is top notch!

The narrative is top notch! Very interesting, at times shocking, and transparent look at Twitter.

Intriguing enough for my curiosity

The performance of reading is really good that the narrator tries to imitate all the tones from different people. The storyline is a little bit overfocused on the battle between founders, while I wanted to see a bigger picture that may address questions lime why Twitter just succeeded.

Excellent narrator

What does Daniel May bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Daniel is the reason I put all 5 stars. I am not native English and listening books requires effort for me. But this is first audiobook that i did not want stop listening mostly because narrator is live, engaged and use voice to highlight dialogs. Really enjoyed. Sad that other Daniel's book are on topics that are not close to me.

Any additional comments?

(mainly wrote this review because of narrator) Book itself is not bad too. It just too concentrated on dirty laundry. It would be more interesting have more details on decisions beyond firing friends. Some more background on founders. But overall is written with good language.

Excellent

I had read another book by Nick Bilton which I think I prefer to this one (American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road) but I see the Twitter book was written several years earlier. .That will help explain the rather abrupt ending!!! It wasn't a problem, as it stopped when the company was clearly established, no longer being 'hatched' but for some reason I wasn't ready for it. I was left wondering about the remaining years, but that's another story.
Yes, it is more on the personalities and very light on the technical side, but I'm not sure there is a really a technical side that is significant. What was new was conceiving that people would want quick little posts and the different outlooks on what role they would function. I find all the start up stories worthwhile, as it's a combination of genius, drive, business acumen, and a host of other things that combine and they're giving us the world we're in today. It's a time like the heyday of the robber barons where great wealth and influence is springing up and the pace of change is rapid. I thought it was terrific. It makes sense that these characters brainstormed into Twitter but had struggles later. Who wouldn't?

Who founded Twitter?

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

There is a dark history behind the inception of Twitter. Some win, some lose and some both. History also repeats itself several times over at Twitter. An engaging book filled with drama and emotions.

Who was your favorite character and why?

All co-founders - Noah, Evan, Jack, Biz were interesting.

Have you listened to any of Daniel May’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator's performance was good.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Real Social Network

Any additional comments?

This has changed my perspective of Twitter and how I used the service. After completing the book, I went through all the people I followed and unfollowed most! I wanted to use Twitter to get the most relevant tweets in the shortest possible time.Twitter has multiple personalities. It can be what you want it to be. One has to ensure that the right people/organizations/groups are followed, so that the tweets are useful. It then starts to bring the world to you in the quickest possible way.