App Kid

How a Child of Immigrants Grabbed a Piece of the American Dream

By: Michael Sayman

Narrated by: Michael Sayman

Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

An inspiring and deeply personal coming of age memoir from one of Silicon Valley’s youngest entrepreneurs - a second-generation Latino immigrant who taught himself how to code as a 13-year-old and went on to claim his share of the American dream.

As his parents watched their restaurant business collapse in the wake of the Great Recession, Michael Sayman was googling “how to code". Within a year, he had launched an iPhone app that was raking in thousands of dollars a month, enough to keep his family afloat - and in America.

Entirely self-taught, Sayman headed from high school straight into the professional world, and by the time he was 17, he was Facebook’s youngest employe ever, building new features that wowed its founder Mark Zuckerberg and are now being used by more than half a billion people every day. Sayman pushed Facebook to build its own version of Snapchat’s Stories and, as a result, engagement on the platform soared across all demographics. Millions of Gen Z and Millennials flocked to Facebook, and as teen engagement rose dramatically on Instagram and WhatsApp, Snapchat’s parent company suffered a billion-dollar loss in value. Three years later, Sayman jumped ship for Google.

App Kid is the galvanizing story of a young Latino, not yet old enough to drink, who excelled in the cutthroat world of Silicon Valley and went on to become an inspiration to thousands of kids everywhere by following his own surprising, extraordinary path. In this candid and uplifting memoir, Sayman shares the highs and lows, the successes and failures, of his remarkable journey. His book is essential and affirming listening for anyone marching to the beat of their own drum.

©2021 Michael Sayman (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A beguiling account of how [Sayman] became one of Silicon Valley’s youngest entrepreneurs.... The real emotional center of [his] story...lies in the ‘catch22’ of being Facebook’s youngest employee.... His strength was being able to educate ‘the grown-ups’ on the youth market — which led to his significant role in the success of Instagram Stories — while his weakness manifested in his inexperience as a manager.... He also shares how — after growing up in a community where ‘kids still used “gay” as a putdown’ — he learned to be proud of his sexuality as a gay man. Readers will be enthralled by this humanizing look at the tech world.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

“A notable debut memoir about identity, immigration, and computer coding.... Sayman is a born storyteller.... It’s not the extraordinary experiences of a wunderkind building moneymaking apps while still in high school that makes this coming-of-age story so compelling, but rather the ordinary ones.... His adventures at [the] secretive tech giants and his insights into their business plans and work cultures add [...] fascinating layers to the text.... Sayman’s superpower is turning his specific Silicon Valley success story into something sweet, universal, and inspirational.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

Amazing

Loved listening to your story Michael. Loved the Spanish in there too! You are an inspiration! Hope I can meet you in person one day.

A great success.

Like it's heroine... a success and an honest retelling of the ups and downs of chasing the American Dream. I found myself noding my head in agreement at so many paralleling experiences shared by me as the son of immigrants and points worth echoing to my daughters.

More hope than you ever knew

Pacing and articulation - I love how Michael Sayman speaks. He's easily understood, great job.
Clarity of purpose - Sayman shows how execution of top priority tasks is so powerful.

Sayman, a self-taught programmer, explains why there's always a market for newly acquired programming skills. Newly created code is always in demand. This field changes faster than others.

Sayman's public success is the first thing. His coming of age experiences are the other.
He was an excessive consumer of fast food and got overweight. Being a programmer isn't easy so take care of your health along the way - if at all possible.

Sayman mastered the corporate diversity playbook and embraced risky career moves that multiplied his skillset and reach. I sensed how he's a force of nature.

In my opinion, Sayman has a knack for identifying the few top priorities and aligning his actions to meet these objectives. I don't know to what extent this critical skill can be taught, but you know it when you see it in others. Yet he suffers like everybody else. Sayman gave me more hope for each of us.