"Boohoo – A Dot Com Story From Concept to Catastrophe" by Ernst Malmsten, E Portanger and C Drazin

Boohoo describes the story of the first Internet casualty. The late nineties were the height of the Internet bubble. It was the era of venture capitalists and Internet entrepreneurs. Next to the fact that the book is a great read and gives insights to the craziness of that time the book is also an insightful read for any entrepreneur. It gives valuable lessons for starting up your own business.

About the book

At its peak boo was valued at 390 million. Boo had become a myth, a legend.

The story involves business people, the media, banks, individual investors, the Internet business and the entrepreneurs. The 130 million that was put into the company, two years of hard work, five overseas offices and 350 people of staff were not enough to make boo.com a success.

About Ernst Malmsten

Ernst Malmsten is the co-founder and CEO of boo.com. He takes the reader behind the scenes of this start-up during the great Internet hype of the late 90’s.

Malmsten wanted to tell the true story of what happened as honestly and true as possible.

What to learn from this book?

You can learn the pitfalls of becoming a hype. It shows that starting big can be a great risk. If you read this book together with “the perfect store” it gives you a good insight on how you can start your own business. I learned that starting small, let the business grow gradually and organically gives you the best opportunity to grow together with it.

If you want to start your own Internet business or just want to know more about the Internet business this book is a must read!

boohoo curve