The author offers a very detailed account of how a startup goes trough its very early phase, such as founding the company on network effect, targeting its users in a very efficient way, in this case it is Ebay users, vividly competing with Ebay with many small ball tactics, and coping with regulators and many others. It is very rare to have a chance to look inside how a startup scales up and operate, and I could really sympathize with the author for the dramatic ups and downs emotionally that happens in a very intense way, and in a such short time of three years, so many thanks to Eric.

Besides all that, I will say if the same story was narrated by Peter Thiel or other higher-level management member, it may be more comprehensive, many things may be much more uncertain back then without the benefit of hindsight.

I had hoped this book would include more on the early thinking about becoming an independent currency. But that just gets a couple brief mentions.

The only real detailed "war" coverage is with eBay.

It's just another corporate history. If you like that sorta thing, maybe you'll like this more than I did.

Story PayPal. Interesting but not as good as: chaos monkeys.

The story of PayPal and about the team that made it happen. The author, Eric Jackson, provides a wonderfully detailed, insider perspective. Exciting, inspiring and fun read. Highly recommended.

The book really shows how agile and fast pace a start up needs to be to go up against big competition.

I read this book because I had an early relationship with Paypal. In about 1999, I started using Ebay, first as a buyer, then as a seller (and I sold a LOT - became kind of addicted)! Paypal was all a part of that, of course, and it was mildly interesting reading about first the rivalry between Ebay and Paypal and then their eventual merger. If you don't use Ebay, however, I would probably give this book a big YAWN!!

Because it’s really the only book in town about PayPal so despite the average rating I decided to give it a try. It wasn’t nearly as bad. Different from most books about startup, which are usually written by or from the perspective of the founders, this one is written by a low level employee who joined the firm at the very early stage and went through all the changes. It gives you a totally different perspective. The whole book is very conversational, an easy read. It’s best for those who look to switch career to join a tech startup.

The story of Paypal's struggle for World Domination is well told by their former marketing director who joined the company Conformity in its early days. He is a strong supporter of the Paypal Brand and an arch enemy of all things Ebay whose attempts to throw "roadblocks" at the company would almost cause disaster on numerous occasions. This book is very well done with top analysis on the business functions of Paypal. It considers Paypal's inability to get profitable and the problems inherent in its business model to ways that it prepared its consumer base to enjoy the benefits of having a flexible pay service. The internet and computer industry is filled with wonderful business stories and Paypal's is truly near the top. For those who want real business analysis and an understanding of how Silicon Valley works this book cannot be topped.

interesting story and well-written by Jackson, though not sure how many outside the payments industry will find the level of detail compelling. Cast of characters certainly is.

Amazing read. Couldn't put it down .. for real.

I found this book to be very valuable to me as a business executive in the technology and advertising industry. Great storytelling which makes this an easy ready with practical examples of how PayPal approached various situations.

The nature of money is changing. This book, written by one of the early employees of PayPal, traces his experiences through the early days of one of the disrupters in this industry. Interesting read.