Another Way tells the story of former VC Dave Whorton’s discovery that there’s a better way to build highly valuable companies than the Silicon Valley model. It teaches what he calls the Evergreen model using the 7Ps Principles.
I really enjoyed reading Another Way. I spent most of my career in the tech industry. My first startup was an Internet company launched months before the Netscape IPO which redefined how the world thought about entrepreneurship and startups. Over the years I’ve worked with Silicon Valley VCs and many of the companies they’ve funded. So as Dave Whorton begins telling his story, first at the most powerful VC of its time, and then trying to launch his own VC-backed startup, I could very much relate to the history he was describing. But like Dave, over the past decade, most of the companies I’ve worked with have been built using a different model. I would argue that it’s not a new model, but rather the way that companies have always been built outside of the Tech/Silicon Valley bubble that Dave and I (and many others) “grew up” in.
Bottom line, Another Way is an enjoyable telling of one man’s journey of discovery. For many like him, it will be an eye-opening revelation that the Silicon Valley model isn’t the only way to build valuable companies. For others already building (or wanting to build) companies “the old fashioned way”, the book will encourage through the examples given, and provide a helpful framework to consider as they seek their own path to building valuable companies that last for many generations.