Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World Highlight

Thanks to sharklike deals with Netscape’s VCs, Clark had his $100 million and then some, within two years of leaving SGI. “No longer did you need to show profits; you needed to show rapid growth,” writes finance journalist Michael Lewis in his book about Clark. “Having a past actually counted against a company, for a past was a record and a record was a sign of a company’s limitations.”