Valley Boy: The Education of Tom Perkins - Rilegato

"[Perkins] sews dry humor through tales of yachting triumphs, road rallies in expensive cars, tech start-ups and the boardroom coup he instigated at Hewlett Packard. Looking back without rancor or remorse, he has a knack for storytelling that makes him feel like a buddy who never fails to laugh at himself."
--TIME Magazine

"Tom Perkins is a man of extraordinary passions, among them deals, venture capital, entrepreneurs, ocean racing, vintage cars, and extraordinary women. Valley Boy is a heady mix of picaresque adventure and high finance, more fun than most novels, told in a charming, intimate style as if you were a privileged guest on one of Tom's legendary yachts."
-- James Stewart, New Yorker contributor and author of the best-selling Den of Thieves

"A smart, often funny and wholly engaging account of a fabulous and varied life lived on the frontiers of high tech America. Utterly absorbing from first to last, this is one memoir which is as unique as its author."
-- Richard North Patterson, #1 New York Times best-selling author

As if Tom Perkins didn't have it all--and he does not seem to lack for one single thing--the guy can damn well WRITE, too. I picked up Valley Boy before dinner, got engrossed by the Hewlett Packard intrigue, sailed on through Danielle Steel, and wound up skipping a meal. This is an entertaining, penetrating, and even wise look at the high life, California-style!
-- Sean Wilsey, author of the best-selling Oh the Glory of It All

"I read it in one sitting and enjoyed the fascinating, frank and open discussion of Perkins' life."
-- Prof. Herbert Boyer, cofounder of Genentech

Praise for Tom Perkins

"A Titan of American Business"
-Newsweek

"One of American venture capital's founding fathers." -The Economist

"You know you're rich when...you assemble one of the world's great collections of supercharged cars of the 1920s and 30s, sell it just before the antique car market collapses, but still drive to the office in a late-model turbo Bentley. Perkins provides a paradigm of life lived wisely and well, without a wrong note, a missed step, or (it seems) a dream unrealized."
-Forbes

"A Silicon Valley Luminary...A decisive, brilliant strategist...His success came partly from a willingness to risk everything he had-literally-to get his way."
-San Jose Mercury News

"A big engine...a grand figure in the life of the Valley."
-David Kaplan in Silicon Boys

"A charismatic corporate gamesman with a gambler's nerve."
-San Francisco Chronicle

Tom Perkins co-founded the leading venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1972. He had previously served as administrative head of the research department and general manager of the computer division at Hewlett-Packard. Most recently, he joined the HP board of directors, retired, and officially rejoined the board days before Carly FiorinaÂ’s firing. Also the author of Sex and the Single Zillionaire, he lives in the San Francisco area.