The Dinner Club: How the Masters of the Internet Universe Rode the Rise and Fall of the Greatest Boom in History
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On the first Monday of every month in a posh dining room, 25 of the richest, most successful, powerful men gather. This Dinner Club a billionaire boy's club-is the most exclusive social network in Washington and the legacy of those who emerged from the Digital Economy as wealthy and powerful as ever. Not only is it a social club, but an investing circle as well, once which entertains and sponsors young entrepreneurs with the vision of hope of being the next Bill Gates or Steve Case. Shannon Henry, a former Washington Post business reporter who became known as the "dot.com diva" for her insider's hook into the Internet age, is the only reporter ever allowed to cover these events. She uses her unique access to these key figures to write a narrative that describes the late 1990s in a away that no one else could. Like The Barbarians at the Gate, Liar's Poker and The Predator's Ball, Henry's narrative characterizes a period in our history the way that only she could. Shannon will show how these men differ from the CEOs that came before them, what has given them the business resolve and strategy to remain in power and grow since the economic downturn, and how their influence extends past the business/technology worlds and into that of politics, philanthropy, and society. These men want to live a legacy, but they also want to be around to enjoy it.From Steve Case, CEO of AOL/Time-Warner, and Worldcom vice-chairman John Sidgmore to NASDAQ president Alfred Berkeley and venture capitalist and Virginia candidate for governor Mark Warner, The Dinner Club covers all sides of the the Digital Economy's soul survivors. Through their tales, readers will see Henry's portrait as one of a defining age. It is the inside story of the rise and fall of the dot.com economy, and how those who made it out successfully are still the power players of a new America. Publishers Weekly Washington Post tech reporter Henry's first book is a lively account of a billionaire boys club-members include Netscape's Marc Andreessen and AOL's Steve Case-whose purpose was to establish Washington, D.C., as a center of Internet activity. Henry attended the monthly dinners, during which startup CEOs wooed the group, who then nonchalantly voted whether to invest truckloads of cash-"thumbs up or thumbs down" like "the lions and the Christians." The book is ultimately a meditation on the nature of oligarchy during these dizzying times. The titans prove surprisingly fallible, combining the quixotic hope of transformative change while repressing the underlying harsh fiscal reality. Egotistical, greedy, petty, pretentious, grandiose and arrogant, the executives ultimately wanted to overhaul the entire world for the better and fell woefully short of that laudable goal. While the book usefully humanizes these tycoons, it also caters to the ordinary reader's schadenfreude, as the executives glumly watch their paper fortunes dissipate, concoct "Armageddon situations" and undertake "wealth preservation" (a euphemism for curtailing heedless squandering). The book is riotous and riveting, but not flawless. Henry too often leaves readers hankering for more information, and the book's chronology is sometimes irritatingly out of whack. Still, this brisk and incisive account combines the furtive thrill of restricted access with an outsider's detached reflection. Agent, Jan Miller. (Nov. 7) Forecast: This book may not quite have the verve or polish of Michael Lewis's Liar's Poker or The New New Thing, but it's a worthy successor to that territory. After the flood of dot-com memoirs, the uniqueness of Henry's top-down view shouldn't be underestimated. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Cast of CharactersXIIntroduction1Chapter 1Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Washington, D.C.15Chapter 2The Beginning26Chapter 3Morton's, Tysons Corner, Virginia44Chapter 4The Heyday54Chapter 5Restaurant Nora, Washington, D.C.91Chapter 6The Crash100Chapter 7The Georgetown Club, Washington, D.C.136Chapter 8MicroTragedy151Chapter 9The Greenfields' House, Potomac, Maryland183Chapter 10Exit Strategies189Chapter 11Citronelle, Washington, D.C.218Chapter 12The Portfolio228Chapter 13Teatro Goldoni, Washington, D.C.240Chapter 14The Election247Acknowledgments271List of Investments275Index277
