Over the Thanksgiving break I breezed through Nick Bolton's "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal." It is a fast paced easy read filled with exactly what the title promises. Co-founder/board/executive level drama. There are some good lessons as well.

Don't hire your friends just because they are your friends. This, along with slow decision making, is portrayed as Ev's downfall and the reason for his ouster as CEO.

Have no mercy. When Ev pushes Jack out of the company he leaves him with a ceremonial board seat. Jack uses the seat as a place to plot his revenge and oust Ev.

Backup your application. At one point pretty far in there is no backup of the Twitter database.

People behave differently when a lot of money and power are at stake. What begins as a small team trying to do their best to start a company can turn into something much more complex pretty darn quick.

Fred Wilson comes across as a hard ass. Nothing at all like the friendly guy on A VC. Not sure if I believe the portrayal. Then again, people behave differently when a lot of money is at stake.  

I don't know how accurate the tales are in Hatching but it is a darn good read with many lessons. Highly recommended.