Tulane business professor Rob Lalka's debut book, The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power has received rave reviews as a “masterfully researched book” (Walter Isaacson), “a unique and searing perspective on the growth-at-all-costs mindset that fueled the tech industry” (Jonathan Greenblatt), and “a provocative, deeply researched book that is frankly jaw-dropping in places” (Anne-Marie Slaughter).
The #1 New Release in Venture Capital, Business Ethics, and Computers & Tech, The Venture Alchemists was one of the 22 best business books of 2024 according to the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, and it has been cited in Forbes, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and other publications.
The book has also received significant critical acclaim. Kirkus Reviews called it “An impressive work of research and intellectual reflection,” adding this praise: “The body of work addressing this subject now seems inexhaustible, but this book must count as among its most clear-eyed, well researched, and morally uncompromising examples.”
Ultimately, this book tells the stories we need to know right now: “Lalka traces the ambitions, adversities, and compromises that transformed young innovators into billionaires” (Isaacson), leading to “fuel for debates this country simply has to have” (Slaughter).
Reader Reviews
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"I found this book to be a refreshing and insightful take on the rise of Big Tech. Lalka's use of previously unpublished material offers a unique insider's perspective that I hadn't encountered before. I particularly appreciated how the book humanized the tech giants' founders, tracing their journey from ordinary individuals with relatable fears and ambitions to powerful industry leaders. This approach made the complex narratives more accessible and engaging for me. While the book doesn't shy away from critiquing Big Tech's missteps, I found its balanced perspective and hopeful outlook for the future of technology to be both realistic and inspiring."
Lenny
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"I've been in tech for a while, and it's not often that I come across something that teaches me some new lessons. Lalka is a brilliant writer and researcher. He brings value through two separate approaches: one, a practical expert through experience with technology and business, and two, an academician's keen eye for evidence-based analysis and synthesis. This book reflects both sides. I learned quite a bit from it."
EKK
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“An informed business book through the storytelling lens of a historian. The Venture Alchemists helps readers understand the backstories behind the most powerful tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and how they've shaped America - for better or worse. It helps readers to understand the people that have shaped our daily lives in ways we might never think about. The book offers nuanced takes without overt condemnation or praise, and encourages readers to form their own opinions. The book has helped me to realize that nothing ever ‘just happens’, that our world today is different from yesterday, and our daily actions may have far reaching impacts. Furthermore, the book has become even more relevant since publishing, with coverage on key players of the 2024 election.”
Ly Kouch
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"Rob Lalka presents readers with thoroughly documented stories that call us to question who we valorize and why. It's well known that big tech has made some questionable decisions and that 'kids' leading global social media empires and bro culture have played into that, significantly. Lalka pulls back the curtain on the recent past to help us see the, sometimes shocking, true stories of who knew what and when they knew it, the costs of get big fast and the cringe-worthy (and worse) views and goals pursued by the most successful of the Silicon Valley venture alchemists. This book will surprise you, inform you and keep you turning pages at the same time."
Matthew DeGier
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"My favorite books are those that move me, challenge me, and make me reconsider my conclusions or how I interact with the world. Rob masterfully weaves historical storytelling with a critical examination of the tech industry. I appreciate his thoughtfulness as he sheds light on the darker sides of early tech startups and the power they now exert in areas far beyond 'technology.' Whether or not you agree with Rob's conclusions, you will leave feeling encouraged that thoughtful and constructively critical voices like his are educating the next generation of entrepreneurs."
Erik
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"Deeply Researched and Well Written. This book is a tour de force. You might think you know the genesis of some of Silicon Valley's most iconic companies, but if you haven't read this book yet, you don't."
Ellen Wray
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"The Venture Alchemist by Rob Lalka is a must-read for anyone involved in entrepreneurship or aspiring to be a part of it. This book is a masterclass in how to blend rigorous research with practical advice, offering a roadmap for building ventures that are not only successful but also ethically sound. Lalka's extensive research is evident on every page. He provides a wealth of data and case studies that give readers a clear understanding of the entrepreneurial landscape of past events with technological and entrepreneurial giants that are worshiped today. One of the standout features of this book is its precision. Lalka has a true gift of complex concepts (and their muddy history) into clear, actionable insights. Each chapter is meticulously structured, making it easy for readers to follow along and apply the lessons to their own ventures."
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The Venture Alchemists on NOLA Now
The Venture Alchemists at New Orleans Book Fest
The Venture Alchemists on Business First
The Venture Alchemists on Jane King
In this keynote address to one of the world’s largest Rotary Clubs, the Rotary Four-Way Test was applied both to social media companies and to our personal social media use:
“Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? And will it be beneficial for all concerned?”
“Here’s another story that I think will be helpful as we think about what we could do differently. This one comes from a man named Frank McCourt, a great businessman who builds bridges and roads and tunnels. He’s a systems guy. He cares about infrastructure. He does things that can’t scale the way technology scales, so he thinks differently about business. Here’s his analogy: ‘If I were the head of the Postal Service and I told you I was going to deliver your mail for free, you might say, “What’s the catch?” And if I said, ”Well, I’m going to put a camera and listening device in every room of your house, in your workplace, in your car.” You might say, “Whoa! That’s kind of creepy." And I’d say, “Yeah, but it’s free. And one other thing. I’m gonna open your mail and read it, and everything I learn is now mine. Your relationships, your ideas, your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your behaviors… Everything that makes you a human being is now mine.”’
He's right, folks. Because what he says next is so true. Everything that makes you human. They know us better than we even know ourselves. Because they can remember everything we’ve ever said; where we’ve been; what we’ve done. “‘Everything that makes you a human being is now mine. And I get to use it in any way I want.’”
“You’d say” – we’d all say – “That’s unfair.”
“But then I am gonna add one more thing. Then I’m going to say, ‘I’m going to read your 13-year-old daughter’s diary, and when I discover she’s insecure about her weight, I’m gonna send her stuff to make her feel worse, send her stuff to make her buy things, so I can profit off of her vulnerability. And I’m gonna send her stuff that shows her how to harm herself.”
And Frank McCourt isn’t just saying that. You’ve heard today that Facebook knew it, and they did it anyways. And it’s fully documented [in my book] in 1,902 endnotes.
That’s why I did this work.
But as I close, I want to make sure that the responsibility is not just corporate responsibility, even though it is that. It’s corporate responsibility for these companies – and their boards – to ensure that they are living up to values that matter more than just pure profits.
But it’s also personal responsibility, because we all have made choices. Our decisions about devoting our time, our attention, ourselves to Facebook and Instagram and all of these other technologies could have been different. We could have made different choices…
Are we spending our time, our attention – are we parenting in ways where our children will spend their time, their attention – in ways that ask questions like:
‘Is it the truth?’
‘Is it fair to all concerned?’
‘Will it build goodwill and better friendships?’ and
‘Will it be beneficial for all concerned?’"
Interviews
Firewall with Bradley Tusk
“I go into the origin stories of these companies. October of 2003, Zuckerberg literally is coding Facemash as a Halloween prank ... They're comparing pictures of girls against girls that he stole -- it was a cyberattack -- the pictures he stole from Harvard's servers. Then you know those deer-in-headlights [student ID] photos that no one wants to be published? That's what was being compared.
It's interesting when you think back on it, because there is a moment there. He's literally stealing something. He's putting up pictures of mostly women, and they're mostly underage, they're freshmen, without their consent. Then he blogs about it, he brags about it, he says 'I wonder if I should be comparing these girls to girls, or girls to barnyard animals. There's a childishness there, a juvenility, but something happens when he then quits Harvard... Everybody who then became his mentors only cared about hypergrowth of this company.
They didn't care about, necessarily, the full-on [implications] -- about anything wholesome, thoughtful, ethical, any of the purpose-driven stuff that should matter when you're building a platform that effects more people than a nation-state.”
America Tonight with Katie Delaney
“For the last two decades, maybe even three decades, we should have been having conversation about what these tools have done to us – and frankly how we’ve been using them ourselves. I think we need to take personal responsibility about how we’ve been spending our time and our attention. And I think the people who created these tools designed them in ways that turned out to be pretty dangerous for our kids … I think we need to reckon with it now, because we haven’t been reckoning with it for the last two decades. It’s time.
There’s a popular phrase out here in the Bay Area that ‘If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.’ The idea is that your time and your attention are actually really valuable. So if you’re not paying for the product, if it’s free, then it’s not actually free because your time and your attention are valuable.
But in my book, I go even further. That idea is right, but I think it misses a very necessary nuance here, which is that it’s not just our time and our attention, it’s not only about our screentime, it’s also about our data. The content we’re creating, the data that we’re creating, and frankly if you look at a company like Uber, the work that we’re doing – that’s almost labor. It’s work, right?
All of it is creating valuable assets in terms of our data and our content. And here’s one of the most interesting ideas that’s in my book: We should share in the value of that data and that content. There’s no reason why people shouldn’t share in at least some of the value of all that we are creating. It’s our creation. It’s not just these platforms. The platforms are essentially just where the work is being done. Why are people not sharing that value?”
Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline
“There’s that saying: ‘If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.’ And that’s true. Because that is about your time and your attention. What you give your attention to matters in this world. It is an investment of your time and your attention, and they are using that to sell you to advertisers. So that’s true. ‘If we aren’t paying for the product, then we are the product.’ But it goes further than that.
Because it’s not just about time and attention. It’s about data and content. We’re creating so much data. We’re creating so much content. It’s not just that we’re the product that they’re selling. It’s almost that we’re the labor, because we’re doing the work. So much of our effort is what is benefiting them. And data is so valuable in the modern era. We don’t share in the value of any of that. I think that is something that we need to reckon with.”
The Dynamist from the Foundation for American Innovation with Evan Swarztrauber
“Frances Haugen’s files are all on the Internet. There are over 800 screenshots that she had taken. Some of them are blurry; you can’t read everything. The Wall Street Journal did a really good job of giving us a new initial understanding, but they also ran out of room on that story. They talked about it for a while, but they couldn’t cover everything. It was too much. So I went back through and I said, ‘What is not known about what they [Facebook executives] were talking about?’
I’ll give you an example. Facebook, now Meta, had programming and planning to develop products for children younger than the age of six. I have a four-year-old and a seven-year-old. When we go to the playground, I want them to play. I want them to tumble. I want them to wrestle over a stick that they’ve decided is the most important thing in the world. Those are the happiest moments in my life.
I don’t want them looking at a screen in that moment. And that’s what Facebook executives wanted for that moment. They even said we have a ‘responsibility’ to do it.
Referring to a few things, maybe. One, LTV. Lifetime value of a customer. Think about that.
And two, they say that these kids are going to be on these platforms anyway, whether they try to restrict it or not. They’ve given up on that idea [of keeping kids safe]. They say we have a ‘responsibility’ to learn as much about them and have them on these platforms as much as possible.
My response to that as a parent is: ‘No. I have a responsibility to make sure that my children are playing.’”
The Reading Life with Susan Larson, WWNO/NPR
“Think about how much the Internet has led to horrible behavior, especially when we think about dating or stalkerish behavior that these students were seeing on Facebook early on – or just judging people. That is one of the main points I try and make about Facebook. Very early on, the site was about judgment as entertainment. And if we think about how we promote our lives on Facebook or Instagram, it’s not our full selves. It’s certainly not who we are as full humans. It’s sort of this best representation of ourselves through filtered photos and through filtered moments that really aren’t about who we really are.
And why are we doing that? It’s for meaningless points on a made-up scoreboard. It’s not real value in my life. It’s about dopamine that is feeding my brain. Here’s what’s scary to me: my students at Tulane are spending six, seven, eight hours a day on Facebook – well, usually Instagram and TikTok, they’re beyond Facebook at this point – but they’re spending a lot of time on social media. And it’s rewired their brains.
According to the Surgeon General, it has rewired their brains. That is what Vivek Murthy had said May 23, 2023, there was a warning that was posted, just like they do for other things like cigarettes, they posted a warning about how social media is dangerous. And I worry about it.”
What’s Nieux with Tim Williamson
“I think about the opportunity that comes when we do this right, when we have entrepreneurs who are trying to build great businesses and trying to change the world – hopefully for the better. What Steve [Case] often talks about is that all net new jobs are created by startups. The Fortune 500 turns over. And these large companies will fire, and they hire, they go back and forth. But startups are where jobs actually come from, because that’s where you create new value. That’s what I teach my students: If you want to change the world, build a business.
And if you’re going to build a business, do it on purpose. Do it for a reason that matters to you. Do it for something that you actually believe is worth your time. And if you’re doing that, I actually think that we can create so much value in this world and people will pay for it.
That’s how capitalism is supposed to work. That’s where this works, for real. I argue in the book that you can be pro-technology and pro-business but not do this – not do the exploitative and dangerous win-at-all-costs mentality that ends up hurting people along the way. You just don’t have to make those same choices.
The good news for my students is this… These large companies? You don’t like how they’re behaving? Well guess what: They are the major conglomerates of our era now. These aren’t startups. They’ll be the ones that you’re going to turn over. They’ll be the ones you’re going to defeat. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about. Because if you look at this and say, ‘You know what? If I was able to build an Uber that was better, that allowed people to feel safer or, even better, that would allow people to share in the value of the data that’s created from that experience…’ That could change the world. Because I would love to have that alternative. Or you build a social media company that does the same, where people share in the value of all the content and the data they’re creating. That could change the world. I’d love to have that alternative. I think many other people would. That’s the opportunity that I see. Not only can you create all net new jobs through that. You can also take the concentrated power that is, in my opinion, predictably corrupting, and you can disperse it in a more decentralized way.”
Leadership Matters on SiriusXM Business with Alan Fleischmann
“Startups create all net new jobs. But here's the thing. Facebook now Meta, Google now Alphabet, Uber, any of these companies are the giant conglomerates these days. They're not startups. We can't think of them as startups anymore. Not with the way that they're wielding power, and the way that they that they are especially involved in politics. These people are putting so much money behind, say, Prop 22, which was the ballot initiative in California that Uber led the charge to support. They put over $200 million behind that ballot initiative in California. That's an incredible sum of money.
Peter Thiel put $15 million into J.D. Vance's campaign and Blake Masters’ campaign for U.S. Senate. Each. That's incredible money. That was more than anyone had ever spent on a U.S. Senate campaign before. Compare it to what Thiel put behind Donald Trump in 2016: he'd put $1.25 million behind Trump after the Access Hollywood tapes came out.”
The Daily Flash with Matt Doolittle
“You have the Stop The Steal groups that are spreading online. Mark Zuckerberg makes the decision to shut them down. That decision came outside of policy - that was not something where they had a clear policy on why that needed to happen - and it was the fastest growing group in Facebook’s history at that point. Which is to say, it’s the fastest growing movement in human history, because we’ve never been connected like this before.
It grew to be larger than three-quarters of American [state] capital cities. And of course, they shut it down. It’s really interesting when you think about what people are allowed to say, or not allowed to say, on these platforms …
Peter Thiel, who was chairing governance committee for Facebook for that entire time I was just describing, was also the big donor behind Trump in 2016 with $1.25 million, but he actually gave $17.5 million to JD Vance’s U.S. Senate campaign. In Silicon Valley, that’s called exponential growth.
I find it interesting that you see how much more these folks are getting involved, especially because Thiel’s former business partner, Elon Musk, is now saying he’s going to give $45 million a month to support the Trump / Vance ticket.”
The Ryan Hanley Show
“If we think about what social media is, you’re not prioritizing that there’s truthfulness in what you’re conveying. You’re promoting a better version of yourself. That’s another word for that: a deception. And there are lots of deceptions in our interactions online. We lie to the Internet every day. We click on Terms of Service agreements that none of us have ever read, and we click, ‘Okay.’ As if we’ve read them? It’s not just what we post on Facebook or Instagram. I lie to the Internet every day.
And what I don’t realize in having done so for two decades is that I’ve given up all of my data, which is the most valuable asset of our time. I’ve given up all of the value of all of the content that I’m creating. I’m giving up all of my time and attention, which are valuable. These companies make so much money off of that. And I think that that’s an important conversation to begin having, because if we could actually ensure that people shared in the value of their data, they shared in the value of their content, they shared in the value of their time and attention that they devote to one topic or another – that changes the game.
And to me, that actually means more free markets. It’s a more capitalistic system, where I get to have a choice about where I take my followers or I allow my data to go."
ImpactEXP with Jenna Nicholas
“A tool is not evil. Technology is not evil. It’s not inherently good either. Actually, technology is a tool, and it can be designed in certain ways that can be used for good or used for evil. If you look early on with social media – I went through all the college newspapers to say, ‘What were students saying once Facebook hit their campus,’ many of them saw that it was being used in ways that they didn’t like. They felt like it was stalkerish. They felt like it was pulling them away from their real world, living, breathing interactions. They felt like it was encouraging them to judge others as a form of entertainment. And if you think about where we’ve ended up, and the number of conversations that you see where people are sitting there quietly on their own phones instead of talking to each other - or walking down the street with their heads bowed and looking at their phones - we’re not present in the same way that we used to be.
We also will do things and say things online that we feel like we can get away with – because it’s behind a screen – which we’d never say in person to somebody, especially when it comes to politics. We’re using these tools in ways that I don’t feel are all that great… Right away, in chapter one, so it really hits you right as you pick up the book, [you’ll learn] the fact that Facebook was encouraging the type of extreme thinking of the far right and far left politically, but also such extreme thinking about ourselves, especially the way it makes young girls feel. They’re getting on [Facebook’s platforms] younger and younger, and Facebook knows it, and that is dangerous. It is something that the Surgeon General is saying is dangerous for brain development. It messes with the prefrontal cortex. It messes with your amygdala. It messes with the way your brain is being shaped when your identity and sense of self-worth are in the formative stages. That is where the book begins … and Facebook had planned to literally build products for children younger than age six. They wanted to have our children during playdates using a Facebook product, and they said that they had a ‘responsibility’ to do so. When I read that, it really made me shiver. I wanted to make sure I looked at it, again, not in a way where I’m reacting but actually with curiosity. ‘Do they really think they need to do this? What does it mean for society?’
For me, this is a book this as much about us. It is about trying to understand ourselves, as much as it is about the technologies we’re using.”
Keen On with Andrew Keen
“I went deep in the Stanford Archives ... and it was interesting to me - and I'm curious about - the fact that Thiel and Sacks in The Diversity Myth criticized a church group for protesting Apartheid in South Africa. They defended a man who admitted to raping someone, his name was Stuart Thomas, who was 23 years old and he ended up raping a freshman at Stanford ...
These are people that you would think would be 'canceled' - based on what happens, it's the way that the world works - but they have gained power, and sat on boards, and been pretty influential in the world. The point is not to generalize. The point is to deeply understand what happens when we live in a world where that power can be gained and wielded.”
El Podcast with Jesse Wright
“I’m a professor of entrepreneurship. You’re going to get educated, I’m promising you that you’re going to do this [to learn to build startups] in a way that will work, that will be effective – but also that it will be true to who you are. That’s because part of college is not just about learning things to go get a job, and then to go be part of the system. It’s to become a leader. It’s to be able to live your best possible life and have the full responsibility that comes with knowing that not everyone gets this opportunity. If talent is universal, but opportunity is not, there’s a responsibility that comes with going to a university and being educated. We need those leaders in our world.
That’s one of the points that I make early in the book. By dropping out of Harvard, Zuckerberg was then mentored by people for whom growth-at-all-costs, ubiquity, even the word that he would always say was ‘Domination!’ and that’s how he would end meetings, it was world domination as the goal. It wasn’t profitability at first. It was to be everywhere.
Then, with data, that was very advantageous in terms of the influence that gave them. The point is, that’s the venture capital approach: you want to grow as fast as possible, to dominate a market, to be ubiquitous, to have few competitors, to build your moat of your special protection that prevents others from being able to do what you just did. And you want to continue gain more of people’s time and attention, then more of their money, once you’ve done that. That’s what venture capital prizes. They’re not trying to do that with every single company in their portfolio. They know that most of them will fail. Instead, they want a few big winners that have those outsized gains.
For me, as a professor, I’m teaching students that, actually, there are many other ways to build businesses. Venture capital doesn’t have to be the only way. And even when you raise venture capital, you can do it in ways that impact the world where you don’t have to sacrifice all of your values, and any sense of morality, and any sense of just basic ethics.”
