The money trap : lost illusions inside the tech bubble

The money trap Lost illusions inside the tech bubble

Alok Sama

Book - 2024

"A gripping and entertaining memoir that shines a rare light on an industry that is disrupting our lives. Veteran Morgan Stanley banker Alok Sama thought he'd seen it all. Then he found himself chief dealmaker at the most influential technology investor in the world-SoftBank, the backer of Arm Holdings, Yahoo, Nvidia, TikTok, Uber, T-Mobile, Alibaba and WeWork. The Money Trap is Sama's thrilling, stranger-than-fiction personal odyssey featuring his experiences alongside SoftBank's iconic founder, Masayoshi Son, a visionary maverick who wants to be remembered as "the crazy guy who bet on the future" and whose mission is "happiness for everyone." Sama takes the reader on a wild journey as he consorts wi...th A-list CEOs and heads of state, and negotiates mega-deals on Gulfstream jets, the terrace of a medieval castle in Germany, Son's private sanctuary with its exquisite Japanese garden, and waterside restaurants in the Turkish Riviera-all while contending with a mysterious dark-arts smear campaign that takes a toll on his private life. This fascinating and humorous saga provides a unique insider perspective on the insanity of high finance and venture investing. Written with self-deprecating wit, unflinching honesty and searing introspection, The Money Trap is ultimately a morality tale: in life, as in technology investing, more money isn't always the answer"--

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Subjects
Sama, Alok.
Businesspeople > Biography.
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Alok Sama (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
pages cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781250332844
  • Prologue: brain damage
  • Part I
  • Born to run
  • I took a pill in Ibiza
  • The airport test
  • Happiness for everyone
  • Strawberry fields forever
  • Facetime
  • City of Djinns
  • Show me the money
  • This aggression will not stand, man
  • Curveball
  • Part II
  • The crystal ball
  • That's far out, man
  • First blood
  • Let me roll it
  • Game of phones
  • Hunters and cooks
  • The butterfly effect
  • How much land does a man need?
  • Epilogue: the dude abides.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this wry debut, Sama--the former CFO of investment firm SoftBank--offers a behind-the-scenes peek at the crushing world of corporate finance. Skipping back and forth in time, Sama covers his arc from theorem-solving college student to right-hand aide to tech investor Masayoshi Son. Along the way, Sama describes how he brokered deals with some of the world's largest companies while gradually coming to learn that a hefty income can't insulate him from life's difficulties. His greatest strength as a writer is the way he grounds the glitz of his professional life with gritty personal stakes: he ruminates on the gap between himself and his social media--skeptical son, then smoothly transitions to a dinner with Mark Zuckerberg. Elsewhere, he effectively juxtaposes his attempts to fight off a smear campaign designed to remove him from SoftBank with his grief over his parents' deaths. Less successful are the book's granular descriptions of NASDAQ numbers and the mechanics of finance, which are likely to lose all but the most well-versed readers. In the end, it's the smear campaign, during which business rivals surveil and threaten Sama's family, that drives him out of tech investment and reminds him that "money doesn't give you control, it buys you a nicer coat." In Sama's hands, that feels like revolutionary advice. Agent: Lynn Johnston, Lynn Johnston Literary. (Sept.)

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