It may seem cruel to pick on Ben Casnocha. The young entrepreneur, still only 19 years old, seems well-meaning. His advice on business — which the mentor-magnet picks up from more grizzled executives such as Marc Benioff, and recycles on his blog — is standard enough. But 'Big Ben's' self-aggrandizing auto-biography, which is now listed on Amazon.com, crosses the line of good judgement.

In My Start-up Life, the multi-talented teen — entrepreneur! optimist! CEO! dreamer! philosopher! road warrior! — shares what he learned on his journey through Silicon Valley. "With the support and advice of some of Silicon Valley's brightest minds, Casnocha crammed a lifetime of business experience into just a few years, all of which he shares in this unique book," runs to the blurb.

As far as we're concerned, Casnocha's now of legal age; and the jacket's breathless promotion creates a public persona against which we're entitled to judge him. What's his business experience? He's attached himself to execs such as Marc Benioff, who are flattered by his adulation. Which puts him somewhere alongside Koa, a beloved golden retriever, in the Salesforce CEO's affections.

Ben Casnocha And the teen prodigy's business, Comcate, must be in the least promising market possible, sales to local government. The Comcate founder boasts $1m in revenues per annum. Let me share from my lifetime of business experience: that number, after five years of operation, hardly merits an entry in a resume, let alone a publishing debut as Silicon Valley's latest business guru.

1:40 PM on Thu Apr 19 2007
By Nick Denton
2,626 views
10 comments

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MATIC at 01:29 PM on 04/19/07
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How much was Weblogs Inc. making after two years of business, $2.5m? How much does Gawker gross per year after 3 years in business, $4m? $1m per year is not bad for a 19 year old, even if he has been at it for 5 years. I guess it depends on what his costs are, is it a one man show?
Nick Denton at 02:02 PM on 04/19/07
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I'm imagining it's a pretty labor-intensive business, providing tech services to local governments. Lots of installation, training, customer support.
Ben Casnocha at 05:59 AM on 04/20/07
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While I appreciate the link, Nick, I must take issue with this: "Self-aggrandizing auto-biography...crosses the line of judgment" - Have you read the book? Why pre-judge? You can't read 200 words of marketing copy from a publisher and make such broad characterizations.
OMMS at 07:05 AM on 04/20/07
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I love how these people try to present themselves as self-made and so much different than you and I. Attaching yourself to Benioff is no great accomplishment as you or I could drop 20k of stock options a day on CRM and live that lifestyle as well.

printing money and diluting shareholders is obviously of no concern to Benioff as I'm sure he has imparted his wisdom to this D.I.T. (douche in training) to do exactly the same thing.

I see a rival to Larry Ellison as biggest douche' brewing here.
M
Nick Denton at 08:57 AM on 04/20/07
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@Ben Casnocha: Hey, Ben -- did you resist the title, and the jacket cover? Did the publisher turn the book into something that you didn't intend? It should have been pretty obvious how they would want to market the book -- boy genius, wunderkind, philosopher, strategist, etc.
Nick Denton at 09:01 AM on 04/20/07
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@OMMS: Hey, to give him credit, Casnocha does not seem particularly douche-like. A need to impress, maybe, the kind of teen who hangs out with adults because he doesn't connect well with people his own age. And maybe he believes too much of the dumb boy-genius media coverage. But pretty harsh to suggest that Casnocha will evolve into Benioff or Ellison.
rod / upcomingdiscs.com at 09:37 AM on 04/20/07
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Sheesh Nick, what did casnocha ever do to you? Sure the book seems premature at best, but I think you're crossing a line to somehow infer that his association with established business people suggests that he's some sort of social leper incapable of connecting with his peers. At least he doesn't have a reality TV show (yet) like the PayPerPost crew.
andrewjscott at 06:54 AM on 04/21/07
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"Casnocha crammed a lifetime of business experience into just a few years" ..this sentence is past tense. Is he dead? In any case, the inclusion of this one claim anywhere on the book, in the book, or even on a scrap of paper sitting NEAR the book, is justification enough to hang flags on Casnocha and fire verbal RPGs to see if they bounce off.

Joking aside, unless the entire book is written tounge-superglued-in-cheek, the statement is as ridiculous as it is arrogant in the extreme. Move over Tom Peters -here commeth the messiah.
onlineadguy at 07:32 PM on 04/21/07
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Wouldn't a true valley entrepreneur of these credentials graduate high school and throw himself into his business full time to take it to the next level? Near as I can tell from his blog he is currently taking a "gap year" between high school and college to bum around the world and kiss up to every successful person in tech that will listen to him. "gap year" doesn't mesh with the hard working startup ethos to me.

He also seems to come from the Jason Calacanis school of becoming a "Guru". First you achieve modest success and spin it into entrepreneurial genius by promoting oneself relentlessly via a blog and attending every conference while dropping every big name in tech as your "good friend". Through this process you write and speak it so often you become a big name yourself with out the big time credentials.
InferiorOlive at 07:14 PM on 06/08/07
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http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Amazing-Lemonade-Stand-Scott/dp...