Product Description
Since 1997, on the second Monday of each month, twenty-six of the most powerful men in business, the Vanderbilts and Morgans of their time, would gather to eat dinner, hear investment pitches, and take one of the few breaks they got all month with the handful of people on earth they saw as their peers. When Washington Post reporter Shannon Henry heard about these meetings, she knew that the story of the dinners and the tales told at them would provide a fascinating portrait of the greatest business boom in the history of the world.

What went on in these four-star restaurants and private dining clubs is the inside story of the 1990s...the unimaginable growth of the economy, and in hindsight, its all-too-predictable fall. Henry, widely labeled the "dot-com diva," was the only reporter who had ever been allowed continued access to this intimate and influential group, which included America Online co-founders Steve Case and Jim Kimsey, NASDAQ vice chairman Al Berkeley, WorldCom CEO John Sidgmore, chief executive of MicroStrategy Michael Saylor, Virginia governor and former tech investor Mark Warner, and AOL executive and Washington Wizards co-owner Ted Leonsis. In The Dinner Club, Henry brings readers right to the dinner table, providing an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at these stories of ego, greed, dreams realized, dreams dashed, and the handful who continue to thrive.

From bankrupt companies to blockbuster surprise deals, Henry paints a ruthless, charismatic, and at times humorous portrait of the '90's boom. At one point the mercurial nature of the group and its members' concern about their reputations caused them to un-invite Henry to the meetings. But in the end, she was allowed to return and to chronicle the rise and fall of many of their companies. And now, with so many of these companies in disarray, Henry gives extraordinary insight into what these men were thinking and saying. They didn't think failure could happen to them, because they thought that they were different. But it did.

The Dinner Club is not only the inside story of this historic time, but also a glimpse into the future of America, as the members of the club created a legacy that will forever affect us all.

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Customer Reviews (10)

A valuable look inside
This is one of those books that will gain in value as time passes.The Dinner Club looks at the critical time frame when the opening wave of success in the new technologies broke and retrenched.The useful insight this book provides is the snapshot of the individual club members and their focus on the future.Northern Virginia and its cultivation of technology is portrayed as well.Worth reading.

Personalities
As is the case with a lot of business reporting, this is personality-driven.Capital Investors consisted of a group of friends mainly working in the technology sector and situated in Washington, D.C.Michael Maccoby called Capital Investors productive narcissists.

There were twenty six members of the all male club.In Washington there is proximity to political and economic elites.Social networking was a chief reason to keep attending the group functions.The friendships were calculated.

Exclusive investing groups are rare.A woman has said that in times of economic turmoil, Capital Investors has become a support group.Investing clubs and other tech networking groups served as social interaction during the rise of the technology sector businesses.

Steve Case called 2000 the internet century.In the late 1990's AOL was talking to everyone, treating everything as a possible acquisition.In a market frenzy one should know that if everyone is getting into your business, it is time to sell.In the year 2000 in the tech world there was a blinders-on overworked mentality prevailing.

By 2001 talk shifted to pink slips, the dearth of venture capital, the market.In the downturn the group's portfolio of companies was fading.

In March 2000 MicroStrategy was advised by its auditors it had to restate earnings for two previous years.The stock price fell by sixty per cent in one day.The CEO of the company, Michael Saylor, was one of the members of the dinner club, Capital Investors.

Among the Capital Investors, Saylor fell the hardest.Other members of the group include the afore-mentioned Steve Case, James Kimsey, Art Marks, Mario Moreno, Alex Mandl, Jeong Kim, Bill Melton, Raul Fernandez, Ted Leonsis, Bill Gorog, Russ Ramsey, Mark Warner, Al Berkeley, Jonathan Silver, Raj Singh, Marc Andressen, John Sidgmore, Alan Spoon.

Fascinating...not necessarily insightful
Having been part of the high-tech community in the NoVA, I rushed out to buy this book so I could get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the personalities and characters that unarguably drive the business and (to some extent) culture of this area.

Overall, the book does deliver the insider perspective.It is successful at communicating the general feel of the 'era' - that bizarre blend of change-the-world optimism, unrealistic expectations, and at times mass-delusion.

This is a chronicle of a particular time...not an insightful story about the personalities, or what drives them.The pacing and arrangement of the chapters was very disorienting...Ms Henry jumps between characters and anecdotes without good reason at times.In all, the book reads as a set of mostly independent vignettes, rather than a compelling story.
(Incidentally, at the same time, I was reading Codename Ginger by Steve Kemper, which I highly recommend, which was technically a better written book...but other comparisions are unfair)

In any case, this still makes for fascinating reading, even if it's sometimes in a superficial voyeuristic sense.

Nothing we haven't seen before.
I found this book limited; the author was handed opportunity for deep insight in an increasingly relevant topic and missed the opportunity entirely.Not nearly the insight of Barbarians at the Gate or other classics that have been written since.Most painful is probably the editing; she re-tells anecdotes several times, which grew tiring.

Fascinating
An inside look at an elite group of angel investors who helped elect a governor and rode the Internet boom and bust through the startups they backed and the companies they ran. As a volunteer with a Washington, D.C. entrepreneur's networking group, where I heard Ms. Henry speak, I was fascinated to read how mundane some up or down decisions can be when a company asks for financial support - a lesson to those looking for funding. These titans knew that vision, intelligence, and drive aren't everything and their penetrating questions of candidate startups suggest they tried to pass this knowledge on.Theworld changed and Ms. Henry was taking notes when it happened! I am grateful for her insights and unvarnished view. ... Read more