A high tech AI startup, the Russian mafia, and the downfall of a ‘resident adult.’
About the Book
A story of a professor caught up in a whirlwind of a high-tech startup, who then has to fend off the pressures to lie and cheat in order to sell the company, exerted by a shady early investor who, in turn, needs to get his money out due to the effects of the pandemic on his other businesses…
Background
Semiconductor industry has always been wholly immersed in the startup culture. All of the iconic names in the industry – from Gordon Moore and Intel on to Steven Jobs and Apple – seemed to have a startup in their past. So, I was thinking that indexing a plot of a story to the typical phases of evolution of a high-tech startup may be an interesting way of structuring a novel. But just making up a startup was not enough of a plot.
In 2020 the press was full of articles about the pandemic disruptions to the supply chains. This made me ponder about how the impact would probably be the worst for service based industries that involved a lot of human contact.
Finally, in my past I had experience with a couple of startups which happened to involve Armenians – both of the local kind, and of the kind that came from Armenia.
Sometime in the middle of the pandemic lockdowns, these three vectors converged in my head, and the idea behind ‘Startup’ germinated. I thought that combining something that involved the disruption that the pandemic must have caused to the service-based industry with the theme of a startup might make an interesting story. The contrast of a high-tech startup working with an Armenian oligarch potentially made for good drama. Add in the Russian mafia, a spoiled naïve professor, a splash of technology, a pinch of typical pressures in manufacturing… and it could work…
Details
Formats: Paperback and eBook
Date of Publication: Feb 2022
Publisher Open Books https://www.open-bks.com/about-open/about-open.html
Reviews: Goodreads: Startup by Riko Radojcic | Goodreads
Where to Buy: Open Books https://www.open-bks.com/library/moderns/startup/order.html