Join us on April 18th at 6pm for a conversation with former Vice President of Communications at Google, Jessica Powell, and Kevin Roose of The New York Times, centered around the themes of her new book, The Big Disruption: A Totally Fictional but Essentially True Silicon Valley Story.
About the book:
Something is fishy at Anahata — and it’s not just the giant squid that serves as a mascot for the world’s largest tech company. A prince in exile is working as a product manager. The sales guys are battling with the engineers. The female employees are the unwitting subjects of a wild social experiment. The VPs are plotting against each other. And the yoga-loving, sex-obsessed CEO is rumored to be planning a moon colony, sending his investors into a tizzy. Is it all downhill from here? Or is this just the beginning of a bold new phase in Anahata’s quest for global domination?
Jessica Powell is the author of The Big Disruption: A Totally Fictional but Essentially True Silicon Valley Story. The first novel ever published by the digital platform Medium, The Big Disruption has been read by over 175,000 readers. It was described by The New York Times as "a zany satire [whose] diagnosis of Silicon Valley’s cultural stagnancy is so spot on that it’s barely contestable.”
Jessica is the former Vice President of Communications for Google and served on the company's management team. She is the author of Literary Paris, and her fiction and non-fiction has been published in The Guardian, The New York Times, WIRED, and Medium magazine. She is also the co-founder and CEO of a startup that builds software for musicians.
Kevin Roose is a columnist for Business Day and a writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine. His column, “The Shift,” examines the intersection of technology, business, and culture.
Before joining The Times, Mr. Roose was a vice president at Fusion Media Group, and a columnist for New York magazine. He was the co-host and executive producer of "Real Future," a documentary series about technology that aired on the Fusion TV network. He has also covered Wall Street for DealBook, The Times's financial news service, and has written for publications including GQ, Vanity Fair, and Esquire. His writing has been included in Best American Business Writing, and in 2015, he was named to Forbes's “30 Under 30” list.
Mr. Roose is the New York Times bestselling author of two books, “Young Money” (2014) and “The Unlikely Disciple” (2009), both of which were published by Hachette Book Group.
He is a graduate of Brown University and lives in Brooklyn.
Betaworks Studios is a new membership club for individuals looking to make a dent in the universe. Supported by innovative technology, this space is designed for connectivity within a curated community.
Studios is your space to meet, scheme, get advice, collaborate, do a little bit of work, attend events, and host events. For 10 years betaworks has been working and networking—building companies, running accelerators, investing in talent—and now we've opened our doors.
When designing Studios we aimed to build a functional, versatile space that can change and transform to suit the needs of the day or evening: events, discussions, group brainstorms, games, focused sprints. Move the furniture around: this is your club.