Interview with Dan Lyons, author of “Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble”
Author Dan Lyons has reported on and satirized the tech industry. Dan reported on the industry for Newsweek and Forbes, he wrote the satirical fake Steve Jobs blog and has been a member of the writing team for the HBO comedy series “Silicon Valley.” Dan was laid off from Newsweek shortly before it discontinued its print edition. This was around April 2013, and Dan was 52. Next, after some soul searching and panic, which I can relate to, Dan took a job in the world he’d long written about and became the “marketing fellow” at a startup called HubSpot, which sells a marketing software platform that is designed to help companies attract visitors and turn them into customers. I personally have some familiarity with HubSpot, having been at Oracle. And, I relate to Dan’s story, after being laid off by Oracle, at the then age of 56.
But, back to Dan’s story, at this startup, HubSpot, Dan was the “Designated” old guy, twice the age of many of the people he worked with. Dan stayed at HubSpot less than two years. He’s written a new book, just out this week, a memoir called “Disrupted: My Misadventure In The Start-Up Bubble.” He describes the book as the story of what it’s like to reinvent yourself and start a new career in your 50s in an industry that is by and large hostile to older workers.