Sarah Frier is a senior technology reporter for Bloomberg News out of San Francisco. Her award-winning features and breaking stories have earned her a reputation as an expert on how Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter make business decisions that affect their future and our society. Frier is a frequent contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Television. She's also the author of No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, the winner of the 2020 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.
"Happily--this is a book about Silicon Valley. It is a record of a
single app moving through the place. And in making that record, in
hewing closely to Instagram and its founders, Kevin Systrom and
Mike Krieger, while giving new texture to the Valley's major
players, like Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg, Frier tells the
story of how that place works....The book manages to be cleareyed
and objective about the founders and their many flaws, without
sensationalizing or oversimplifying--a hard balance to strike in
tech coverage right now....we need a book like this to explain what
it is I'm tapping on all day. I spend hours staring at the screen,
and now I have a better sense of who's staring back."
--New York Times "No Filter is a vibrant play-by-play of how
Instagram reached that level of influence through the business of
manufacturing coolness....Frier's version of that story is rich
with details, based on hundreds of interviews including sit-downs
with the app's co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Armed
with their perspective, Frier is able to draw a line between each
decision the founders made and the cultural consequences....The
irresistible drama of No Filter plays out between the founders and
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg."
--NPR "Deeply sourced....Frier delivers a compelling tale of
jealousy.... The David-and-Goliath tussle is deftly interwoven by
Frier with another tale: the transformation of Instagram itself,
from the photo app known for its artsy filters to the creator of
'creators.'"
--Financial Times "No Filter might be the most enrapturing book
about Silicon Valley drama since Nick Bilton's Hatching Twitter,
but this time, instead of cofounder infighting, the battle for
Instagram's soul has far more reaching consequences for society and
its relationship with technology....Frier deftly streamlines from
multiple interviews with some of the most high-profile executives,
venture capitalists, and most-followed celebrities on
Instagram."
--Fortune "Frier captures the power Instagram came to wield in
society even among those who didn't use it....The author deftly
weaves Instagram's cultural impact into what might otherwise be a
cold-eyed business story, adding rich texture and context, and
giving us non-billionaires something we can relate to. But the
book's narrative power--and it's told in a narrative voice, relying
on interviews with hundreds of employees and others close to the
companies--rests in the human drama among the whiz kids navigating
Silicon Valley's tricky crosscurrents. The book is also leavened by
entertaining details."
--Washington Post "In this illuminating first book by tech reporter
Sarah Frier, [Instagram's] founding, dizzying rise, and the impact
it has on people around the world is unraveled in fascinating
detail. Read this, and you might never post a photo the same way
again."
--Town & Country "The story of the supercharged rise and inevitable
distortion of one of the world's most wide-ranging and influential
social media platforms. An eminently readable cautionary tale about
technology that once again questions what--or who--the product
really is."
--Kirkus Reviews "Frier weaves a gripping narrative of the power of
technology that all readers can appreciate....Frier keeps readers
hooked into this world of high-stakes technology."
--Library Journal "Expertly chronicles the rise of
Instagram....Frier's work is based on lengthy interviews with the
company's two founders, current and former employees, and it brings
fresh insight into some of Instagram's most pivotal moments. From
Twitter's failed attempts at an acquisition to the race to build
Stories in a bid to fend off Snapchat, it offers an inside
perspective into how those decisions shaped the company."
--Engadget "One of my favorite books of recent months....it's a
meticulously reported, beautifully told story about one of the most
successful apps ever created."
--Casey Newton, The Verge "If Aaron Sorkin wants to make a sequel
to the movie The Social Network, he has his source material right
here. Frier, a tech journalist, was given enviable access to
Instagram's founders and other key players. The result is an
inside-the-room chronicle of one of Silicon Valley's most
fascinating and fraught acquisitions. A tale of luck, smarts, and
strategy, No Filter also reminds us how much business depends on
personal chemistry or--in the case of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg
and Instagram's Kevin Systrom--the lack thereof. Just as intriguing
is Frier's clear-eyed commentary on what the rise of Instagram
culture means."
--Inc, Top 10 New Business Books for 2020 "No Filter offers an
engaging account of how tech founders' ideals inevitably have to be
squared with making profits."
--Wall Street Journal "Drawing on the author's close access to
insiders at Instagram, this is a lively and revealing view of how
the world came to see itself through the platform's lens. Her tale
includes glimpses of Silicon Valley's weirdness, and an account of
Instagram's sale to Facebook--and its sour aftermath."
--The Economist, Best Business & Economics Book of the Year
"Successful startups in Silicon Valley are sometimes described as
being akin to building a spaceship in mid-flight. With No Filter,
the intrepid Sarah Frier takes you inside the spaceship that became
Instagram. A deeply reported and beautifully written account of a
company that has changed society, fame, culture, business, and
communication--sometimes for the better and, as Frier so adeptly
shows, also for the worse."
--Nick Bilton, special correspondent for Vanity Fair and author of
Hatching Twitter "Sarah Frier's No Filter is a riveting and
wonderfully reported story of a company that is shaping our world.
Her writing shines a spotlight on the cultural and economic power
wielded by Instagram, but it also turns that spotlight back on us,
igniting a conversation about the often unconscious role we play in
increasing Instagram's formidable, maybe even terrifying,
reach."
--Bethany McLean, coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room: The
Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron "No Filter pairs
phenomenal in-depth reporting with explosive storytelling that gets
to the heart of how Instagram has shaped all of our lives, whether
you use the app or not. It's so much more than a business story;
it's a story about culture, fame, and, ultimately, human
connection. Frier covers those whose lives have been most
transformed by the app with incredible thoughtfulness and nuance,
leading you to places you'd never expect. Her powerful reporting,
paired with beautiful writing and a thoughtful perspective, make No
Filter the most entertaining book I've read in years."
--Taylor Lorenz, reporter for the New York Times "With No Filter,
Sarah Frier has delivered a brilliant exploration of the highs and
lows of human nature. The book is part business drama--packed with
tales of creativity, ambition and intrigue--and part an
anthropologist's examination of modern life. Frier's vivid
reporting and electric storytelling provide the definitive account
of how Instagram turned into a cultural phenomenon and what the
app's success says about all of us."
--Ashlee Vance, author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest
for a Fantastic Future
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