The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups from Death by Politics

by Bradley Tusk

Overview

The famed political advisor to Uber, FanDuel, Lemonade, Tesla and other startups reveals what really happens at the intersection of politics, tech and business

Most new startups today are in highly regulated industries with strong incumbents - transportation, hotels, drones, energy, gaming, education, health care, cannabis, finance, liquor, insurance. The more startups try to snatch a piece of the establishment's pie, the more they risk running into a political wall. That's where Bradley Tusk comes in.

Described as "Silicon Valley's Political Savior" (Fast Company) "Uber's Political Genius" (Vanity Fair) and "Silicon Valley's Favorite Fixer" (TechCrunch) Tusk deploys the skills and knowledge he developed working with Chuck Schumer, Michael Bloomberg, Rod Blagojevich, and other political and business legends to help startups fight back. This book goes behind the scenes on how he helped stop the taxi industry from killing Uber in its infancy, how he held insurance companies at bay while startup Lemonade launched in each state, and how he helped online sports betting sites FanDuel and Draft Kings escape the regulatory death grip casinos tried to put on them.

As Tusk writes, "Every new company is essentially a tech startup. And when you disrupt someone in any industry, they don't say thank you. They punch you in the nose. These are the lessons startups need to learn to punch back and survive the clutches of politics." Combining a firsthand glimpse behind the curtain with tangible advice for how any new venture can play the political game, THE FIXER is a must-read for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525536499
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Bradley Tusk writes about tech and politics for The Observer and for Inc, hosts a podcastcalled Firewall, and speaks about these issues regularly to audiences across the world. He also served as Mike Bloomberg's campaign manager, as deputy governor of Illinois, as Chuck Schumer's communications director, as Uber's first political strategist, as the founder and CEO of Tusk Strategies, the first firm dedicated to helping startups navigate political problems, and Tusk Ventures, the first venture capital fund dedicated to investing in startups facing political challenges.

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Copyright © 2018 Bradley Tusk.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Table of Contents

Section 1 When Travis Fought Bill

1 Turns Out You Can Fight City Hall 3

Section II Learning the Language of Politics

2 No One Gives You Anything by Accident 13

3 Control the Narrative, Control Politics 18

4 Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust: Press Mainly Comes from Hard Work 24

5 When Things Go Truly Haywire, Seek Consensus 29

6 Pick Your Narrative Before Someone Else Does 34

7 Subtlety Died Long Before Twitter 42

8 Not Being Qualified for a Job Shouldn't Stop You 47

9 People Want to Be Led 55

10 It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Goes to Jail 63

11 Pick Your Enemies = Win Your Battles (Strangle the Baby in the Crib) 67

12 In Politics, Perception Is Reality 78

Section III Creating the Language of Tech and Politics

13 If You're Really Ambitious, Create Your Own Market 93

14 When to Beg for Forgiveness 103

13 Mobilizing Lots of Customers Defeats Conventional Wisdom 112

16 Thank You, Bill de Blasio 116

Section IV A New Venture in Venture

17 To Do Big Things, Hire Big Talent (and Pay Them Well) 133

18 Don't Confuse Ideology with Politics 138

19 Make Sure You See it Coming 148

20 Riding the Sharing Economy to the Oval Office 158

21 There's No One Way to Skin a Regulator 166

22 Uber for Weed 175

23 Protecting the Brand May Mean Losing the Fight 180

24 Always Carry Enough Cash 188

25 Who Needs the Today Show? 192

Section V Where Do We Go from Here?

26 The Biggest Disruption Fight of Them All 201

A Quick Guide to Startup Politics 209

Cast of Characters 223

Acknowledgments 231

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

Lively and entertaining.” —The New York Times

“Bradley Tusk is raw, smart, and focused. The Fixer will become the book you didn’t know your business depends on—dragging you through the mud and into the trenches of startups and politics.” —SCOTT GALLOWAY, professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and author of The Four

“This roller-coaster ride of a personal business memoir ends with a series of case studies of what smart political pressure can really do (and often not do … not every story ends happily). The Fixer is the curtain (finally) being drawn on the often ugly inside reality of what happens when startups attempt to upend a comfortable (and profitable) regulatory order. Any startup founder attempting to eat some incumbent’s lunch (and that’s most of them) would beadvised to read the lessons in The Fixer.” —ANTONIO GARCÍA-MARTÍNEZ, author of Chaos Monkeys

“Disrupting any major industry means disrupting its politics, too. Bradley’s story about fighting for startups from Uber to Tesla, from delivering cannabis to marketing vitamins on Instagram, from mobile voting to fantasy sports, captures exactly what it’s like trying to navigate your startup through the muddy world of politics. This is a truly great story.” —MATT KING, CEO of FanDuel

“A must read for anyone in tech—or worried about being disrupted by tech!”—DANIEL SCHREIBER, CEO of Lemonade

“A deeply funny, exhilarating tour of the dark political arts … Reading The Fixer is like being shot out of a cannon and landing on a bullet train that’s flying off the edge of a cliff. One thing is abundantly clear: You want Bradley Tusk working for you, not against you!”—STEVEN SODERBERGH, filmmaker

From the Publisher