BenBella

While the “Silicon Valley” derives its name from the large number of silicon chip innovators who put down roots in the southern region of the San Francisco Bay, in the decades since the tech-boom, that name has come to be synonymous with technology corporations and startups of all kinds. A 2008 study revealed that when the entire Bay area is taken into account, the region outranks New York and Washington for the number of high-tech jobs it generates. The Silicon Valley is, without question, the largest high-tech manufacturing center in the United States. Naturally, these statistics are an incredible testament to the ingenuity of the entrepreneurs and companies that have chosen to call Silicon Valley home — among them, Apple Inc., eBay, Google, Hewlett Packard, Intel and Yahoo!.

However, Timothy Sprinkle argues that the future of high-tech entrepreneurship is developing on a much more diverse landscape. Sprinkle is a longtime web-journalist whose work has appeared in Wired and the Washington Post, among numerous other publications, and he currently serves as an editor at Yahoo! Finance. To a certain extent, Sprinkle feels that Silicon Valley has become a “victim of its own success. It’s expensive, it’s crowded, it’s hypercompetitive and it’s rapidly becoming the kind of hype based, money-first place that drove many engineers away from the east coast establishment and to California in the first place.” Silicon Valley is essentially oversaturated, and as a result, college graduates and entrepreneurs seeking to launch businesses are flocking to cities with newly emergent tech-culture.

In his forthcoming book, Screw the Valley, Sprinkle will take an in-depth look at seven cities he has identified as constituting the “new frontier” of American tech-startups. The cities he will explore include: Austin, Raleigh, Las Vegas, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Boulder and New York City. Taking a memoir approach, Sprinkle will use the personal accounts of entrepreneurs living and working in these cities to illustrate how their local cultures stand apart from Silicon Valley, and how those differences impact the kind of work they produce, and in turn the future of American entrepreneurship. We are delighted to be collaborating with Timothy Sprinkle on this exciting project.

Katie Kennedy is a Marketing Assistant at BenBella Books. She grew up in Arlington and then moved down the road to Fort Worth, where she graduated from Texas Christian University with a BA in English. She feels pretty lucky to have found a job at a publishing company that didn’t involve moving away from her family or her favorite restaurants. Aside from books, her favorite things are fireworks, magazines, nail polish, and the Texas Rangers. Her favorite books will always be the ones she read as a child, especially The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.

Jessika Rieck is the Production Assistant at BenBella Books. She attended Bryn Mawr College where she graduated with a BA in English Literature and a new appreciation for the German language. (Her favorite word is herumtollen – to cavort.) Jessika likes reading poetry, transformative works, and experimental fiction. If she had one wish, she’d wish she were a little bit taller. Her New Year’s Resolution is to hone her cooking skills, starting with making soup from scratch. In her spare time, she shops online for shoes and dresses with pockets.

Kathy Kosinski is one of the new Marketing Interns at BenBella Books. She recently moved to Dallas from Detroit, Michigan and is enjoying Texas immensely. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in English and Spanish, and spent an instructive summer at the University of Denver Publishing Institute. Kathy’s three most favorite things are dogs, books, and the smell of radiators. Her top three dislikes in the world are moths, butterflies, and folding fitted sheets.  Kathy’s favorite book changes with some regularity, but she is confident in claiming that her three favorite authors are J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, and Jasper Fforde.

Many of you are undoubtedly familiar with Tim Ferriss’ game-changing book, The Four Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich. With it, Ferriss’ whetted the appetites of over a million people, introducing the concept of outsourcing to a new class of entrepreneurs — those who consider themselves to be more or less “average Joe” businessmen. Sure, we’re all familiar with the concept of outsourcing. It has been a buzzword for some time now. Until recently, however, the notion of enlisting a workforce in some faraway land was a luxury reserved only for huge corporations or the mega-wealthy. Thanks to Ferriss, we learned that outsourcing can in fact have hugely positive applications for entrepreneurs who are much farther down the totem pole.

Using his own success in business as an example, Ferriss explained how he was able to attain a freer, more productive and enriched (both literally and figuratively) life by outsourcing burdensome minutiae to virtual assistants. Yet, as exciting as this idea was and still is, Ferriss didn’t tell the story to completion. Those who were persuaded by the concepts in The Four Hour Workweek were left with no real blueprint for implementing them. The process of hiring and managing virtual assistants isn’t exactly intuitive, however appealing, so the prospect of it is understandably intimidating.

In comes Chris Ducker, CEO of Virtual Staff Finder. Often referred to as the “Virtual CEO,” Chris built his business into the number one provider of virtual assistants from the Philippines. (So, he knows his stuff). In addition, he has gained recognition through his popular blog, podcasts and videos. Chris has helped numerous business owners around the world expand their businesses through outsourcing, and now he’s intent upon spreading his knowledge of the industry to every entrepreneur who wants to share in it. We are pleased to announce that we will be partnering with Chris Ducker on his new book project, tentatively titled Freedom Factor. In Freedom Factor, Chris will lay out a step-by-step guide to tapping into the fount of virtual assistantship. Using cheat sheets, relevant case studies and more,  Ducker will demonstrate precisely how you can integrate virtual employees into your business for greater efficiency, growth and overall success!

Watch Chris Ducker rattle off his “Top 5 Virtual Assistant Tips” below, for a preview of the kind of content that will be featured in the book.

Vy Tran is the Editorial Assistant at BenBella Books. She oversees copyright permissions for non-photo content and assists with developing content, including big-picture and detailed editing and copyediting, and maintaining the house style guide and editorial standards. A California native, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Francisco in 2012 with a BA in English Literature. Vy has a passion for European football, space opera, and puns. One of her favorite books is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Joshua A. Hughes is a marketing assistant at BenBella Books. He received a B.A. in American Studies and has worked in writing and marketing across Texas, including in his hometown of San Antonio. Joshua’s favorite book is The Great Gatsby.