About this Event
The Garden District Book Shop is pleased to welcome Tulane professor Robert Lalka to the shop on May 16 for a discussion on his latest book The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits into Power.
In The Venture Alchemists, Rob Lalka demystifies how tech entrepreneurs built empires that made trillions. Meta started as a cruel Halloween prank, Alphabet began as a master’s thesis that warned against corporate deception, and Palantir came from a campus controversy over hateful speech. These largely forgotten origin stories show how ordinary fears and youthful ambitions shaped their ventures—making each tech tale relatable, both wonderfully and tragically human. Readers learn about the adversities tech entrepreneurs overcame, the troubling tradeoffs they made, and the tremendous power they now wield. Using leaked documents and previously unpublished archival material, Lalka takes readers inside Big Tech’s worst exploitations and abuses, alongside many good intentions and moral compromises.
The evening will begin at 6:00 PM with Professor Lalka sitting down with local communication expert and founding member of the Nieux Society Jonah Evans to discuss The Venture Alchemists and his research, followed by a Q&A. Afterwards, Lalka will be available to chat with guests and personalize copies of his book.
Entry to the event is free and open to the public but the shop encourages interested parties to RSVP to ensure entry and reserve a copy of the book on Eventbrite as space is limited. Additional copies will be available to purchase.
This masterfully researched book reveals the all-too-human origins of today's tech titans. Rob Lalka transports us to the dorm room debates, campus lab breakthroughs, and free speech controversies where iconic companies like Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Palantir first emerged. Lalka traces the ambitions, adversities, and compromises that transformed young innovators into billionaires; here, the companies are vivid characters, and the entrepreneurs are real people, flaws and all.
Walter Isaacson, National Humanities Medalist and author of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania Street, New Orleans, United States
USD 35.00
