After a thorough think-through of his business concept, Ulbricht starts a website on the deep web, which is invisible to search engines, to sell his home-grown mushrooms. Ulbricht thinks up an idea to solve two problems: Making quick cash by selling his home-grown psychedelic mushrooms and doing something that may finally bring fulfillment and significance to his life. For all of his promise, talent, and aspirations, he realizes that he has fallen behind the career paths of his contemporaries. The idea of college never quite takes with Ulbricht and he makes his way back to his hometown of Austin, Texas to take stock in himself.

The story picks up with Ulbricht in his mid-20s, mostly interested in Libertarian politics, computer coding, and occasional drug use. The book’s main character is a former Eagle Scout named Ross Ulbricht.

As he did in “Hatching Twitter,” a book which profiled the early years of Twitter, Bilton took years of painstaking research and firsthand interviews in “American Kingpin” to get a true behind-the-scenes perspective. Bilton is a former New York Times newspaper reporter who left the changing world of media to do what he does best – write books. “American Kingpin” by Nick Bilton is the story of an entrepreneur who built one such business and quickly grew it into more than just a $1.2 billion company selling illegal drugs online. Today’s headlines are filled with Silicon Valley “unicorns” that use innovation and fortunate timing to become billion-dollar companies in a few months. In the past 10 years, the internet has accelerated this rapid scaling up process.

In the early 1900s, it took several years for companies like Ford, General Motors, or U.S. The tale of the small startup business that grows into a major company is a part of our American psyche. American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road Drugs Empireīy Nick Bilton, May 2, 2017, Portfolio / Portfolio Books, 352 pages. Hardcover, $27. E-read edit-on, $14.

Nick bilton silk road