Tech Confidential: The Insider's Playbook for Daring Entrepreneurs - Hardcover

by Denise Koessler Gosnell (Author), Kathryn Erickson (Author)

Silicon Valley is not the glossy utopia our promising youth has been sold; it's a modern-day Colosseum where overclocked misfits battle for their shot at unicorn status and glory. Forget the embroidered zip hoodies and free kombucha fantasies--in Tech Confidential, two renegade insiders cut through the buzzwords and bullsh*t. They show that your dreams of changing the world are possible, but success has a high price and the person you were before may not like the person you become.

This book dishes out hard-earned strategies to help you not just survive but thrive in a world that chews people up and spits them out in the name of "innovation."

Inside these pages, you'll meet brilliant oddballs racing to launch the next big product, engineers treating the next line of code as their personal Everest, and leaders juggling corporate politics while one breath away from the company's last gasp. Along the way, the authors deliver sharp, painfully relatable anecdotes and practical strategies that show you how to:

• Tame your ego to navigate corporate politics like a pro
• Embrace the misfits and survive toxic colleagues
• Moneyball the market to build products people want
• Get money or get out

Packed with insights, humor, and hard-won hope, this essential guide is for anyone daring to dream big in the tech world--and still wanting a life left to enjoy.

Winner of 3 Book Awards!
2026 AMERICAN LEGACY AWARDS WINNER
2026 INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARDS DISTINGUISHED FAVORITE
2025 ROYAL DRAGONFLY BOOK AWARD 2ND PLACE WINNER

Author Biography

DENISE KOESSLER GOSNELL is a master of tech's toughest games - earning a Ph.D., driving NSF-funded innovations, riding startup highs, and landing Amazon-scale launches. Now CEO of her own AI education venture, Denise shares sharp, real-world strategies for thriving in tech while keeping your humor, sanity, and sense of self fully intact.

KATHRYN ERICKSON is the co-founder of a stealth AI Startup. A strategist with twenty years in the tech and security trenches, she's held roles at the National Science Foundation, MITRE, and multiple high-growth unicorn startups. She's spent her career advocating for open source, negotiating acquisitions, and engineering pivots that actually stick. She doesn't just build strategy--she makes it work under pressure.