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Murder at First Principles
From venture capitalist Ben Wiener comes a rollicking debut novel that artfully blends business strategy with murder mystery, and keeps you guessing to the very end.
Addie Morita, a frustrated young crime researcher, finally gets her big career break when a serial killer targets her successful former classmates from an elite San Francisco Bay Area college. Addie must match wits with both the taunting killer and the intimidating Special Agent assigned to the case, racing to decipher key clues buried in a famous startup strategy book — before it’s too late.
Murder at First Principles is the debut Startup Fiction novel by successful venture capitalist Ben Wiener. Written as a murder mystery, the plot is designed to enlighten and entertain, introducing readers to Hamilton Helmer’s iconic work, 7 Powers, and its seven market-proven strategies for sustained competitive advantage. Every suspect in this story is hiding something — strap yourself in and try to uncover their secrets while discovering the secret “powers” innovative businesses harness to create persistent differential returns.
"A well-designed thriller that I didn’t want to put down! Ben Wiener's incisive, fast-paced novel balances plot and well-developed characters with strategy lessons drawn from Hamilton Helmers’ renowned 7 Powers.” — NICOLAS COLIN, cofounder of The Family, writer at European Straits, author of Hedge: A Greater Safety Net for the Entrepreneurial Age
"Ben Wiener has a gift for weaving together clever, captivating narrative and essential startup principles.” — IAN HATHAWAY, Co-Author of The Startup Community Way
“An educating, entertaining, and captivating book for novices and executives alike. A fun read!” — JOSEPH LIPUMA, Senior Lecturer and Global Entrepreneurship Faculty, Boston University Questrom School of Business
Addie Morita, a frustrated young crime researcher, finally gets her big career break when a serial killer targets her successful former classmates from an elite San Francisco Bay Area college. Addie must match wits with both the taunting killer and the intimidating Special Agent assigned to the case, racing to decipher key clues buried in a famous startup strategy book — before it’s too late.
Murder at First Principles is the debut Startup Fiction novel by successful venture capitalist Ben Wiener. Written as a murder mystery, the plot is designed to enlighten and entertain, introducing readers to Hamilton Helmer’s iconic work, 7 Powers, and its seven market-proven strategies for sustained competitive advantage. Every suspect in this story is hiding something — strap yourself in and try to uncover their secrets while discovering the secret “powers” innovative businesses harness to create persistent differential returns.
"A well-designed thriller that I didn’t want to put down! Ben Wiener's incisive, fast-paced novel balances plot and well-developed characters with strategy lessons drawn from Hamilton Helmers’ renowned 7 Powers.” — NICOLAS COLIN, cofounder of The Family, writer at European Straits, author of Hedge: A Greater Safety Net for the Entrepreneurial Age
"Ben Wiener has a gift for weaving together clever, captivating narrative and essential startup principles.” — IAN HATHAWAY, Co-Author of The Startup Community Way
“An educating, entertaining, and captivating book for novices and executives alike. A fun read!” — JOSEPH LIPUMA, Senior Lecturer and Global Entrepreneurship Faculty, Boston University Questrom School of Business
283 pages, Paperback
Published June 3, 2021
6 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Ben Wiener
2 books6 followersBen Wiener is a venture capitalist and managing partner at Jumpspeed Ventures, the first and only venture capital fund dedicated to investing in early-stage startups that originate within the resurgent Jerusalem startup ecosystem. He has invested in a few dozen startups since 2014, providing their very first capital in almost all cases, and believes in helping those who are driven by his same passion for entrepreneurship and making a difference.
Cofounding his first startup in 1999, Ben worked for a variety of both startups and large companies before finding his true calling in venture capital and founding Jumpspeed Ventures in 2014. With a ceaseless dedication to investing, he lectures on startup presentation and strategy at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, the Jerusalem College of Technology, Ariel University, and numerous startup accelerator programs. His professional philosophy is to absorb like a sponge from the smartest people in the business, apply rigorous analysis to investment opportunities, and be empathetic and helpful to those he interacts with. Author of mystery novel Murder at First Principles, as well as short stories and humor essays, Ben brings his investment expertise together with his desire to enlighten and entertain through his writing.
Ben graduated with honors from Columbia Law School and received a BA in economics from Yeshiva University. He clerked on Israel’s Supreme Court for Justice Yitzhak Zamir and practiced corporate law in New York City and Tel Aviv. Among his many notable investments, he was the first investor in BreezoMeter, acquired by Google in 2022.
Ben grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and now lives with his family in Jerusalem, Israel. He enjoys distance running and is a 10-time marathoner. A voracious reader, Ben believes his dedication to reading as many as 100 books a year has made him a better investor, writer, and person.
For more information on Ben’s work, visit https://www.benwiener.net.
Cofounding his first startup in 1999, Ben worked for a variety of both startups and large companies before finding his true calling in venture capital and founding Jumpspeed Ventures in 2014. With a ceaseless dedication to investing, he lectures on startup presentation and strategy at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, the Jerusalem College of Technology, Ariel University, and numerous startup accelerator programs. His professional philosophy is to absorb like a sponge from the smartest people in the business, apply rigorous analysis to investment opportunities, and be empathetic and helpful to those he interacts with. Author of mystery novel Murder at First Principles, as well as short stories and humor essays, Ben brings his investment expertise together with his desire to enlighten and entertain through his writing.
Ben graduated with honors from Columbia Law School and received a BA in economics from Yeshiva University. He clerked on Israel’s Supreme Court for Justice Yitzhak Zamir and practiced corporate law in New York City and Tel Aviv. Among his many notable investments, he was the first investor in BreezoMeter, acquired by Google in 2022.
Ben grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and now lives with his family in Jerusalem, Israel. He enjoys distance running and is a 10-time marathoner. A voracious reader, Ben believes his dedication to reading as many as 100 books a year has made him a better investor, writer, and person.
For more information on Ben’s work, visit https://www.benwiener.net.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 14, 2022
To start off, kudos to Ben Wiener for writing a murder mystery business strategy book. There should be more novels designed to teach complex topics, so I hope this low rating is not a discouragement to Wiener or future authors. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement remains one of my favorite business books period.
But this book unfortunately is not The Goal.
To start off the writing is...not good. I've never read a novel where so many people snickered in my life. There are unnecessary adverbs ("he gentlemanly held open the door") and people speak with too many ellipses. When they laugh, they invariably say, "Ha-ha."
All of this would be somewhat tolerable if the plotting was better, but the truth is writing a good mystery is hard! Your red herrings should not just be noise, but genuinely surprising on their own, and the eventual reveal should feel somewhat earned as a result of clues along the way. Wiener drops narrative threads left and right (at one point our protagonist meets a tech billionaire building a portal to another world and it's at 95% completion, but never mentioned again? Like I wanted to find out more about that.) The final reveal is meant to be shocking but just felt silly.
However, the greatest disappointment is that the actual business strategy portion feels superficial and possibly inaccurate. Murder at First Principles is ostensibly both a mystery and an exploration of Helmer's 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy, a truly great book in its own right. The murderer is supposedly picking off victims based on each power (a la the Brad Pitt vehicle SE7EN) but there is minimal discussion of what power each victim represents. Too often, the characters say, "Well Helmer mentioned Netflix in the book as an example of process power, so that's probably what it is." I'm not sure any of the plotting would make sense without a familiarity with Helmer's framework.
For those who have actually read 7 Powers I'm curious what you thought of Wiener's take on the powers themselves. I thought his understanding seemed surprisingly weak - for example, he describes Counterpositioning as an addition to a business model, but Helmer's actual explanation is much more nuanced. It's not just that a company can't kick its addiction, it's that doing so would fundamentally destroy their business as it is. It's a subtle difference - but isn't exploring that difference the whole point of writing this book?
Tl;dr: I appreciate the effort, more business mystery novels please, but really you should just read 7 Powers.
2.5 stars
But this book unfortunately is not The Goal.
To start off the writing is...not good. I've never read a novel where so many people snickered in my life. There are unnecessary adverbs ("he gentlemanly held open the door") and people speak with too many ellipses. When they laugh, they invariably say, "Ha-ha."
All of this would be somewhat tolerable if the plotting was better, but the truth is writing a good mystery is hard! Your red herrings should not just be noise, but genuinely surprising on their own, and the eventual reveal should feel somewhat earned as a result of clues along the way. Wiener drops narrative threads left and right (at one point our protagonist meets a tech billionaire building a portal to another world and it's at 95% completion, but never mentioned again? Like I wanted to find out more about that.) The final reveal is meant to be shocking but just felt silly.
However, the greatest disappointment is that the actual business strategy portion feels superficial and possibly inaccurate. Murder at First Principles is ostensibly both a mystery and an exploration of Helmer's 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy, a truly great book in its own right. The murderer is supposedly picking off victims based on each power (a la the Brad Pitt vehicle SE7EN) but there is minimal discussion of what power each victim represents. Too often, the characters say, "Well Helmer mentioned Netflix in the book as an example of process power, so that's probably what it is." I'm not sure any of the plotting would make sense without a familiarity with Helmer's framework.
For those who have actually read 7 Powers I'm curious what you thought of Wiener's take on the powers themselves. I thought his understanding seemed surprisingly weak - for example, he describes Counterpositioning as an addition to a business model, but Helmer's actual explanation is much more nuanced. It's not just that a company can't kick its addiction, it's that doing so would fundamentally destroy their business as it is. It's a subtle difference - but isn't exploring that difference the whole point of writing this book?
Tl;dr: I appreciate the effort, more business mystery novels please, but really you should just read 7 Powers.
2.5 stars
July 1, 2021
It is a pleasure to find other writers pursuing the developing genre of Business Fiction. In this murder mystery, the protagonist, a detective in the SF Bay Area, finds herself embroiled in unraveling a series of clues related to the deaths of her classmates at an elite business university. That story is fun and well worth the read.
Additionally, Wiener's use of business principles to frame the investigation and simultaneously solve business problems is creative, seamless, and a business education all on its own.
For entrepreneurs and mystery lovers, this is a great summer read!
(Full Disclosure-I served as editor and advisor to Ben on this book)
Additionally, Wiener's use of business principles to frame the investigation and simultaneously solve business problems is creative, seamless, and a business education all on its own.
For entrepreneurs and mystery lovers, this is a great summer read!
(Full Disclosure-I served as editor and advisor to Ben on this book)
June 24, 2021
Murder at First Principles is a fast-paced murder mystery that artfully intertwines Hamilton Helmer's 7 Powers as plot devices. The book immediately jumps into the action and quickly develops into a page-turner that doesn't slow down. The characters are well developed and several are based on archetypes that would be familiar to anyone who has spent time in Silicon Valley. Overall, this is a quick, fun read that I would highly recommend.
September 8, 2021
First rate first book
Ben Wiener's first published book will by no means be his last. He has a solid future. This novel has all the elements: character development, plot, edginess and is hard to put down from the opening chapter. You won't be disappointed in this.
Ben Wiener's first published book will by no means be his last. He has a solid future. This novel has all the elements: character development, plot, edginess and is hard to put down from the opening chapter. You won't be disappointed in this.
June 14, 2021
I enjoyed how this book blended the format with Hamilton Helmer's "7 Powers" as a narrative device. Once I started the book I was excited to keep going. The story flowed smoothly and the references to startup and business culture were quite entertaining.
June 27, 2021
Like Goldrattt’s “The Goal” before him, Wiener has managed to weave fiction and strategy seamlessly into a compelling business novel.
July 5, 2021
I couldn’t put it down
While I was previously unfamiliar with the 7 principles guiding this delightful murder mystery, I enjoyed learning about the business and start up principles that the author so cleverly explains while gripping the reader with his twisty thriller. I literally read the book over the course of one day, and was quite surprised at the ending. A really enjoyable debut book!
While I was previously unfamiliar with the 7 principles guiding this delightful murder mystery, I enjoyed learning about the business and start up principles that the author so cleverly explains while gripping the reader with his twisty thriller. I literally read the book over the course of one day, and was quite surprised at the ending. A really enjoyable debut book!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews