The Third Wave

An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future

By: Steve Case

Narrated by: Steve Case

The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from Steve Case—the co-founder of AOL—presents “a compelling roadmap for the future…that can help us make sense of the technological changes reshaping our economy and the world. A fascinating read” (Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and founder of LeanIn.org).

Steve Case—a pioneer who made the Internet part of everyday life—was on the leading edge of a revolution in 1985 when he co-founded AOL, the first Internet company to go public and the most successful business of the 1990s. Back then Case was an entrepreneur in an industry that hadn’t really been invented yet, but he had a sense how dramatically the Internet would transform business and society. In The Third Wave, he uses his insights garnered from nearly four decades of working as an innovator, investor, and businessman to argue the importance of entrepreneurship and to chart a path for future innovators.

We are entering, as Case explains, the “Third Wave” of the Internet. The first wave saw AOL and other companies lay the foundation for consumers to connect to the Internet. The second wave saw companies like Google and Facebook build on top of the Internet to create search and social networking capabilities, while apps like Snapchat and Instagram leveraged the smartphone revolution. Now, Case argues, we’re entering the Third Wave: a period in which entrepreneurs will vastly transform major “real world” sectors such as health, education, transportation, energy, and food—and in the process change the way we live our daily lives.

Part memoir, part manifesto, and part playbook for the future, The Third Wave explains the ways in which newly emerging technology companies will have to rethink their relationships with customers, with competitors, and with governments; and offers advice for how entrepreneurs can make winning business decisions and strategies—and how all of us can make sense of this ever-changing digital age.

An amazing boost forward!

Steve has laid it all out here for us. More than a blueprint or a flow chart, he has provided case studies and insights of rare air and from which we can chart a path forward. This book in a second step beyond Jeremy Rifkin's third industrial revolution and in an easier, more concise and palatable form. Thank you, Steve!

Thanks for writing this Steve Case!

Thanks for writing this Steve Case! And thanks for reading it as well.

Great book.

Fun and insightful read

Loved it. Aways a treat when the author narrates. Interesting and insightful. Well done...like reading the weekend paper.

A bit too much of history

I was expecting much more about the 3rd wave, how the future may look like versus a biography.

Interesting Perspective

This book is a mix of history, reason and opinion about the next wave of innovation. His points make sense and his reasoning seems sound. I also appreciated that the author performed the narration. This is a good mental exercise for creating the future. Check it out.