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Paul Bradley Carr

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For other people named Paul Carr, see Paul Carr (disambiguation).

Paul Bradley Carr
Born (1979-12-07) 7 December 1979 (age 44)
Dunfermline, Scotland
Pen namePaul Carr
OccupationWriter
NationalityBritish
Alma materNottingham Law School
Notable worksBringing Nothing To The Party, The Upgrade
Website
paulbradleycarr.com

Paul Bradley Carr (born 7 December 1979) is a British writer, journalist and commentator, based in San Francisco.[1] He has also—as he wrote on his official website—"edited various publications and founded numerous businesses with varying degrees of abysmal failure."[2]

Memoirs

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Carr's first autobiographical book, Bringing Nothing to the Party—True Confessions of a New Media Whore, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2008.[3] It tells the story of "a unique group of hard-partying, high-achieving young entrepreneurs—and [Carr's] attempts to join them, whatever the cost."[4] According to one review, the book follows Carr's "journey from gonzo journalist, to accidental business owner, to accidental web business mogul, to very-near-jailbird, to working out what actually makes him happy in life."[5]

Weidenfeld & Nicolson published a second book by Carr in May 2011, titled The Upgrade.[6] The book describes Carr's physical travels to the United States and other countries, including Spain, France, Germany, Canada and Iceland, as well as his personal journey, documenting Carr's battles with alcohol and subsequent attempt to give up drinking.[7] In 2011 it was reported that the movie rights for The Upgrade had been purchased by Neon Park[8]

In March and April 2011, Carr spent 33 days staying on the Las Vegas Strip,[9] spending each night in a different hotel. He wrote about[10] his experiences for the Huffington Post and later in a book titled We'll Always Have The Flamingo.

In March 2012 The New York Daily News reported[11] that Byliner was publishing a new memoir by Carr, titled Sober Is My New Drunk.[12] In an extract from the book published in The Wall Street Journal and titled "How I Stopped Drowning in Drink," Carr explained his realization that he was an alcoholic and his successful self-designed program to stop drinking.[13]

Fiction

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In 2021, Carr published his first novel, 1414°, a satirical thriller set in Silicon Valley. The novel received a starred review from Publishers Weekly[14] which compared the book to Michael Crichton's Disclosure. The audiobook of 1414°, narrated by Emily Lawrence, was released in 2022.[15]

In 2024, it was reported[16] that Carr's next novel, The Confessions, had been sold to Atria in a "six-figure deal."

Satirical writing

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In 2001, while studying law[17] at university, Carr co-founded and edited the award-winning satirical "comment sheet," The Friday Thing.[18]

In 2002, The Christian Scientist described Carr as a "latter day Jonathan Swift" following the publication of his satirical anti-vigilante manifesto "Think of the Children."[19] In the same year, Carr co-founded the London city guide, London by London.[20]

He has also written for television, most recently for Alison Jackson's Doubletake series.[21]

New Media writing

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In July 2009 it was announced[22] that Carr would be writing a weekly column for technology news site TechCrunch and also blogging regularly for The Telegraph newspaper. On 16 September 2011, Carr announced on TechCrunch that he was resigning from the AOL-owned properties. His byline has since been stripped from his articles, listing him only as "Contributor" [23]

Prior to joining TechCrunch,[24] Carr wrote a weekly column for The Guardian newspaper entitled "Not Safe For Work"[25] which followed his adventures in the technology industry. Between 2003 and 2005 he wrote a regular new media column for Media Guardian.[26]

Carr has also authored a series of nine web guide books for Prentice Hall,[27] as well as co-authoring The Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life published by Pan Macmillan (UK) and St Martin's Press (US) in 2007.[28]

Carr was a regular user of Twitter,[29] but deleted his account in August 2010 to focus on blogging.[30] Carr resumed using Twitter in April 2011[31] before quitting again in May 2015.[32]

Between 2014 and 2019 Carr served as editorial director of PandoDaily where he wrote a daily column.[33]

In 2020, Business Insider reported that Carr was launching Techworker.com, an independent news site for and about those who work in the technology industry.[34]

Entrepreneurship

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In 2005, along with Clare Christian, Carr co-founded The Friday Project,[35] a book publishing house specializing in finding material on the web and then turning it into traditional books.

Carr left The Friday Project in December 2006,[36] along with online editor Karl Webster, to lead a buy-out of the company's Internet media arm, which led to the founding of online city site Fridaycities.com.[37] Carr left Fridaycities in 2007, when the site re-branded as Kudocities.[38] He later described himself as "NSFW" (Not Safe For Work).[39]

In September 2011, having publicly resigned from TechCrunch[40] following the departure of founder Michael Arrington, it was reported that Carr planned[41] to return to entrepreneurship. One month later, Carr announced the launch of Not Safe For Work Corporation, an online satirical news weekly. The company was reportedly backed by investments from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and Arrington's CrunchFund.[42]

Not Safe For Work Corporation, or "NSFWCORP", failed financially[43] and was sold to technology news Web site PandoDaily[44] which was founded by Sarah Lacy and also funded by Hsieh alongside Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel.[45]

In 2017, Re/Code reported that Carr and Sarah Lacy were co-founding a new company, Chairman Mom.[46] In 2018, Business Insider reported[47] that the company had raised $1.4m in venture capital.

Bibliography

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Memoirs

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ "About Paul Carr". Official Site. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  2. ^ "About Paul Carr". Official Site. 1 May 2008.
  3. ^ Carr, Paul (2008). Bringing Nothing to the Party. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  4. ^ "Bringing Nothing to the Party". Orion Books. 1 July 2008.
  5. ^ "Book Review: Bringing Nothing To The Party". New Media Knowledge (University of Westminster). 9 August 2008.
  6. ^ "The Upgrade". Orion Books. 1 September 2010.
  7. ^ "Paul Carr: The trouble with drink, the trouble with me". Paul Carr. 24 May 2016.
  8. ^ "Paul's New Book Published, Movie Option Sold On The Same Day". TechCrunch. 12 May 2011.
  9. ^ "(Never) leaving Las Vegas". LasVegasWeekly.com. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  10. ^ Carr, Paul Bradley (5 April 2011). "The Strip Diary, Day One: Why Americans Have Fallen Out of Love With Vegas, and the Rest of Us Never Will". Huffington Post. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  11. ^ Nazaryan, Alexander. "Paul Carr's war on Alcoholics Anonymous: He is sober, but hates AA — and O'Doul's - NY Daily News". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  12. ^ "Sober Is My New Drunk, by Paul Carr / Boing Boing". boingboing.net. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  13. ^ "How I Stopped Drowning in Drink". Wall Street Journal. 19 March 2012.
  14. ^ "Mystery Thriller Book Review 1414º". Publishers Weekly. 28 January 2022.
  15. ^ "1414º Audiobook listing". Netgalley. 1 May 2022.
  16. ^ "Marilia Savvides leaves 42 Management & Production to set up The Plot Agency". The Bookseller. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  17. ^ "That Friday Feeling". The Bookseller. 9 June 2006. Archived from the original on 12 July 2010.
  18. ^ Gibson, Owen (18 February 2002). "That Friday feeling". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  19. ^ Left, Sarah (2 October 2002). "Satirical website escapes closure". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  20. ^ Revill, Jo (12 February 2007). "A site for TV execs and tea ladies". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  21. ^ "The Secret Election". BBC Online comedy guide. 22 May 2005.
  22. ^ Carr, Paul (23 July 2009). "'Goodbye, farewell and amen to Not Safe For Work'". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  23. ^ "NSFW: Don't bullshit a reformed bullshitter; the off-the-record gravy train stops here". TechCrunch. 8 August 2009.
  24. ^ "The Guardian has slashed its freelance budget. Result—no more column from me. Thought about writing it for free, but meh". Twitter. 13 July 2009.
  25. ^ "Not Safe For Work". London: The Guardian. 12 November 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  26. ^ Carr, Paul (28 February 2005). "The Bloggers Shall Inherit The Gonzo". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  27. ^ "The Very Best Family Web Sites from Zingin.com". Pearson Education. 1 January 2001.
  28. ^ "Pan Macmillan author biography". Pan Macmillan. 22 March 2007. Archived from the original on 13 August 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2007.
  29. ^ "Paul Carr's Twitter Stream". Twitter.com. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
  30. ^ "Wow. If You Think Quitting Booze Freaks People Out, Wait 'Til You Quit Twitter". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  31. ^ Carr, Paul. "So, I'm Back on Twitter. Addiction Is A Hell of a Thing". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  32. ^ Carr, Paul. "The Room". Pando. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  33. ^ "Paul Carr". Official Site. 15 May 2016.
  34. ^ Jin, Berber. "EXCLUSIVE: Former TechCrunch and Pando journalist Paul Carr is starting a new publication to keep tech CEOs 'awake at night'". BusinessInsider. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  35. ^ "That Friday Feeling". The Bookseller. 9 June 2006. Archived from the original on 12 July 2010.
  36. ^ "Paul Carr leaves the Friday Project". Archived from the original on 28 April 2007.
  37. ^ Revill, Jo (12 February 2007). "A site for TV execs and tea ladies". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  38. ^ Carr, Paul (2008). Bringing Nothing to the Party. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 271.
  39. ^ "About Paul Carr". Official Site. 1 May 2008.
  40. ^ "TechCrunch columnist Paul Carr quits AOL".
  41. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Ex-TechCrunch Star Paul Carr Is Starting A New Company Backed By... Michael Arrington's CrunchFund". Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
  42. ^ "Paul Carr's 'The New Gambit' Wants To Be 'The Economist,' But Funny".
  43. ^ "Paul Carr's news site NSFW Corp joins with Silicon Valley-backed PandoDaily – After NSFW's financial failure, the tech journalist joins the tech site PandoDaily – 'the site of record for Silicon Valley'", The Guardian, 25 November 2013, retrieved 3 January 2013. [1]
  44. ^ "PandoDaily Acquires Paul Carr's NSFW Corp", TechCrunch, 25 November 2013, retrieved 3 January 2013. [2]
  45. ^ "Sarah Lacy's PandoDaily launches with $2.5 million in funding", GigaOM, 16 January 2012, retrieved 3 January 2013. [3]
  46. ^ "Pando CEO Sarah Lacy is spending most of her time on a new company, Chairman Mom", Recode, 16 November 2017, retrieved 21 November 2017. [4]
  47. ^ "Tech journalist and Pando founder Sarah Lacy raises $1.4 million to launch a new startup for working moms". Business Insider. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
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