Author follows in the narrative footsteps of Po Bronson,
Michael Lewis and Tom Wolfe

Pittsburgh, PA - June 28, 2004 - Author Dan Herchenroether brings to life the enigmatic world of 1990s software start-ups in Selling Air, the first title in his trilogy on the rise and fall of those who helped inflate the so-called "tech bubble" of the last decade. The novel is an entertaining and educational look at the people that drive the software business, and the often questionable forces that fuel a start-up’s path to IPO. Similar to books by Po Bronson, Michael Lewis and Tom Wolfe, which use powerful personalities to illustrate the pressures of working in high-flying industries, Selling Air introduces readers to the volatile characters that make up the fast-moving world of software start-ups.

"Selling Air is a powerful educational tool," says Merrill R (Rick) Chapman, author of The Product Marketing Handbook for Software. "If you want - or need - to understand the technical, psychological, and business issues and problems that drive the world of high tech, this book provides them in an accurate and fun-to-read framework."

The book follows the exploits of rival sales and product teams at fictitious software firms InUnison Software and VibraWeb, as each furiously grasp at the "holy grail" of all start-ups: the IPO. Through his characters, Dan Herchenroether illustrates a variety of the contending forces that were at play in some of the leading software markets of the 1990s. Questionable customer service practices, suspect morals, absolute financial motivation, jealousy, and even incompetence dot the literary landscape of Selling Air, giving insight into how the market became so inflated and how sales teams were eventually charged with selling, not functional products but,"air". The book also captures the excitement of a time when companies saw unprecedented growth and employees spent feverish days chasing numbers and reaching a pinnacle of success that went far beyond their wildest dreams.

Dan Herchenroether bases events and personalities in the book on his 20 years of experience in the software market, including his time at software firms NeXT and Active Software. The book will appeal to current and former software personnel at all levels, from software salespeople and sales engineers to product managers, coders, and business development staff to CEOs, managers, and entrepreneurs.

According to editors at SoftwareMarketSolution, "Once we started reading Selling Air, we couldn't put it down. It's the first, and, to our knowledge, only novel ever written about the software industry that gets it right."

Selling Air is now available on Amazon.com, or via www.sellingair.com. Forthcoming titles by Dan Herchenroether include Striking Air and Sucking Air, the second and third books in his series on the high-tech market.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author Dan Herchenroether's career has traced the rise of technology over the last twenty-five years. Dan began his career in the early 1980s working in Management Information Systems - now more commonly called "IT" - departments, culminating at Mellon Bank, where he drove several high profile projects. While at Mellon, Dan worked with Steve Jobs' NeXT computer. He then left Mellon to join NeXT as a Systems Engineer, where he stayed for five years. When NeXT was sold to Apple Computer, Dan moved on and became the first Systems Engineers at software start-up Active Software. There he built a pre-sales technical team from the ground up, and the company rapidly grew in size and revenue, eventually reaching a very successful IPO in 1999. Dan also has worked at software start-up AltoWeb.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Westminster College and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.