Mike Trigg was born in Kentucky and raised in Wisconsin. He earned a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley. Over his twenty-five-year career in Silicon Valley, he has been a founder, executive, and investor in dozens of venture-funded technology start-ups, as well as a contributor to TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company. He lives in Menlo Park, California, with his wife and two sons. Bit Flip is his first novel
Welcome Author Mike Trigg
Thank you for being a part of my meet the author series! Your novel was a fascinating read as I felt the frequency changing constantly. An entrepreneur’s journey towards success uses a huge amount of thought leadership and at times a whole lot of luck.
Could you tell us where do you find inspiration for creativity to do what you do?
I’ve always enjoyed creative pursuits, and I come from a creative family—my mom was passionate about music, one of my sisters is an artist, and my other sister a dancer. For the first twenty-plus years of my career, I pursued a career in the technology industry, but that was really a creative outlet as well. As an entrepreneur, I thoroughly enjoyed inventing new products, founding companies, and turning an idea into reality as a way to feed my creative side. The inspiration for Bit Flip specifically originated with my career in tech. I saw plenty of novels written by former CIA agents, police detectives, or lawyers, but not many by former tech executives. I wanted to write a novel that provided an authentic view into Silicon Valley tech culture.
What made you choose to become a writer/author?
Writing is always something I’ve wanted to do. I took a creative writing course in undergraduate that I really enjoyed, but I worried I would have a hard time making a living as a writer. So I ended up pursuing writing adjacent occupations, such as public relations and marketing. But I held on to this desire to write a novel. This book started as a series of anecdotes. Just interesting or funny things that I witnessed in my day-to-day life in Silicon Valley. Finally, about three years ago, I came up with the outline for the novel and started writing. Then, of course, COVID happened. What initially felt like a giant setback ended up being the nudge I needed to pivot to writing full-time.
What do you do when you are not writing?
I love getting outdoors for just about any activity—particularly running, hiking, tennis, soccer, skiing, golf, and my latest favorite, pickle ball. I also love to cook and have a huge and unruly collection of large format cookbooks, many of which I have read cover-to-cover like a novel.
Inspiration for writing Bit Flip
I feel a lot of research or experience was written into the story. At time I felt a little fear of the future feeling that AI would eventually take over the human race.
What inspired you to write your story?
The story is less a cautionary tale of technology itself, as much as it is about the tech industry. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about how technology is changing our lives, not always for the better. But the inspiration for my story was really how the culture around venture-backed start-up companies breeds rule-breaking, duplicity, and self-dealing. Although I was never at a company that perpetrated outright fraud, as in the case of the book, it’s not uncommon for these businesses to stray into a moral gray area. The core conflict of the story for Sam Hughes, the protagonist, is between the two sides of his personality—one rooted in his Midwestern values, and the other pushing him to do whatever it takes to succeed. I have felt that tension myself in my career and felt it would make for an interesting, introspective book.
How much research did you need for it?
Because I have spent over twenty years in the tech industry, from giant behemoths to nascent start-ups, I didn’t need to do much research since it was a world with which I was already deeply familiar. I did spend a fair amount of time considering settings in the book and researched several options around the Bay Area—as well as Ohio where Sam, the protagonist, is from—on Google Maps. Although the situations and characters in the book are entirely fiction, most of the locations are real-world places. As a way of bringing the book to life, I have produced a series of short videos that provide a virtual tour of the locations featured in the book.
What message (theme or takeaway) would you want readers to embrace in your story?
The big message of Bit Flip is that we all need to be stewards of our own moral compass. Particularly in a region as ambitious, competitive, and intense as Silicon Valley, it can be easy to let your desire to succeed overshadow what’s really important. I want readers, particularly those working in the tech sector, to recognize how we are all, at some level, complicit in both the good and bad of this industry.
What’s Next for Mike Trigg
Are you planning your next book?
Yes, my next book is called Burner and it is largely written already. It is an entirely new story, not based on Bit Flip, but explores many of the same themes about how tech is impacting our lives. There is a sneak peek on my website at miketrigg.com/books. If all goes according to plan, I’m expecting to publish that novel in 2023.
Could you share a little more about it?
Burner is a contemporary tech thriller, but also a modern love story. The book opens with Shane Stoller having just been arrested for domestic terrorism, accused of being the mastermind behind an anonymous alt-right profile known only as Burner_911. Chloe Corbin has just been abducted by Burner_911’s followers, targeted in an uprising as the socialite daughter of a tech billionaire. What nobody knows is Shane and Chloe are secretly in love. Plagued with regret, Shane tries desperately to save Chloe from the forces he has unleashed. The book poses the question of whether real human connection is inherently incompatible with our addiction to online esteem.
Given the current circumstances within the publishing industry, what advise would you give anyone wanting to become a writer?
The publishing industry has certainly gone through incredible change in the last 20-30 years. But, in many ways, those changes have created new opportunities for writers. There is no longer one path to getting published. Self-publishing, independent imprints, and hybrid publishers have all become equally viable options. Getting access to quality collaborators, from designers and copyeditors, to proofreaders and audiobook narrators, is easier than ever. And with social media, YouTube, Goodreads, and dozens of other online channels, getting your work discovered is also possible in ways it wasn’t before. So my main advice to aspiring writers is to stay true to your passion, invest in yourself, and, most of all, keep writing. I did a video on just this subject, my 5 tips for becoming a successful writer, which is also on my YouTube channel.
Connect with Mike Trigg
Readers, Mike would love to hear from you. You can connect with her here.
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