Straight Talk For Startups

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Straight Talk for Startups

Author : Randy Komisar
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062869078
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (628 download)

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Book Synopsis Straight Talk for Startups by : Randy Komisar

Download or read book Straight Talk for Startups written by Randy Komisar and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Straight Talk for Startups memorializes age-old best practices and empowers both experienced and new investment professionals to beat the odds."—David Krane, CEO, Google Ventures "Straight Talk for Startups is filled with real, raw, and fact-based ‘rules of the road’ that you need to know when diving into our ultra-competitive startup world. A must read and a re-read!"—Tony Fadell, Coinventor of the iPod/iPhone & Founder of Nest Labs Veteran venture capitalist Randy Komisar and finance executive Jantoon Reigersman share no-nonsense, counterintuitive guidelines to help anyone build a successful startup. Over the course of their careers, Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman continue to see startups crash and burn because they forget the timeless lessons of entrepreneurship. But, as Komisar and Reigersman show, you can beat the odds if you quickly learn what insiders know about what it takes to build a healthy foundation for a thriving venture. In Straight Talk for Startups they walk budding entrepreneurs through 100 essential rules—from pitching your idea to selecting investors to managing your board to deciding how and when to achieve liquidity. Culled from their own decades of experience, as well as the experiences of their many successful colleagues and friends, the rules are organized under broad topics, from "Mastering the Fundamentals" and "Selecting the Right Investors," to "The Ideal Fundraise," "Building and Managing Effective Boards," and "Achieving Liquidity." Vital rules you’ll find in Straight Talk for Startups include: The best ideas originate from founders who are users Create two business plans: an execution plan and an aspirational plan Net income is an option, but cash flow is a fact Don’t accept money from strangers Personal wealth doesn’t equal good investing Small boards are better than big ones Add independent board members for expertise and objectivity Too many unanimous board decisions are a sign of trouble Choose an acquirer, don’t wait to be chosen Learn the rules by heart so you know when to break them Filled with helpful real-life examples and specific, actionable advice, Straight Talk for Startups is the ideal handbook for anyone running, working for, or thinking about creating a startup, or just curious about what makes high-potential ventures tick.

The Startup Playbook

Author : Rajat Bhargava
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119708532
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (197 download)

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Book Synopsis The Startup Playbook by : Rajat Bhargava

Download or read book The Startup Playbook written by Rajat Bhargava and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get the real guidance you need to create and build your first startup company from founders who have been there many times before. The first run printing of The Startup Playbook SOLD OUT! So, we revised, expanded, and improved this second edition, including a new foreword by Brad Feld, author of Venture Deals. We still give our personal, how-to guide for building your startup from the ground up. You'll find a collection of the major lessons and shortcuts we've learned that will shift the odds in your favor. We're sharing our tips, secrets, and advice in a frank, founder-to-founder discussion with you. We make no bones about our bias. We're on your side, the founder's side. While venture capitalists, investors, and accelerators/incubators can add great value in the startup ecosystem, this book isn't about their points of view. We'll tell you where our interests as founders diverge from those on the other side of the table—investors, bankers, advisors, board members, and others—and what to do when that happens. The Startup Playbook is not a recipe, it's not a template, it's not a list of tasks to do. It's our insider's guide to starting a company and running it successfully in those critical early months. Between us, we've started over a dozen high-tech software companies and raised over $500 million in investment capital. We've acquired over thirty-five companies, had three of our startups go public, sold six of them, and we made billions of dollars for shareholders. We've also invested in over eighty startups, advised and mentored over two hundred companies and actively worked with venture capitalists (VCs), incubators, and accelerators to help launch many other new startups. We've had plenty of failures, too. And we've probably learned more from those than from the successes. We share those lessons as well. The Startup Playbook is full of our advice, guidance, do's, and don'ts from our years of experience as founders many times. We want to share our hard-earned knowledge with you to make success easier for you to achieve. "This book is extraordinarily fresh and exciting. In an accessible, straight talk fashion, this book is a manual, and an inspiration. The Startup Playbook is smart and avoids the 'I am so smart' over-writing endemic to the genre. Read this as it is presented. You'll be doing yourself a tremendous favor." —Amazon Reviewer

Getting to Plan B

Author : John Mullins
Publisher : Harvard Business Press
ISBN 13 : 1422152693
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (221 download)

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Book Synopsis Getting to Plan B by : John Mullins

Download or read book Getting to Plan B written by John Mullins and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You have a new venture in mind. And you've crafted a business plan so detailed it's a work of art. Don't get too attached to it. As John Mullins and Randy Komisar explain in Getting to Plan B, new businesses are fraught with uncertainty. To succeed, you must change the plan in real time as the inevitable challenges arise. In fact, studies show that entrepreneurs who stick slavishly to their Plan A stand a greater chance of failing-and that many successful businesses barely resemble their founders' original idea. The authors provide a rigorous process for stress testing your Plan A and determining how to alter it so your business makes money, solves customers' needs, and endures. You'll discover strategies for: -Identifying the leap-of-faith assumptions hidden in your plan -Testing those assumptions and unearthing why the plan might not work -Reconfiguring the five components of your business model-revenue model, gross margin model, operating model, working capital model, and investment model-to create a sounder Plan B. Filled with success stories and cautionary tales, this book offers real cases illustrating the authors' unique process. Whether your idea is for a start-up or a new business unit within your organization, Getting to Plan B contains the road map you need to reach success.

Starting Your First Business

Author : Wayne Walker
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781520896625
Total Pages : 41 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (966 download)

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Book Synopsis Starting Your First Business by : Wayne Walker

Download or read book Starting Your First Business written by Wayne Walker and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book provides the tools that a new entrepreneur needs in straight talk, no fluff. The authors uses his own successful business as a guide along with the first-timer insights. Includes many personal notes from dairy that he kept during his start up phase.

Get Your Startup Story Straight

Author : David Riemer
Publisher : Greenleaf Book Group
ISBN 13 : 1632994720
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (329 download)

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Book Synopsis Get Your Startup Story Straight by : David Riemer

Download or read book Get Your Startup Story Straight written by David Riemer and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE HOW-TO GUIDE FOR INNOVATORS TO IMPROVE THEIR IDEAS AND SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCH THEM THROUGH THE POWER OF NARRATIVE In a world that’s been turned upside down by a pandemic, social upheavals, environmental disasters, and economic disruptions, the need for reinvention is paramount. While many entrepreneurs and innovators have brilliant ideas, they desperately need the skills to successfully articulate their vision to investors, prospective customers, employees, and stakeholders. In this informative and empowering book, David Riemer breaks down the storytelling clutter so you can gain the attention you need to be successful. Storytelling is foundational. If you have a groundbreaking invention in mind or have a plan to solve worldwide problems, Get Your Startup Story Straight is the tool you need to create better customer-focused solutions, motivate more backers to your project, and ultimately dominate in the market. Broken down into three acts, this book will allow you to discover the building blocks of your narrative, the storytelling techniques to convey your ideas clearly, and the archetypes for inspiration. The author’s own words tell it all: “Innovators are ubiquitous nowadays, and for this community, storytelling is essential.” If you are a creator struggling to get others on board, this is the handbook to refine your story to guide your product strategy, shape your company, and ultimately improve lives.

Straight Talk: Thriving In Business

Author : Danny Creed
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781947398634
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (986 download)

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Book Synopsis Straight Talk: Thriving In Business by : Danny Creed

Download or read book Straight Talk: Thriving In Business written by Danny Creed and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-11 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you just "getting by" in business? Do you want substantial growth? Whether you're a solopreneur who needs the best small business advice or you have a large, established business that needs the best business advice for growth, Straight Talk: Thriving in Business will show you how to skyrocket sales and keep business flowing. This book is for you if you need advice for starting up a business, small business advice for an existing small business, business expansion advice no matter the size of the business, or want the kind of home business advice that keeps profit flowing. Included in the book are valuable bonuses like these: Checklist for Your Start-Up Business Evaluation Leadership Review Task Prioritization Checklist Grass Roots Negotiation Tips A Monthly/Quarterly Business Review Checklist If you want ONE book on building and maintaining a successful business, this is it. Six-time winner of the Brian Tracy Award for Sales Excellence representing the FocalPoint International Business Coach of the Year, Danny Creed understands the issues that business owners and executives face. He's been there and experienced all the good and the bad first-hand. His experience comes from years "on the streets" and "in the trenches" with 14 successful startup businesses to his credit plus over 400 "turn-around" projects. Coach Dan is uniquely qualified to assist the executive, entrepreneur, or sole proprietor business owner. He's been in his client's shoes, so he truly understands their needs.

Startup Your Life

Author : Anna Akbari
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 125009917X
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Startup Your Life by : Anna Akbari

Download or read book Startup Your Life written by Anna Akbari and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2016-12-27 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an entrepreneur, Anna Akbari learned that one of the best things about startups is their ability to “pivot” quickly—basically a euphemism for failing and starting over. And she quickly found that personal success is no different. It’s not just about developing and following the right process but also having a good idea. And that demands rigor and daily maintenance—far beyond a few positive affirmations. Like any Silicon Valley startup, the business of life is not as glamorous as its Instagram account would make it seem. What do you do when planning is not an option? When control is out of your reach? You isolate the small stuff, experiment constantly, and use the results to lay a more sustainable foundation for the future. You validate your idealized vision by testing it out in bite-sized increments. You see what sticks, integrate, and move forward. And inevitably, you experience a series of failures along the way, but those failures are key to your next success. Living a start up life is about maximizing flexibility and measuring on-going results, not avoiding failure or reaching one particular end goal. It's about embracing defeat, analyzing it, and failing up. In Startup Your Life, Akbari shows that after all, it's often the stumbles that pave the way for real happiness.

Smarts Guts and Luck: Straight Talk for Entrepreneurs

Author : Ty Freyvogel
Publisher : Ty Freyvogel
ISBN 13 : 0982207506
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (822 download)

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Book Synopsis Smarts Guts and Luck: Straight Talk for Entrepreneurs by : Ty Freyvogel

Download or read book Smarts Guts and Luck: Straight Talk for Entrepreneurs written by Ty Freyvogel and published by Ty Freyvogel. This book was released on 2013 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Startup Myths and Models

Author : Rizwan Virk
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231550871
Total Pages : 409 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Startup Myths and Models by : Rizwan Virk

Download or read book Startup Myths and Models written by Rizwan Virk and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Budding entrepreneurs face a challenging road. The path is not made any easier by all the clichés they hear about how to make a startup succeed—from platitudes and conventional wisdom to downright contradictions. This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths—legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley—Rizwan Virk provides startup models—frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors readers in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life. In snappy prose with savvy pop-culture and real-world examples, Virk recasts entrepreneurship as a grand adventure. He points out the pitfalls that appear along the way and offers insights into how to avoid them, sharing the secrets of founding a startup, raising money, hiring and firing, when to enter a market and when to exit, and how to value a company. Virk combines lessons learned the hard way during his twenty-five years of founding, investing in, and advising startups with reflections from well-known venture capitalists and experts. His candid advice makes Startup Myths and Models an ideal guide for those readers just embarking on the startup life and those looking for their next adventure.

Why Startups Fail

Author : Tom Eisenmann
Publisher : Currency
ISBN 13 : 0593137027
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (931 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Startups Fail by : Tom Eisenmann

Download or read book Why Startups Fail written by Tom Eisenmann and published by Currency. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!

Author : Gregory Burges Crabtree
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780989645232
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (452 download)

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Book Synopsis Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by : Gregory Burges Crabtree

Download or read book Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! written by Gregory Burges Crabtree and published by . This book was released on 2014-04-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simple Numbers can guide you to increased business profitability Take the mystery out of small business finance with this no-frills guide to understanding the numbers that will guide your business out of any financial black hole. Author Greg Crabtree, a successful accountant, small business advisor, and popular presenter, shows you how to use your firm's key financial indicators as a basis for smart business decisions as you grow your firm from startup to $5 million (and, more ) in annual revenue. Jargon free, and presented in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step format, with plenty of real-world examples, Crabtree's down-to-earth discussion highlights the most common financial errors committed by small businesses, and how to avoid them. You'll be fascinated to learn: Why your numbers are lying to you (and why you are the cause ) How labor productivity is the key to profitability and simplifying human resource decisions Why the amount of tax you pay is your #1 key performance indicator Take advantage of Crabtree's years of experience teaching clients how to build successful businesses by ''seeing beyond numbers'' with this step-by-step guide to increasing your businesses profitability.

The $100 Startup

Author : Chris Guillebeau
Publisher : Crown Currency
ISBN 13 : 0307951545
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (79 download)

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Book Synopsis The $100 Startup by : Chris Guillebeau

Download or read book The $100 Startup written by Chris Guillebeau and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lead a life of adventure, meaning and purpose—and earn a good living. “Thoughtful, funny, and compulsively readable, this guide shows how ordinary people can build solid livings, with independence and purpose, on their own terms.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project Still in his early thirties, Chris Guillebeau completed a tour of every country on earth and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck. Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back. Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and focused on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment. Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment. It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise”—even if you don’t consider it such—and what other people will pay for. You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees. All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid. Not content to talk in generalities, Chris tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick. Among Chris’s key principles: If you’re good at one thing, you’re probably good at something else; never teach a man to fish—sell him the fish instead; and in the battle between planning and action, action wins. In ancient times, people who were dissatisfied with their lives dreamed of finding magic lamps, buried treasure, or streets paved with gold. Today, we know that it’s up to us to change our lives. And the best part is, if we change our own life, we can help others change theirs. This remarkable book will start you on your way.

The Business Model Book

Author : Adam J. Bock
Publisher : Pearson UK
ISBN 13 : 1292135719
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (921 download)

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Book Synopsis The Business Model Book by : Adam J. Bock

Download or read book The Business Model Book written by Adam J. Bock and published by Pearson UK. This book was released on 2018-01-09 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Disrupted

Author : Dan Lyons
Publisher : Hachette Books
ISBN 13 : 031630607X
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (163 download)

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Book Synopsis Disrupted by : Dan Lyons

Download or read book Disrupted written by Dan Lyons and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An instant New York Times bestseller, Dan Lyons' "hysterical" (Recode) memoir, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "the best book about Silicon Valley," takes readers inside the maddening world of fad-chasing venture capitalists, sales bros, social climbers, and sociopaths at today's tech startups. For twenty-five years Dan Lyons was a magazine writer at the top of his profession--until one Friday morning when he received a phone call: Poof. His job no longer existed. "I think they just want to hire younger people," his boss at Newsweek told him. Fifty years old and with a wife and two young kids, Dan was, in a word, screwed. Then an idea hit. Dan had long reported on Silicon Valley and the tech explosion. Why not join it? HubSpot, a Boston start-up, was flush with $100 million in venture capital. They offered Dan a pile of stock options for the vague role of "marketing fellow." What could go wrong? HubSpotters were true believers: They were making the world a better place ... by selling email spam. The office vibe was frat house meets cult compound: The party began at four thirty on Friday and lasted well into the night; "shower pods" became hook-up dens; a push-up club met at noon in the lobby, while nearby, in the "content factory," Nerf gun fights raged. Groups went on "walking meetings," and Dan's absentee boss sent cryptic emails about employees who had "graduated" (read: been fired). In the middle of all this was Dan, exactly twice the age of the average HubSpot employee, and literally old enough to be the father of most of his co-workers, sitting at his desk on his bouncy-ball "chair."

The Monk and the Riddle

Author : Randy Komisar
Publisher : Harvard Business Press
ISBN 13 : 9781578516445
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (164 download)

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Book Synopsis The Monk and the Riddle by : Randy Komisar

Download or read book The Monk and the Riddle written by Randy Komisar and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book about how to make work pay and not just in cash, but in experience, satiafaction, and joy.

The Startup Way

Author : Eric Ries
Publisher : Crown Currency
ISBN 13 : 110190321X
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis The Startup Way by : Eric Ries

Download or read book The Startup Way written by Eric Ries and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Entrepreneur and bestselling author of The Lean Startup, Eric Ries reveals how entrepreneurial principles can be used by businesses of all kinds, ranging from established companies to early-stage startups, to grow revenues, drive innovation, and transform themselves into truly modern organizations, poised to take advantage of the enormous opportunities of the twenty-first century. In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries laid out the practices of successful startups – building a minimal viable product, customer-focused and scientific testing based on a build-measure-learn method of continuous innovation, and deciding whether to persevere or pivot. In The Startup Way, he turns his attention to an entirely new group of organizations: established enterprises like iconic multinationals GE and Toyota, tech titans like Amazon and Facebook, and the next generation of Silicon Valley upstarts like Airbnb and Twilio. Drawing on his experiences over the past five years working with these organizations, as well as nonprofits, NGOs, and governments, Ries lays out a system of entrepreneurial management that leads organizations of all sizes and from every industry to sustainable growth and long-term impact. Filled with in-the-field stories, insights, and tools, The Startup Way is an essential road map for any organization navigating the uncertain waters of the century ahead.

Founders at Work

Author : Jessica Livingston
Publisher : Apress
ISBN 13 : 143021077X
Total Pages : 468 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis Founders at Work by : Jessica Livingston

Download or read book Founders at Work written by Jessica Livingston and published by Apress. This book was released on 2008-11-01 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback—with a new preface and interview with Jessica Livingston about Y Combinator! Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company. Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover? Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. For them, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup, to learn how it's done. But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses do—create value—more intensively than almost any other part of the economy. How? What are the secrets that make successful startups so insanely productive? Read this book, and let the founders themselves tell you.