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 474 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

Download or read book Equity Crowdfunding written by Nathan Rose and published by . This book was released on 2016-10-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raise Money Without a Bank Or a VC, Through The Crowd! For many startups and growing companies, gaining marketing exposure and raising external funding from investors are #1 and #2 on their priority list. But, until recently, they were always separate activities - first you would raise the money, and then you would spend it on marketing. The advent of equity crowdfunding means these two critical tasks can be done at the same time. This is a game-changer. Equity Crowdfunding - A Hybrid of Venture Capital and Kickstarter. Unlike venture capital, the company founders get to set their own offer terms, retain their company culture, and bring on dozens, or even hundreds of shareholders rather than just a tiny handful - and gain all the promotional benefits that come with this. And unlike the crowdfunding offered by sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, equity crowdfunding allows a company to offer shares in itself, instead of a pre-ordered product. This means equity crowdfunding can be used by far more types of businesses, and typically attracts a lot more money. Companies regularly raise hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars through equity crowdfunding. This Book Will Show You How! Equity crowdfunding offers amazing potential for startups and growing companies, but it is also a very steep learning curve. Many companies begin with no real idea of how to choose a platform, how to craft their pitch, or what they should be doing to drive people to their offer page and invest. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn: The forces which have brought equity crowdfunding to where it is today How to tell whether equity crowdfunding will be a good fit for your company The biggest mistakes that can kill an offer before it has even begun How to build critical momentum - one company raised 1 million in 96 seconds! How to construct a marketing plan to get people literally counting down to your launch How to salvage an offer which is "stuck," and re-ignite the momentum What past campaigns wished they had known before they had started The incredible impact equity crowdfunding can have on your business and profile The World's First Comprehensive Resource Featuring the very best strategies from 20 real companies who have used equity crowdfunding to raise millions of dollars, euros and pounds. And the expert advice from 12 market-leading platforms at the forefront of the equity crowdfunding revolution. This book is truly global in scope, featuring contributions from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Canada, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. This is THE complete guide, with no prior knowledge assumed, and will teach you equity crowdfunding from the ground up. "

Download or read book Life Is a Startup written by Noam Wasserman and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After two decades of research on founders, a best-selling book on the subject, and experience teaching and mentoring thousands of students in this field, Noam Wasserman is a prominent authority on startups. Hearing from countless readers and students that his insights helped them with important life decisions, beyond the incubator and boardroom, Wasserman brings us a new book that applies to everyday life his research on the methods of successful startup founders. Like entrepreneurs, we all deal with uncertainty, tough decision-making, and necessary problem-solving. Whether we freelance or work for large organizations, whether we're married or single, have kids or not, we must be able to think on our feet, assess risks and opportunities, and recruit others to help us navigate them. This book offers important advice for envisioning change in our lives—from contemplating the next step in a relationship to making a radical career move—and managing changes to which we've already committed. We can learn to recognize our own well-worn patterns and keep our tendencies and habits in check, recruit a personal taskforce—our own board of directors—to advise us, and plan ahead for growth. With his extensive database of entrepreneurship case studies—from Pandora to Twitter to Nike—complemented with data on 20,000 founders, Wasserman is able to go deeply into the entrepreneurial mindset and show us how startups provide specific lessons for crafting our most successful lives.

Download or read book The Brand Strategy Canvas written by Patrick Woods and published by Apress. This book was released on 2019-12-09 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Launching a startup is now easier than ever before. Building a lasting brand, however, remains a mystery for even the savviest of founders. An impactful, recognizable brand is perhaps a company’s most valuable intellectual property. And any strong brand starts with a strategy. The Brand Strategy Canvas has arrived to coach you beyond buzzword-laden tips and tricks, and instead offers you thorough, practical techniques to jump-start your strategy creation process. Author Patrick Woods distills fundamental questions to guide your strategy into a revolutionary single-page tool known as the titular Brand Strategy Canvas. The book takes you through each of the simple yet thought-provoking questions of the tool to develop your strategy, including considering audience insight, assessing benefits, creating a positioning statement, and identifying key messages. You will explore real-world case studies along the way and build a message map that ensures your organization drives home a consistent, clear, and authentic message to your target audience. No matter where you are in the business creation process, The Brand Strategy Canvas is the tool you need to build a brand from scratch that you can enthusiastically and effectively implement in real time. This book provides value to team members in companies of all sizes and stages, and is fit for any level of professional wanting to kickstart their entrepreneurial goals. A brand created today must be built for all of tomorrow’s possibilities, and The Brand Strategy Canvas is the book you will want by your side. What You Will Learn Examine the key differences between strategy and executionUnderstand how you can avoid brand debtCraft meaningful messages with the Features>Benefits ContinuumDevelop a positioning statement that differentiates from the competition and inspires your marketingDiscover your distinctive brand personality and how it impacts your marketing Equip your team with guidance and inspiration to ensure consistent and inspiring voice and personality throughout all your messaging Who This Book Is For This book is for startup founders who are looking for tools to help them build a brand their team can actually implement. This book will also resonate with and provide value to team members in tech companies of all sizes and stages.

Download or read book Comprehensive Guide to IBPS Bank PO MT Preliminary Main Exam 6th Edition written by Disha Experts and published by Disha Publications. This book was released on 2017-10-07 with total page 905 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • The thoroughly revised & updated 6th edition of "Comprehensive Guide to IBPS-CWE Bank PO Exam" has been designed specially for the CWE Bank PO stage 1 & 2 of the exam. • A chapter on Sentence Exclusion has been introduced as asked in the 2016 PO Mains Exam. • The book covers all the sections of the Preliminary & Main PO exam - English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning Ability, Computer Aptitude, and Banking Knowledge & General Awareness. • The book provides well illustrated theory with exhaustive fully solved examples for learning. This is followed with an exhaustive collection of solved questions in the form of Exercise. • The book incorporates fully solved 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 IBPS PO question papers with solutions of Descriptive Test. • The Current Affairs section has been updated with the latest questions so as to provide an updated book to the aspirants.

Download or read book Disciplined Entrepreneurship written by Bill Aulet and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-08-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 24 Steps to Success! Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren’t born with something special – they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn: Why the “F” word – focus – is crucial to a startup’s success Common obstacles that entrepreneurs face – and how to overcome them How to use innovation to stand out in the crowd – it’s not just about technology Whether you’re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want. Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/

Download or read book University Startups and Spin Offs written by Manuel Stagars and published by Apress. This book was released on 2014-11-27 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: University Startups and Spin-Offs teaches university students, researchers, and educators the most effective strategies and tactics for launching their own startups from academic platforms with the backing of school programs, public grants, incubators, seed accelerators, and private partnerships in all parts of the world. Serial entrepreneur Manuel Stagars advises students, faculty, and researchers how to test their ideas for marketability, how to develop commercial products out of research projects, and how to engage companies and investors with attractive value propositions. The author has seventeen years of experience as startup entrepreneur, founder of seven companies in the United States, Europe, and Japan, consultant to universities on commercializing their research programs, angel investor, and startup mentor. Stagars’ advice is field-tested, battle-hardened, and supported with a wealth of instructive first-hand examples from his international experience. The author advises academic entrepreneurs to take matters into their own hands instead of relying on the initiative and support of universities and governments. He shows students and researchers how to fit lean startup methods to their existing university ecosystems, leveraging their strengths without getting bogged down in bureaucratic morass. Avoiding theory and jargon, the book focuses on real-world situations, practical steps, checklists, and case studies. University students and researchers will learn the skills they need to become startup entrepreneurs on an academic platform. The final part of University Startups and Spin-Offs addresses university administrators, educators, technology licensing officers, incubator managers, and government grant officers. It shows them with practical examples from the private and academic sectors how to integrate startups into the fabric of the university, develop a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem for students and researchers, leverage latent network effects, build bridges between scientific research and industries seeking innovative solutions, enhance the public image of the university, and motivate the university’s best and brightest to engage in startup enterprises that will deliver benefits to the university and the public as well as to themselves.

Download or read book Mechanical Bull written by Cheryl Contee and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-17 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silicon Valley can be a wild ride for an entrepreneur, especially if you're a woman, a minority (or both!). But not being a white dude dropout from Stanford shouldn't stand between you and startup success-there's a path forward for everyone, including you. In Mechanical Bull, Silicon Valley veteran Cheryl Contee takes readers through her entrepreneurial journey with humor and candor, sharing practical insights from her experience of launching three startups and receiving more than $2 million in venture capital investment, despite being a nontraditional founder. Through Cheryl's open, honest account of the gender and race bias in a system set up to serve the aforementioned (i.e., the privileged few), you'll learn how to steer through that system and flourish along the way.So saddle up for a practical guide to launching a successful startup and riding trends like a boss-without ever getting thrown off your game.

Download or read book The Corporate Startup written by Tendayi Viki and published by . This book was released on 2019-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A key reading for leaders that outlines how to effectively innovate for the future and boost growth, while running the core business. - Alex Osterwalder, Co-author of Business Model Generation. Winner of the 2018 CMI Management Book of the Year Award for Innovation and Entrepeneurship The Corporate Startup is a practical guide for established companies that aspire to develop and sustain their innovation capabilities. * The world around us is changing rapidly. There is now more pressure on established companies to innovate. * The challenge most companies face is how to develop new products for new markets, while managing their core business at the same time. * The principles and practices outlined in this book provide companies with a blueprint of how to manage innovation while they execute on their core business. * The Corporate Startup provides frameworks, visualizations, templates, tools and methods that can be easily applied to develop new products and business models. This book helps organisations of all sizes to manage innovation. This playbook uses illustrated step-by- step guides to lead the reader through the processes to create an ecosystem that nurtures innovation at every level in a business. - Jury CMI Management Book of the Year. Big companies need to innovate or die. The question is how. Companies need a playbook; a process by which they can start the process of transforming their organizations into innovation engines. The Corporate Startup is that playbook. It provides a proven methodology --applying Lean Startup principles and more-- for building a culture of innovation. - Ben Yoskovitz, Co-Author of Lean Analytics and Founding Partner at Highline BETA.

Download or read book Startup Communities written by Brad Feld and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential guide to building supportive entrepreneurial communities "Startup communities" are popping up everywhere, from cities like Boulder to Boston and even in countries such as Iceland. These types of entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation and small business energy. Startup Communities documents the buzz, strategy, long-term perspective, and dynamics of building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other's talent, creativity, and support. Based on more than twenty years of Boulder-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist Brad Feld's experience in the field?as well as contributions from other innovative startup communities?this reliable resource skillfully explores what it takes to create an entrepreneurial community in any city, at any time. Along the way, it offers valuable insights into increasing the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improving access to entrepreneurial education, and much more. Details the four critical principles needed to form a sustainable startup community Perfect for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists seeking fresh ideas and new opportunities Written by Brad Feld, a thought-leader in this field who has been an early-stage investor and successful entrepreneur for more than twenty years Engaging and informative, this practical guide not only shows you how startup communities work, but it also shows you how to make them work anywhere in the world.

Download or read book Traversing the Traction Gap written by Bruce Cleveland and published by Radius Book Group. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traction. Startups Need It. Learn How To Get It. Vision, groundbreaking ideas, total commitment, and boundless enthusiasm characterize most startups, but they require capital to go from promising product to scalable business. More than 80 percent of all early-stage startups fail. Most of them can build a product, but the vast majority stumble when it comes time to take those products to market due to poor “market engineering” skills. Traversing the Traction Gap exposes the reasons behind that scary failure rate and provides a prescriptive how-to guide, focused specifically on market engineering techniques, so startups can succeed. The go-to-market hurdle is insurmountable to many startups. Just when they most need to establish a foothold in the market, they run short on time and money. This is the Traction Gap, that period of time introducing a new product into the marketplace and being able to scale it during a rapidly closing window of opportunity. Traversing the Traction Gap is a practical guidebook for navigating the tumultuous early life of a startup. Based on real-life examples, the advice from Cleveland and the members of the Wildcat Venture Partners team provides a roadmap and metrics for succeeding where others have failed.

Download or read book Accelerating Her Business written by Poornima Shenoy, Supriya Panchangam and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2022-04-01 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive toolkit that offers practical advice to program and community managers. It helps build the differentiated lens for women centric entrepreneurship. The SPS roadmap serves as a powerful framework for successful program implementation. The book carries views and the guidance of key ecosystem participants.

Download or read book Industrializing Innovation the Next Revolution written by Suresh K. Sharma and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-25 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past 25 years, the field of innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization has reached a critical mass and maturity. It is not only possible but also essential to scale it so that an immense amount of untapped human innovative potential can be unleashed for the benefit of our people. Further, R&D centers and existing entrepreneurial ecosystems can be made more impactful. Firstly, this book succinctly identifies the entire field of innovation into one comprehensive and meaningful framework to help understand its evolution, incremental growth, super acceleration, and exponential explosion that has resulted in an innovation log jam. Secondly, it maps out common characteristics and approaches that make innovation, venture capital and investments into startups succeed much better. And, last, but not the least, it outlines measures to commercialize them in a massive way and "industrialize" innovation going forward including creating next generation 'Innovation Hubs'.

Download or read book Food Entrepreneurs in Africa written by Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-15 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the agriculture and food sector in Africa, which is projected to exceed a trillion dollars by 2030. This book is the first practical primer to equip and support entrepreneurs in Africa through the process of starting and growing successful and resilient agriculture and food businesses that will transform the continent. Through the use of case studies and practical guidance, the book reveals how entrepreneurs can leverage technology and innovation to leapfrog and adapt to climate change, ensuring that Africa can feed itself and even the world. The book will: Inspire aspiring entrepreneurs to start and grow resilient and successful businesses in the agriculture and food landscapes. Equip aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs with practical knowledge, skills, and tools to navigate the complex agriculture and food ecosystems and develop and grow high-impact and profitable businesses. Enable aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs to develop scalable business models, attract and retain talent, leverage innovation and technology, raise financing, build strong brands, shape their ecosystem, and infuse resilience into every aspect of their operations. The book is for aspiring and emerging agribusiness entrepreneurs across Africa and agribusiness students globally. It will also inspire policymakers, researchers, development partners, and investors to create an enabling and supportive environment for African entrepreneurs to thrive.

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.

Download or read book The Founder s Dilemmas written by Noam Wasserman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-04 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Founder's Dilemmas examines how early decisions by entrepreneurs can make or break a startup and its team. Drawing on a decade of research, including quantitative data on almost ten thousand founders as well as inside stories of founders like Evan Williams of Twitter and Tim Westergren of Pandora, Noam Wasserman reveals the common pitfalls founders face and how to avoid them.

Download or read book Zone to Win written by Geoffrey A. Moore and published by Diversion Books. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last 25 years, Geoffrey Moore has established himself as one of the most influential high-tech advisors in the world—once prompting Conan O’Brien to ask “Who is Geoffrey Moore and why is he more famous than me?” Following up on the ferociously innovative ESCAPE VELOCITY, which served as the basis for Moore’s consulting work to such companies as Salesforce, Microsoft, and Intel, ZONE TO WIN serves as the companion playbook for his landmark guide, offering a practical manual to address the challenge large enterprises face when they seek to add a new line of business to their established portfolio. Focused on spurring next-generation growth, guiding mergers and acquisitions, and embracing disruption and innovation, ZONE TO WIN is a high-powered tool for driving your company above and beyond its limitations, its definitions of success, and ultimately, its competitors. Moore’s classic bestseller, CROSSING THE CHASM, has sold more than one million copies by addressing the challenges faced by start-up companies. Now ZONE TO WIN is set to guide established enterprises through the same journey. “For any company, regardless of size or industry, ZONE TO WIN is the playbook for succeeding in today’s disruptive, connected, fast-paced business world.” —Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce “Once again Geoffrey Moore weighs in with a prescient examination of what it takes to win in today’s competitive, disruptive business environment.” —Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft "With this book, Geoffrey Moore continues to lead us all through ever-changing times...His work has changed the game of changing the game!" —Gary Kovacs, CEO, AVG “ZONE TO WIN uses crystal-clear language to describe the management plays necessary to win in an ever-disrupting marketplace. Regardless of your level of management experience, you will find this book an invaluable tool for building long-term success for your business.” —Lip-Bu Tan, President and CEO, Cadence Design Systems