Download or read book Entrepreneur to Investor the Hard Way written by David L. Durgin and published by Sunstone Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deal by deal, small investment to large investment, Durgin built a successful portfolio as an investor and co-founded a successful venture capital firm. In this edition he explains how he weighs opportunities and copes with adversity. Additionally, he offers practical advice on business plans, marketing, and more.
Download or read book The Hard Way written by Brad Lea and published by Brad Lea, LLC. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is to help people avoid challenges, heartache, and pitfalls in life and business. You no longer have to learn these lessons The Hard Way like Brad did. If Brad had this book growing up and applied what's in it, his life would have been much better, and he would have found success much sooner. The goal for this book is that it finds its way to anyone wanting to succeed. You will learn these lessons one way or another, but the question is are you going to learn it The Hard Way or the easy way; the easy way is by reading The Hard Way. This book explains life lessons and universal laws that you need to be successful. This a collection of stories and the lessons Brad Lea has learned to help him build an incredible life and ultimately it is his bible on how to do sales, business, and life. Learn more about Brad by subscribing to his YouTube channel at BRADLEA.TV or checking out his website at Bradlea.com. This book is intended to change your life- let it happen and remember to always keep it real.
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 Entrepreneur s Playbook written by Leonard Green and published by AMACOM. This book was released on 2017-03-09 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why stumble alone on a risky venture on your way to failure when you can tap into the best ideas and minds for increasing your chances for success? Most entrepreneurs have had to learn things the hard way--concepts such as: big ideas rarely make great businesses; laboring on a business plan can be a waste of time; and you will need dramatically more start-up money than you originally thought you did. Lenoard Green, an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and business professor, has encapsulated together all the inside secrets, proven strategies, and mistakes experienced so that you can learn it all beforehand, rather than when all your capital is on the line. Based on his popular Ultimate Entrepreneurship course, The Entrepreneur’s Playbook explains how to: Locate sure-bet opportunities for improving products Find funding Take calculated risks and minimize failure Get serious about positioning, distributing, and licensing Stripping away the complexity favored by business schools and the hype of the technology sector, the book reveals eighteen down-to-earth principles and dozens of tactics for every kind of business. Plus, the invaluable instruction available for you is now interactive. Dozens of exercises are given throughout the book that can be submitted online for feedback.
Download or read book The Entrepreneurial Investor written by Paul Orfalea and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-03-07 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Entrepreneurial Investor will inspire you to treat investing like a business and to think of yourself as an owner. Through solid examples and a light narrative, Paul Orfalea skillfully explores the essence of the entrepreneurial investor, which includes balancing the art and science of this discipline, and viewing investing itself as a business. Along the way, he also examines how the elements of focus, opportunism, and involvement can improve your overall investment results.
Download or read book The Customer Funded Business written by John Mullins and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-07-21 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who needs investors? More than two generations ago, the venture capital community – VCs, business angels, incubators and others – convinced the entrepreneurial world that writing business plans and raising venture capital constituted the twin centerpieces of entrepreneurial endeavor. They did so for good reasons: the sometimes astonishing returns they've delivered to their investors and the astonishingly large companies that their ecosystem has created. But the vast majority of fast-growing companies never take any venture capital. So where does the money come from to start and grow their companies? From a much more agreeable and hospitable source, their customers. That's exactly what Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Banana Republic's Mel and Patricia Ziegler did to get their companies up and running and turn them into iconic brands. In The Customer Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that scrappy and innovative 21st century entrepreneurs working in companies large and small have ingeniously adapted from their predecessors like Dell, Gates, and the Zieglers: Matchmaker models (Airbnb) Pay-in-advance models (Threadless) Subscription models (TutorVista) Scarcity models (Vente Privee) Service-to-product models (GoViral) Through the captivating stories of these and other inspiring companies from around the world, Mullins brings to life the five models and identifies the questions that angel or other investors will – and should! – ask of entrepreneurs or corporate innovators seeking to apply them. Drawing on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and investors who have actually put these models to use, Mullins goes on to address the key implementation issues that characterize each of the models: when to apply them, how best to apply them, and the pitfalls to watch out for. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur lacking the start-up capital you need, an early-stage entrepreneur trying to get your cash-starved venture into take-off mode, an intrapreneur seeking funding within an established company, or an angel investor or mentor who supports high-potential ventures, this book offers the most sure-footed path to starting, financing, or growing your venture. John Mullins is the author of The New Business Road Test and, with Randy Komisar, the widely acclaimed Getting to Plan B.
Download or read book VC written by Tom Nicholas and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-03 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From nineteenth-century whaling to a multitude of firms pursuing entrepreneurial finance today, venture finance reflects a deep-seated tradition in the deployment of risk capital in the United States. Tom Nicholas’s history of the venture capital industry offers a roller coaster ride through America’s ongoing pursuit of financial gain.
Download or read book The Hard Thing About Hard Things written by Ben Horowitz and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup—practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover, based on his popular ben’s blog. While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Ben Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he’s gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies. A lifelong rap fanatic, he amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs, telling it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in. Filled with his trademark humor and straight talk, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures, drawing from Horowitz's personal and often humbling experiences.
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 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 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems written by Ben Spigel and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a guide to understanding entrepreneurial ecosystems: what they are, why they matter, and to whom they matter. Ben Spigel explores this popular new theory of economic development, locating the intellectual roots of ecosystems, explaining the practices and processes that allow ecosystems to support the creation and growth of innovative entrepreneurial firms.
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.
Download or read book Zero to One written by Peter Thiel and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.”—Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta “Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.”—Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself. Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique. Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.
Download or read book Worthless Impossible and Stupid written by Daniel and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing the global mind-set changing the way we do business. In this fascinating book, global entrepreneurship expert Daniel Isenberg presents a completely novel way to approach business building—with the insights and lessons learned from a worldwide cast of entrepreneurial characters. Not bound by a western, Silicon Valley stereotype, this group of courageous and energetic doers has created a global and diverse mix of companies destined to become tomorrow’s leading organizations. Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid is about how enterprising individuals from around the world see hidden value in situations where others do not, use that perception to develop products and services that people initially don’t think they want, and ultimately go on to realize extraordinary value for themselves, their customers, and society as a whole. What these business builders have in common is a contrarian mind-set that allows them to create opportunities and succeed where others see nothing. Amazingly, this process repeats itself in one form or another countless times a day all over the world. From Albuquerque to Islamabad, you will travel with Isenberg to discover unusual yet practical insights that you can use in your own business. Meet the founders of Grameenphone in Bangladesh, PACIV in Puerto Rico, Sea to Table in New York, Actavis in Iceland, Studio Moderna in Slovenia, Hartwell Metals in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, Given Imaging in Israel, WildChina in China, and many others. You’ll be moved by the stories of these plucky start-ups—many of them fueled by adversity and, more often than not, by necessity. Great stories, stunning successes, crushing failures—they’re all here. What can we, in the East and West, learn from them? What can you learn—and what will these entrepreneurial stories, so compellingly told, inspire you to do? Let this book open doors for you where you once saw only walls. If you’ve ever felt the urge to turn a glimmer of an idea into something extraordinary, these stories are for you.
Download or read book The Seventh Sense written by Joshua Cooper Ramo and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER Winner of the getAbstract 17th International Book Award "The Seventh Sense is a concept every businessman, diplomat, or student should aspire to master--a powerful idea, backed by stories and figures that will be impossible to forget." -- Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci Endless terror. Refugee waves. An unfixable global economy. Surprising election results. New billion-dollar fortunes. Miracle medical advances. What if they were all connected? What if you could understand why? The Seventh Sense is the story of what all of today's successful figures see and feel: the forces that are invisible to most of us but explain everything from explosive technological change to uneasy political ripples. The secret to power now is understanding our new age of networks. Not merely the Internet, but also webs of trade, finance, and even DNA. Based on his years of advising generals, CEOs, and politicians, Ramo takes us into the opaque heart of our world's rapidly connected systems and teaches us what the losers are not yet seeing--and what the victors of this age already know.
Download or read book Angel Investing written by David S. Rose and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Achieve annual returns of 25% or more with a well-designed angel portfolio Written by David S. Rose, the founder of Gust—the global platform that powers the world of organized professional angel investing—Angel Investing is a comprehensive, entertaining guide that walks readers through every step of the way to becoming a successful angel investor. It is illustrated with stories from among the 90+ companies in which David has invested during a 25 year career as one of the world’s most active business angels and includes instructions on how to get started, how to find and evaluate opportunities, and how to pursue and structure investments to maximize your returns. From building your reputation as a smart investor, to negotiating fair deals, adding value to your portfolio companies and helping them implement smart exit strategies, David provides both the fundamental strategies and the specific tools you need to take full advantage of this rapidly growing asset class. He details the advantages of joining an angel group, explains how seed and venture funds can help leverage an investor’s resources, and reveals how recent regulatory changes and new online platforms are making startup investing accessible to millions of Americans. Making money is no longer about sitting back and reading stock listings, David says. It is now about being part owner of an exciting startup that can be fun and financially rewarding. Angel Investing teaches investors how to carefully select and manage investments, establish a long term view, and approach angel investing as a serious part of an alternative asset portfolio while also enjoying being an integral part of an exciting new venture.
Download or read book Invested written by Charles Schwab and published by Currency. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “To say Charles Schwab is an entrepreneur is actually an understatement. He really is a revolutionary.”—Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, author of Shoe Dog The founder of The Charles Schwab Corporation recounts his ups and downs as he made stock investing, once the expensive and clubby reserve of the few, accessible to ordinary Americans. In this deeply personal memoir, Schwab describes his passion to have Main Street participate in the growing economy as investors and owners, not only earners. Schwab opens up about his dyslexia and how he worked around and ultimately embraced it, and about the challenges he faced while starting his fledgling company in the 1970s. A year into his grand experiment in discounted stock trading, living in a small apartment in Sausalito with his wife, Helen, and new baby, he carried a six-figure debt and a pocketful of personal loans. As it turned out, customers flocked to Schwab, leaving his small team scrambling with scarce resources and no road map to manage the company’s growth. He recounts the company’s game-changing sale to Bank of America—and how, in the end, the merger almost doomed his organization. We learn about the clever and timely leveraged buyout he crafted to regain independence; the crushing stock market collapse of 1987, just weeks after the company had gone public; the dot-com meltdown of 2000 and its reverberating aftermath of economic stagnation, layoffs, and the company’s eventual reinvention; and how the company’s focus on managing risk protected it and its clients during the financial crisis in 2008, propelling its growth. A remarkable story of a company succeeding by challenging norms and conventions through decades of change, Invested also offers unique insights and lifelong principles for readers—the values that Schwab has lived and worked by that have made him one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. Today, his eponymous company is one of the leading financial services firms in the world. Advance praise for Invested “I’ve admired Chuck Schwab for a long time. When you read this book, you’ll understand why.”—Warren E. Buffett “This is a fascinating story that teaches you about the never-ending evolution of an entrepreneurial company, but even more about personal learning from that experience. So read, learn how to learn from experience, and enjoy.”—George P. Shultz, former secretary of Labor, Treasury, and State
