Entrepreneur Not

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.

Books, magazine articles, and educational programs on entrepreneurship are all based on the idea that anyone can be an entrepreneur—that entrepreneurs are made, not born. Well, maybe not. In a study of 234 CEOs funded by the Kauffman Foundation, James L. Fisher and James V. Koch came up with a surprising conclusion: Some individuals are simply more naturally fitted to become entrepreneurs than others. They are pre-wired. Because of heredity, some people are much more likely to become successful entrepreneurs or pursue entrepreneurial strategies within a corporate setting profitably. By recognizing that, this book will significantly improve corporate selection processes, strengthen entrepreneurship programs, and boost the confidence of aspiring entrepreneurs through invaluable insights. Among other things, Fisher and Koch show that true entrepreneurs not only see the world differently—they act differently. Compared with corporate managers, for example, they are more confident, more decisive, more likely to upset the apple cart, and more energetic. They love to compete but are notable for the partnerships they are able to fashion with friend and foe alike. Such conclusions are remarkable. Why? Because they are based on the only empirical comparison study yet conducted on entrepreneurship. The insights are not based on personal opinion or case studies but on valid and reliable personality indicators. Because the book shows that certain kinds of people will find it much easier to found successful companies than others, it has many practical applications. It will help organizations fit the right people into jobs requiring an entrepreneurial bent. It will challenge corporations to hire entrepreneurial CEOs who will transform businesses rather than maintain the status quo. And it will speak directly to entrepreneurs and those contemplating starting a business, who will learn if they have the right stuff to start and sustain a business. In short, this book provides insights into the entrepreneurial soul that can change the fortunes of individuals and companies for the better.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE-PATRON PHILOSOPHER OF TODAY'S DISRUPTIVE ENTREPRENEURS His favorite personality was a "free spirit" an obsessed individual with a vision of the future and the will to make it so, a rebel who creates the future with childlike enthusiasm. Now, serial entrepreneur Dave Jilk and venture capitalist Brad Feld extract from Nietzsche a modern Art of War, connecting the dots to our high-tech business environment. Each quick, digestible chapter expands on a quote from Nietzsche to stimulate your thinking about a vital aspect of entrepreneurship, and stories from entrepreneurs help make the ideas concrete. Understand why hitting bottom might be the best thing that can happen, how your firm's "artistic style" can align your organization, and the role obsession plays in your success-and your definition of it. Glean insight and inspiration from every page of this surprising, approachable gem.

Entrepreneurship: no guts, no glory is a provocative scientifically reasoned book about the impact of entrepreneurship on the economy and our quality of life. The author argues for an enterprise and entrepreneurship-friendly ecosystem in Europe, and sets out concrete guidelines to achieve this.

If you've ever thought, "There must be more to life than this," The Art of Non-Conformity is for you. Based on Chris Guillebeau's popular online manifesto "A Brief Guide to World Domination," The Art of Non-Conformity defies common assumptions about life and work while arming you with the tools to live differently. You'll discover how to live on your own terms by exploring creative self-employment, radical goal-setting, contrarian travel, and embracing life as a constant adventure. Inspired and guided by Chris's own story and those of others who have pursued unconventional lives, you can devise your own plan for world domination-and make the world a better place at the same time.

A guide for creating a deeper relationship with the entrepreneurial journey The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur offers overworked and harried entrepreneurs, and anyone who thinks like one, a much-needed guide for tapping into the wisdom that is most relevant to the entrepreneurial life. The book is filled with inspirational meditations that contain the thoughts and writings of notable American authors. Designed as a daily devotional, it is arranged in a calendar format, and features readings of transcendentalist literature and others. Each of The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur meditations is followed by a reflection and a challenging question from John Jantsch. He draws on his lifetime of experience as a successful coach for small business and startup leaders to offer an entrepreneurial context. Jantsch shows how entrepreneurs can learn to trust their ideas and overcome the doubt and fear of everyday challenges. The book contains: A unique guide to meditations, especially designed for entrepreneurs A range of topics such as self-awareness, trust, creativity, resilience, failure, growth, freedom, love, integrity, and passion An inspirational meditation for each day of the year. . . including leap year Reflections from John Jantsch, small business marketing expert and the author of the popular book Duct Tape Marketing Written for entrepreneurs, as well anyone seeking to find a deeper meaning in their work and life, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur is a practical handbook for anyone seeking to embrace the practice of self-trust.

Designers are used to working for clients, but there is nothing better than when the client is oneself. Graphic and product designers, who are skilled with the tools and masters aesthetics, are now in the forefront of this growing entrepreneur movement. Whether personal or collective, drive is the common denominator of all entrepreneurial pursuit; of course, then comes the brilliant idea; and finally the fervent wherewithal to make and market the result. The Design Entrepreneur is the first book to survey this new field and showcase the innovators who are creating everything from books to furniture, clothes to magazines, plates to surfboards, and more. Through case studies with designers like Dave Eggers, Maira Kalman, Charles Spencer Anderson, Seymour Chwast, Jet Mous, Nicholas Callaway, Jordi Duró, and over thirty more from the United States and Europe, this book explores the whys, hows, and wherefores of the conception and production processes. The design entrepreneur must take the leap away from the safety of the traditional designer role into the precarious territory where the public decides what works and what doesn’t. This is the book that shows how that is accomplished.

Praise for THIRD SHIFT ENTREPRENEUR "A must read for any aspiring entrepreneur with the itch to start their own business who is wondering 'but what do I do first?'" —Gino Wickman, Author of Traction and Creator of EOS "Our country and our communities are better when people bring their own ideas to life as entrepreneurs — and this book written as an engaging story helps show us how. If you're ready to step into the arena, grab hold of this book and the strategies in it." —Robert A. McDonald, 8th Secretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs Retired Chairman, President and CEO of The Procter & Gamble Company “Todd Connor has written the secret real testament of how so many entrepreneurs managed to start and survive. He doesn’t just lift the lid on the world of working entrepreneurs, he offers a game plan to follow. This is a book every person who dreams of starting their own business needs to read first.” —Charlynda Scales, Founder, Mutt’s Sauce LLC “I cannot tell you how much I needed this book. I literally could not put it down. It spoke to my soul, brought me to tears several times while re-living my own angst and discontent, and then ultimately left me bursting with hope, energy and clarity for the path forward. This for me was straight up therapy as well as the coaching I needed. If you’re at that place of wanting to step into your ownential, you have to read this.” - Michael H., Aspiring Entrepreur