Growing A Business Lessons From 101 Start Ups

When starting PetaCrunch, an AI-powered media company, which focuses on interviewing founders, CEOs and senior executives about their work and how it all started, we didn’t know the level of attention we would get. After three months of running it online we have been literally flooded with emails, having days with over a thousand messages sent to different recipients. Crazy! But it was worth it. We have interviewed over 800 companies so far, started a newsletter and built some amazing tools along the way. But primarily we’ve learned a lot from all the stories that were shared with us. Some were very personal and touching, some motivating or highlighting an interesting aspect of being an entrepreneur. It’s amazing how diverse founders are - there’s no common trait apart from two: patience and persistence. Businesses rarely take-off in the very first year. They need time to start carving their niche in the market. Understanding how to grow a business from 0 to 100 is what motivated us in the first place to start PetaCrunch. That’s why we’ve decided to put together our very first book, because we truly believe that you can learn a lot by reading about how others started and grew their businesses.

A comprehensive, one-stop read for entrepreneurs who want actionable learnings about a wide range of startup and digital-related topics from George Deeb, a serial entrepreneur and partner at Red Rocket Ventures. The book is a startup executive's strategic "playbook", with "how-to" lessons about business in general, sales, marketing, technology, operations, human resources, finance, fund raising and more, including many case studies herein. We have demystified and synthesized the information an entrepreneur needs to strategize, fund, develop, launch and market their businesses. Join the 100,000+ readers who have already benefitted from this book, freely available and continuously updated on the Red Rocket Blog website. TESTIMONIALS David Rabjohns, Founder & CEO at MotiveQuest "George's passion, ideas and involvement with MotiveQuest has been "game changing" for us. From jumpstarting our sales and marketing plans and team, to productizing our business and procedures, Red Rocket has had an immediate and meaningful impact from day one. I highly recommend Red Rocket. If you want to grow, strap on the Red Rocket.“ Tyler Spalding, Founder & CEO at StyleSeek "Red Rocket has been a great investor for our business and vocal champion of our brand. As a proven entrepreneur himself, George has provided valuable insights and recommendations on how to best build my business. Red Rocket would be a great partner in helping build your business.“ Seth Rosenberg, SVP at Camping World "Red Rocket helped us do a high level assessment of our e-commerce efforts and assisted with the development of a digital strategy and marketing plan. Red Rocket identified some immediate opportunities, which we are implementing. I am pleased to recommend Red Rocket for your e-commerce and digital marketing needs.“ Andrew Hoog, Founder and CEO at viaForensics "As viaForensics experienced significant growth, we recognized the need for an experienced advisor with start-up chops who could help us refine critical steps in our transition from a service company to a product-based company. Red Rocket's expertise in growth planning including organizational structure, financial modeling and competitive analysis were instrumental in refining our strategy. He helped facilitate key decisions the management team needed to make in order to take the company to the next level. We are very pleased with Red Rocket's contributions to viaForensics and highly recommend his services to other start-ups facing similar growth.“ Jerry Freeman, Founder & CEO at PaletteApp “Red Rocket has been a key instigator in helping raise funds for PaletteApp. They have helped me tremendously in realizing what an investor wants to see and how best to present it. George has great experience and understanding of how to fund and launch a new company. We feel fortunate that he has thrown his hat into our arena.” Scott Skinger, CEO at TrainSignal "Red Rocket helped us in a variety of ways, from financial modeling to introductions to lenders. Their biggest win was helping us do preliminary investigative research on one of our competitors, that ultimately sparked a dialog that lead to the $23.6MM sale of our business to that company. We couldn't be more happy with Red Rocket's involvement with our business. Overall, a great advisor to have in your corner."

Many startup entrepreneurs lack the first-hand knowledge, perspective and insight that real-world experience can bring to the establishment and growth of new businesses. In "Startups 101," Joel Raven, a retired Fortune 20 global executive at companies including GE and IBM, presents some of the lessons he learned through over forty years of experience advising and financing small, large and startup businesses around the world. In an approachable, easy-to-read and anecdotal volume, "Startups 101" is designed to help startup entrepreneurs avoid many of the speed bumps, potholes and mistakes that commonly challenge businesses in their early stages of development. Joel has mentored numerous executives at companies ranging from small to large, including at a technology-centric startup business accelerator. It was as a result of encouragement by a number of entrepreneurs whom he has mentored that Joel collected these life lessons and incorporated them into this fascinating, helpful and easily understandable book for new startup leaders."Startups 101" is a primer for entrepreneurs in the process of creating and building a new business and leading newly assembled teams, but who haven't had the experience necessary to do everything correctly the first time. By sharing his insights with readers in easily understandable English, while avoiding technical jargon, ponderous charts and confusing graphs, "Startups 101" will help new entrepreneurs get out of the gate quickly, confidently and with sure footing.

This is your foolproof guide on how to make your start-up stand out from the crowd! Get professional business advice in the palm of your hands. This uniquely visual guide equips you with everything you need to know about setting up and running your own business. Are you looking to start a business? You’ll need advice on how to identify your customer, what pitfalls to anticipate, and how best to spend your time and money to turn your idea into a profitable venture. This insightful business book takes you through everything from balancing the books to building a brand. It inspires you to take that giant leap towards making your entrepreneurial dreams come true. The Simplest, Most Visual Guide to Becoming an Entrepreneur - Ever! This comprehensive guide to starting your own business acts as an invaluable blueprint for your path to business success. It’s the ultimate gift for entrepreneurs or anyone who wants to learn more about the world of business management. This informative reference book is packed with: - Practical, authoritative information on the skills required to run a small business. - Easy-to-understand graphics. - No-nonsense advice and jargon-free language. - Insightful and inspiring quotes from the most successful minds in business. This entrepreneur book gives you all the tools you need to understand how a modern start-up works and then start your own. Whether you're a CEO or an aspiring tech entrepreneur, the information and advice in How To Start Your Own Business can be applied to anyone. Complete the Series: This guide to setting up a small business is part of the How It Works Series from DK Books. Expand your knowledge about business and management even further with How Business Works and How Management Works.

This is the follow up book from the best selling 101 Startup Lessons—An Entrepreneur’s Handbook. These Startup Lessons #102-#202 continue the startup learnings as a comprehensive, one-stop read for entrepreneurs who want actionable learnings about a wide range of startup and digital-related topics from George Deeb, a serial entrepreneur and partner at Red Rocket Ventures. The book is a startup executive's strategic "playbook", with "how-to" lessons about business in general, sales, marketing, technology, operations, human resources, finance, fund raising and more, including many case studies herein. We have demystified and synthesized the information an entrepreneur needs to strategize, fund, develop, launch and market their businesses. Join the 400,000+ readers who have already benefitted from these books, freely available and continuously updated on the Red Rocket Blog website.

WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER Every business owner dreams of success, but the majority of businesses are doomed to fail. This book offers a journey through the pitfalls that cause 90% of companies to crash—and the crucial remedies entrepreneurs can use to avoid (or fix) them. Kim Hvidkjær was 29 years old when he became a millionaire. Two years later, after a cluster of disasters, he found himself basically broke. Now, having rebuilt his fortune as the founder of several successful enterprises and studied thousands of failed startups, Hvidkjær has become an expert in failure: what it means, what it looks like, and the strategies that business owners can use to prevent it. In How to F*ck Up Your Startup, he takes us on an entertaining and enlightening journey through the complex patterns of failure in the life cycle of a business, covering: Attitude mistakes Business model missteps Market research snafus Funding and financial blunders Product development errors Organization oversights Sales slip-ups Growing pains Most important, he tackles what to do when your business has gone wrong. Hvidkjær fleshes out a tangible, usable blueprint for entrepreneurs looking to learn (the easy way) from the mistakes of businesses gone before. Chock-full of easy-to-follow business lessons that will keep you from f*cking up your startup, this down-to-earth guide offers crucial, actionable advice for seasoned business owners and startup founders alike. A masterclass in failure, How to F*ck Up Your Startup is required reading for reaching success.

This is the follow up book to the best-selling books, "101 Startup Lessons—An Entrepreneur’s Handbook" and "Startup Lessons #102-#202". These Startup Lessons #203-#303 continue the startup learnings as a comprehensive, one-stop read for entrepreneurs who want actionable insights about a wide range of startup and digital-related topics from George Deeb, a serial entrepreneur and partner at Red Rocket Ventures. The book is a startup executive's strategic "playbook", with "how-to" lessons about business in general, sales, marketing, technology, operations, human resources, finance, fund raising and more, including many case studies herein. We have demystified and synthesized the information an entrepreneur needs to strategize, fund, develop, launch and market their businesses. Join the 1,500,000+ readers who have already benefited from these books, freely available and continuously updated on the Red Rocket Blog website.

#1 New Book for Entrepreneurs as seen on Forbes.com, Inc.com & Mashable.com You have the Big Idea, the drive and ambition. You see the market, and you've identified the customers. You want to be wildly successful. You wonder, how certain entrepreneurs have achieved success without a fancy education or unlimited access to capital. Enter Bill Green, a serial entrepreneur. Using his own impressive business achievements (and his few fiascos), Green provides the reader with the practical tools needed to launch their Big Idea or improve their existing business. In a unique, humorous, and impassioned style, Bill shares 101 key insights he has gleaned over a 40-year business career that began with a single flea market table. He shares the lessons he learned that allowed him to leverage his flea market business table into one of the largest industrial distribution companies in the country and how he subsequently successfully invested in or founded numerous companies across multiple end markets. His message is universal and is the ideal road map for anyone who might wonder how the Bill Greens of the business world do what they do so well.