Startup Success

It takes passion to start a new business. But that same entrepreneurial enthusiasm can also lead you astray.Over six million Americans start businesses every year. That's 11 startups a minute launched by passionate dreamers hoping to transform their lives for the better. But a huge gap exists between the skyrocketing levels of desire and what entrepreneurs actually achieve. The harsh reality is that most new businesses fail within a few years of launch. Why do so few startups make it? And what distinguishes those that do succeed? Entrepreneur, consultant, and investor John Bradberry set out to discover the answer and came to a surprising conclusionùthat the passion that drives and energizes so many founders is also the very thing that leads many of them astray. Filled with compelling real-life stories of both success and failure, this groundbreaking book reveals the key principles entrepreneurs must follow to ensure their big idea is on the right track. In 6 Secrets to Startup Success, readers will learn how to: Convert their passion into economic value with a moneymaking business model ò Improve their readiness to launch and lead a new venture ò Manage funding and cash flows ò Chart a path to breakeven and beyond ò Avoid the pitfalls that often accompany unfettered passion ò Build the stamina needed to persevere over time Complete with indispensable tools including an assessment to gauge a venture's strengths and weaknesses, 6 Secrets to Startup Success will help entrepreneurs everywhere turn their dreams into reality.

With business advice from an expert entrepreneur, learn how to identify and leverage the key factors that will bring sustainability and success to your startup. Kathleen Kelly Janus, a lecturer at the Stanford University Program on Social Entrepreneurship and the founder of the successful social enterprise Spark, set out to investigate what makes a startup succeed or fail. She surveyed more than 200 high-performing social entrepreneurs and interviewed dozens of founders. Social Startup Success shares her findings for the legions of entrepreneurs working for social good, revealing how the best organizations get over the revenue hump. How do social ventures scale to over $2 million, Janus's clear benchmark for a social enterprise's sustainability? ​Janus, tapping into strong connections to the Silicon Valley world where many of these ventures are started or and/or funded, reveals insights from key figures such as DonorsChoose founder Charles Best, charity:water's Scott Harrison, Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code and many others. Social Startup Success will be social entrepreneurship's essential playbook; the first definitive guide to solving the problem of scale.

You’ve got yourself a startup! But now where’s the funding going to come from? In this day and age, creating a startup seems to be an easy process. After some meetings with an equally passionate cofounder, you discover you have a creative idea, the outline of a business plan, and a willingness to spend nights and weekends doing really hard work. But most startup founders have never run a company—much less had to secure funding to reach crucial milestones. If you don’t get the funding you need, you may either make progress at a snail’s pace, or you may have to give up altogether. With stakes this high, improving a startup founder’s odds of fundraising successfully—even just a little—can make a huge difference in the outcome of a venture. In this informative and enlightening book, Gordon Daugherty demystifies the fundraising process that takes place during the early phases of a startup’s evolution. Every founder cares about the valuation they will be able to negotiate with investors, and anyone who has attempted fundraising has encountered numerous debates about the valuation they’re asking for. Startup Success dedicates a whole chapter to negotiating valuation, which, in the end, involves a serious combination of art and science to execute effectively. Daugherty’s book serves as a valuable educational and planning tool for use before the fundraising campaign begins and a reference guide for interacting and negotiating with investors after things get underway. Startup Success is written in a logical sequence that follows the general life cycle of planning and executing a successful fundraising campaign. Actionable tips, tricks, and aha realizations will have readers dog-earing pages and highlighting passages for future reference. The author’s own words tell it all: “I decided to write something different that best exploits the gray in my hair and the hard lessons I’ve learned.” Any startup founder, advisor, or angel investor—regardless of their experience level—will come away with improved skills and an increased knowledge base. Gordon Daugherty is a seasoned business executive, entrepreneur, startup advisor, and investor. He has made more than 200 investments in early-stage companies as a venture fund manager and angel investor, and he has been involved in raising more than $80 million in growth and venture capital.

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.

If there's a software startup company in your developer heart, this is the book that will make it happen. The Web Startup Success Guide is your one-stop shop for all of the answers you need today to build a successful web startup in these challenging economic times. It covers everything from making the strategic platform decisions as to what kind of software to build, to understanding and winning the Angel and venture capital funding game, to the modern tools, apps and services that can cut months off development and marketing cycles, to how startups today are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook to create real excitement and connect to real customers. Bob Walsh, author of the landmark Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality, digs deep into the definition, financing, community–building, platform options, and productivity challenges of building a successful and profitable web application today.

Startups, like sailing vessels, do not travel in straight lines. The wind and the waves of the real world move the ship, and your startup, in unpredictable ways. This book is designed to give you an analytical set of tools to help you navigate your startup or corporate innovation through the murky waters of real life. Every business has failures. No business succeeds without some change of plan. Navigating Your Way to Startup Success will show you how to create a startup designed to test its assumptions so those that are not worthy fail—often and fast. This book builds on modern startup management techniques like Agile and Lean to bring an analytical and quantitative framework to the most common startup failures. Navigating through those failures means finding your way to startup success. Harlan T Beverly, PhD holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering, an MBA from UT Austin, and a PhD in Business from Oklahoma State University. Harlan teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also Assistant Director of the Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs at UT Austin, the world's first university business accelerator. Harlan has successfully launched five hardware and 15 software products including the Killer NIC, 2007 Network Product of the Year (CPU Magazine). He has raised over $30 million in venture financing in the challenging intersection of entertainment and technology.

Developing an entrepreneurial mindset StarDeveloping an entrepreneurial mindset Startup idea validation using the idea evaluator framework Documenting your startup value proposition Product development (Web Mobile app) Marketing, sales, post-sales Identifying the right teamtup idea validation using the idea evaluator framework Documenting your startup value proposition Product development (Web Mobile app) Marketing, sales, post-sales Identifying the right team

Welcome to the tech sector's world of innovation, strategy, and success. "IT Startup Success: From Idea to Launch" is designed to guide you through the complex landscape of creating and launching a technology startup. This book focuses on the critical steps, strategies, and tools for transforming a mere concept into a market-ready product. In the realm of IT startups, the journey from conception to realization is filled with challenges and opportunities. This book acknowledges the diversity of paths available to founders, including leveraging external resources, collaborations, and the latest technological tools to bring your vision to life. Whether navigating the early stages of ideation, wrestling with the intricacies of product development, or devising a go-to-market strategy, this guide is your companion through every phase. This guide is your companion through every phase. Get ready to transform your ideas into tangible solutions, unlock your entrepreneurial potential, and make your mark on the IT industry.