Startups 101

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.

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."

Reasons Startups Fail: Descending trends before we can thoroughly search at step-by-step processes for survival, it's vital to comprehend the justifications for why new businesses fizzle. Research from CB Insights has distinguished the main 20 justifications for why new companies fall flat. Drawn from an investigation of the post-mortems of 101 new businesses, it offers a certifiable understanding of the difficulties looked at by new companies. The exploration shows that seldom is there one explanation for the disappointment - a blend of the accompanying elements influencing everything.

Buku ini berisi tentang prinsip dan hukum yang harus dimiliki seseorang yang ingin membangun startupnya sendiri. Berkaca dari pengalaman orang-orang yang sudah sukses membangun kerajaan bisnisnya seperti Jack Ma, Dave McClure, Diajeng Lestari, Ahmad Zaky, Natali Ardianto, dan para founder startup lainnya. Karena apa yang tertulis dalam buku ini based on true story dan memang buah perjalanan para founder- founder startup, membuat para pembaca merasakan semangat mereka sampai pada bacaan dalam buku ini. Betapa banyak alasan sangat tidak dibutuhkan ketika ingin maju dan sukses. Dari hal sederhana tersebut, biasanya akan muncul hal-hal yang luar biasa jika ditekuni dengan giat. Dalam buku ini dijelaskan dengan gamblang oleh para pendiri-pendiri startup dimulai dari latar belakang berdirinya startup mereka, sumber ide, tantangan dan prinsip-prinsip yang dipegang hingga berkembang pesat. Buku ini juga mengingatkan kita tentang keharusan menikmati proses, berpikiran yang luas dan memiliki growth mindset. Buku ini mengajarkan kita dalam merintis karier dan usaha, kesalahan adalah teman yang akrab dengan manusia. Semua orang hebat dan para founder pernah melakukan kesalahan. Kesalahan justru dapat menjadi batu loncatan menuju kesuksesan dan perbaikan. Buku #101 Laws of Successful Startup cocok sekali dibaca oleh siapapun yang ingin memulai sebuah usaha ataupun ingin mengembangkan usahanya. Banyak strategi dan prinsip-prinsip bisnis yang diajarkan oleh para founder. Tidakkah kisah para founder startup menggelitik diri kita? Bagaimana bisa, ada anak-anak muda seperti William Tanuwijaya (Tokopedia), Achmad Zaki (BukaLapak), Ferry Unardi (Traveloka), Diajeng Lestari (HijUP), Andrew Darwis (KasKus), Nadiem Makarim (GoJek), Ryan Gondokusumo (Sribu), membangun dan memimpin perusahaan startup yang meraksasa di usia yang masih belia?

There is no doubt that the proliferation of entrepreneurial activity is a current trend. Start-ups enable an effective transformation of knowledge, generating high added value to society. The objective of this book is to address the financing of the entrepreneurial process as a necessary element to articulate a solid business fabric, based on taking advantage of new opportunities. The book is structured in two parts. The first part takes as a reference the lack of financing in the entrepreneurship process and analyses different sources of financing available to entrepreneurs depending on the phase in which the project is located. The second part of the book analyses innovation and its links to the financing of start-ups, addressing the impact of emerging technologies and fintech services and the support of artificial intelligence. Finally, the book concludes with an examination of decentralized finance (DeFi), as an idea that is changing the financial world, giving rise to new financial paradigms.

Have a startup idea? Want to launch it fast? People often spend years on working on startup ideas that fail—and they could have known long before, had they asked the hard questions earlier. Five-time tech founder Dave Parker has been there, and in Trajectory: Startup he offers a path to get you from ideation to launch and revenue in just six months. With a track record of starting companies from scratch, raising both angel and venture capital, and participating in eight exits as founder, operator, and board member, Parker's experience is practical and actionable. Having sold three of his own startups and closed two, Parker learned just as much from his failures as from his successes, and he brings this wit and wisdom into his writing in a transparent way. Parker shares advice on: • What makes a good idea that makes money • Recruiting and working with cofounders • Asking customers what product they want (customer development) • How to build a tech product even as a non-tech founder • How to get out of your head, ship a product, and make your first sale Trajectory: Startup removes the mystery from the startup process and outlines a roadmap of tasks and timeframes, with monthly milestones and resources. This pre-accelerator program will help you get the momentum you need. Skip the Executive MBA and go make money! This guide makes starting a company accessible to a broad range of founders, investors, and employees who have the spark of innovation and drive to follow their dreams.

A riveting inside look at an elite unit within the Pentagon—the Defense Innovation Unit, also known as Unit X—whose mission is to bring Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge technology to America’s military: from the two men who launched the unit. A vast and largely unseen transformation of how war is fought as profound as the invention of gunpowder or advent of the nuclear age is occurring. Flying cars that can land like helicopters, artificial intelligence-powered drones that can fly into buildings and map their interiors, microsatellites that can see through clouds and monitor rogue missile sites—all these and more are becoming part of America’s DIU-fast-tracked arsenal. Until recently, the Pentagon was known for its uncomfortable relationship with Silicon Valley and for slow-moving processes that acted as a brake on innovation. Unit X was specifically designed as a bridge to Valley technologists that would accelerate bringing state of the art software and hardware to the battle space. Given authority to cut through red tape and function almost as a venture capital firm, Shah, Kirchhoff, and others in the Unit who came after were tasked particularly with meeting immediate military needs with technology from Valley startups rather than from so-called “primes”—behemoth companies like Lockheed, Raytheon, and Boeing. Taking us inside AI labs, drone workshops, and battle command centers—and, also, overseas to Ukraine’s frontlines—Shah and Kirchhoff paint a fascinating picture of what it takes to stay dominant in a fast-changing and often precarious geopolitical landscape. In an era when America’s chief rival, China, has ordered that all commercial firms within its borders make their research and technology available for military exploitation, strengthening the relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley was always advisable. Today, it is an urgent necessity.

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.