Startup Myths and Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School

Description

Budding entrepreneurs face a challenging road. The path is not made any easier by all the clichés they hear about how to make a startup succeed—from platitudes and conventional wisdom to downright contradictions. This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths—legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley—Rizwan Virk provides startup models—frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors readers in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life. In snappy prose with savvy pop-culture and real-world examples, Virk recasts entrepreneurship as a grand adventure. He points out the pitfalls that appear along the way and offers insights into how to avoid them, sharing the secrets of founding a startup, raising money, hiring and firing, when to enter a market and when to exit, and how to value a company. Virk combines lessons learned the hard way during his twenty-five years of founding, investing in, and advising startups with reflections from well-known venture capitalists and experts. His candid advice makes Startup Myths and Models an ideal guide for those readers just embarking on the startup life and those looking for their next adventure. Table of Contents List of Sidebars Introduction Stage 1: The Call to Adventure: Myths About Starting a Company Myth #1: Build a Billion-Dollar Company Myth #2: Founders Start Companies to Make a Lot of Money Myth #3: You Have to Be First to Market Bonus Myth #B-1: Start Something You Are Passionate About Stage 2: Fuel for the Journey: Myths About Raising Money Myth #4: A Great Product and a Big Market Are the Most Important Things Myth #5: Two Guys and a Business Are Better Than Two Guys and a Plan Myth #6: Talk to as Many Investors as You Can Myth #7: Take the Highest Valuation You Can Get Bonus Myth #B-2: Raise as Little (as Much) Money as Possible Stage 3: Travel Companions: Myths About Hiring and Management Myth #8: Hire the Most Experienced People You Can Find Myth #9: Get Out of the Way and Let People Do Their Jobs, or I Can Do It Faster Myself! Myth #10: Better Management Causes Faster Growth Bonus Myth #B-3: If I own X%, Then My Stock Is worth $x! Stage 4: The Road of Trials: Myths About Going to Market Myth #11: Focus, Focus, Focus Myth #12: My Product Failed Because My Sales Guy Sucks Myth #13: If Only We Could Spend More on Marketing! Myth #14: Fail Fast, Pivot Quickly Bonus Myth #B-4: There Is No Such Thing as Bad Publicity Stage 5: Acquiring the Treasure: Myths About Exiting Your Company Myth #15: At This Rate, My Startup Will Be Worth Twice as Much Tomorrow! Myth #16: They’re Buying Us Because Our Product is Awesome! Myth #17: The Best Way to Cash Out Is to Sell or Go Public Bonus Myth #B-5: Upfront Cash Is Better than Stock or an Earnout Stage 6: The Underworld and the Return: Myths About Life and Death in a Startup Myth #18: Startups Are Hard Work Myth #19: Whew, I’m Glad That’s Over! No More Startups for Me! Bonus Myth #B-6: If My Startup Fails, My Life Is Over! Bonus Myths Appendix A: The Startup Market Lifecycle and Curves Appendix B: Meet Our Cast of Characters and Startups Acknowledgments About the Author Index