America’s Most Successful Startups: Lessons for Entrepreneurs

Description

Leaving school and standing at the threshold of the next stage in our life, through this study we have had the chance to take a glance at the 21 st century. We hope to be able to communicate some of those impressions to a wider audience through this book. For entrepreneurs, the book develops a series of concrete propositions which provide hands­ on lessons for creating a successful venture. Thus we hope that this book will be used again and again as an Entrepreneur's Handbook. If we have done our job well, it will soon be full of underlinings, marginal notations and highlighting. It is meant to provide useful advice for people like us, people who want to be entrepreneurs. The book documents empirical research bearing on the question of how to start, build and grow a successful venture. The research is based exclusively on interviews with America's most successful high-tech startups in Silicon Valley and Massachusetts. In these interviews we came across the most tremendous people, entrepreneurs of the 21 st century, first-tier venture capitalists, investment bankers, lawyers and technologists. People who will be driving the economy of tomorrow. Front Matter....Pages I-XIII Introduction....Pages 1-6 The Opportunities....Pages 7-19 The Homework....Pages 20-25 The Window of Opportunity....Pages 26-27 The Background of the Entrepreneur....Pages 28-29 The Founders....Pages 30-31 The Role of the Founder....Pages 32-37 The Ideal Startup....Pages 38-38 The Location....Pages 39-40 The Advisors....Pages 41-42 The Support Players....Pages 43-44 Intellectual Property....Pages 45-45 The Funding....Pages 46-65 The Culture....Pages 66-113 The Management Team....Pages 114-117 Technology and Market Orientation....Pages 118-119 The Flexibility....Pages 120-123 The Focus....Pages 124-126 The Execution....Pages 127-129 The Network....Pages 130-133 The Partners....Pages 134-136 The Game for Mindshare....Pages 137-139 The Breakthrough....Pages 140-140 The First Customers....Pages 141-143 The Competition....Pages 144-146 The Growth Management....Pages 147-152 The Motivation....Pages 153-153 The Doubts....Pages 154-154 The Sacrifices....Pages 155-155 The Qualities of an Entrepreneur....Pages 156-164 Summary....Pages 165-165 Appendix....Pages 166-167 Back Matter....Pages 168-170