Just finished reading this book. Basically, it's a series of short advices by mentors and entrepreneurs alike from Techstars - a mentorship-driven startup accelerator firm. Those of you who know me must be wondering what I have got to do with Entrepreneurship. True, the idea of me starting a company sounds pretty hilarious. But maybe I will end up working with one in near future. And in any case, it doesn't hurt to know about things. One never knows when such knowledge may come in handy.
Okay, so the book is divided into 7 parts - Idea & Vision, People, Execution, Product, Fundraising, Legal & Structure and Work-Life Balance (yeah right!). In 'Idea & Vision', we get to read about interesting (and might I say, sometimes counter-intuitive!) suggestions like entrepreneurs should not get too secretive about their ideas (because execution, and not ideas, are important), concentrate on one pain area of the users and treat it well, avoid the temptation of adding too many features at the beginning, iterate often so as to get an early feedback and of course, fail fast.
The 'People' section is rich with gems such as Hire people better than you, Hire slowly but fire quickly, have a co-founder. engage a mentor and build a balanced team. Dharmesh Shah's checklist for co-founders is very informative. I couldn't help but smile at the first item on Greg Gottesman's list for great startup culture - No Politics! :-) But the rest of his list is spot-on.
In 'Execution' section, the advice ranges from the obvious 'Do it faster' & 'Use your head, then trust your gut' to more thought-provoking 'It's Just Data' - which tells startups about how to deal with conflicting information - & 'Process equals Validated Learning' which means knowing so much about your target market and potential customers that you can achieve growth rates that others can only dream about. As far as 'Product' goes, emphasis is on things like getting your product to customers early but with regular updates, focusing only on things that help you make progress and paying attention to key metrics about your customers. It also has one really useful article on what precautions startups should take while dealing with the big companies.
'Fundraising' gives good tips on when to go for fund-raising and when to avoid it. The essays titled 'Beware Of Angel Investors Who Aren't' and 'Get Help With Your Term Sheet' are a must-read. No essay from 'Legal & Structure' section should be missed by startup founders. And essays from 'Work-Life Balance' reinforce what they have always been saying about all work and no play making Jack a dull boy! :-)
In a nutshell, if I ever think of starting a company in this life, I would have a well-thumbed copy of this book somewhere on my desk. :-)
Okay, so the book is divided into 7 parts - Idea & Vision, People, Execution, Product, Fundraising, Legal & Structure and Work-Life Balance (yeah right!). In 'Idea & Vision', we get to read about interesting (and might I say, sometimes counter-intuitive!) suggestions like entrepreneurs should not get too secretive about their ideas (because execution, and not ideas, are important), concentrate on one pain area of the users and treat it well, avoid the temptation of adding too many features at the beginning, iterate often so as to get an early feedback and of course, fail fast.
The 'People' section is rich with gems such as Hire people better than you, Hire slowly but fire quickly, have a co-founder. engage a mentor and build a balanced team. Dharmesh Shah's checklist for co-founders is very informative. I couldn't help but smile at the first item on Greg Gottesman's list for great startup culture - No Politics! :-) But the rest of his list is spot-on.
In 'Execution' section, the advice ranges from the obvious 'Do it faster' & 'Use your head, then trust your gut' to more thought-provoking 'It's Just Data' - which tells startups about how to deal with conflicting information - & 'Process equals Validated Learning' which means knowing so much about your target market and potential customers that you can achieve growth rates that others can only dream about. As far as 'Product' goes, emphasis is on things like getting your product to customers early but with regular updates, focusing only on things that help you make progress and paying attention to key metrics about your customers. It also has one really useful article on what precautions startups should take while dealing with the big companies.
'Fundraising' gives good tips on when to go for fund-raising and when to avoid it. The essays titled 'Beware Of Angel Investors Who Aren't' and 'Get Help With Your Term Sheet' are a must-read. No essay from 'Legal & Structure' section should be missed by startup founders. And essays from 'Work-Life Balance' reinforce what they have always been saying about all work and no play making Jack a dull boy! :-)
In a nutshell, if I ever think of starting a company in this life, I would have a well-thumbed copy of this book somewhere on my desk. :-)
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