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.

Everything You Need to Start and Succeed in Your Own Venture Trevor Blake built three successful startups and sold them for more than $300 million. Now he’s written a complete instruction manual that covers everything the budding entrepreneur or existing business owner needs to know to build the career or business of their dreams. Unlike the many theoretical guides out there, this is a practical handbook based on Blake’s wildly successful in-the-trenches experience. It incorporates leading-edge strategies that cover every aspect of running a business — including funding, developing systems, and marketing. Blake presents in-depth insight into managing effectively, maintaining cash flow, and adapting to the changing needs of customers in volatile economic times. One of his most innovative contributions is an emphasis on cultivating the right mindset, and he tells you exactly how to do that. “The secret to success isn’t in the plan,” he writes. “It’s in the person holding it.” His proven methods will give you the confidence to take the entrepreneurial leap and turn your winning idea into an efficient, profitable company.

Der wirtschaftliche Einfluß schnell wachsender Unternehmensneugründungen wächst zunehmend. Das Know-how erfolgreicher Unternehmensgründer wird somit zum Schlüsselfaktor des Unternehmenserfolgs. Dieses Buch bietet einen anwendungsorientierten Leitfaden für die erfolgreiche Gründung eines eigenen Unternehmens. Es basiert auf einer erstmals durchgeführten Interviewstudie mit Firmengründern und Aufsichtsratsvorsitzenden (Chief Executive Officers; CEOs) der erfolgreichsten High-Tech-Start-ups in Silicon Valley und Massachusetts sowie mit Risikokapitalgebern, Investmentbankern, Rechtsanwälten und Technikern. (The economic impact of high-growth startups is steadily increasing. Against this background knowledge regarding new venture creation is one of the key factors for success. This book presents hands-on lessons for starting, building and growing a successful company. The research is based on more than one hundred interviews with the founders and chief executive officers of America ́s most successful high-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley and Massachusetts as well as venture capitalists, investment bankers, lawyers and technologists involved.)

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

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.

Thousands of entrepreneurs aspire to start and build companies that disrupt markets and transform the business landscape. Most start with a novel idea, assemble a team of founders, fashion a business model, and begin the long road to raise funds. Unfortunately, 95% of startups fail or dramatically miss expectations. However, industry analysts, advisors and investors agree that great execution maximizes the likelihood of success. After serving as an executive for five different startups, Silicon Valley advisor Sam Wong can provide unique execution guidance for founders, entrepreneurs and leaders. 21 Secrets of Successful Startups draws upon the battle scars of 30 years of victories and defeats to present actionable advice, guidance, and frameworks spanning numerous topics related to startup execution, fundraising, talent and lifestyle. Whether you are thinking of launching a company or are currently working to grow, fund, and scale your startup, 21 Secrets of Successful Startups provides a playbook to build your startup and achieve success.