A predictable pattern of success Entrepreneurs who have read early drafts of The Start-Up J Curve responded, ''I wish I had this book years ago.'' A start-up unfolds in a predictable pattern; the more aware entrepreneurs are of this pattern, the better able they will be to capitalize on it. Author Howard Love calls this pattern the start-up J Curve: The toughest part of the endeavor is the time between the actual start of a new business and when the product and model are firmly established. The Start-Up J Curve gives entrepreneurs the tools they need to get through the early challenges so they can reach the primary value creation that lies beyond. Love brings thirty-five years of start-up experience to this comprehensive guide to starting a business. He outlines the six predictable stages of start-up growth and details the activities that should be undertaken at each stage to ensure success and to avoid common pitfalls. Instead of feeling lost and confused after a setback, start-up founders and investors can anticipate the challenges, overcome the obstacles, and ride the curve to the top.

More than 90% of start-ups change their initial business plans and many start-ups fail. Often, this happens because their owners don't understand the start-up journey or its various phases. Entrepreneur Howard Love applies his 35 years of experience and numerous successful start-up runs to explaining the ups and downs and sometimes obscure rhythms of developing a successful business. With his grasp of crucial subtle details and his clear explication of the big picture, Love's advice proves easy to follow, comprehensive and practical. getAbstract recommends his guidance to anyone considering a start-up and to entrepreneurs in their company's early years.

Locate nations on the J Curve -- left for authoritarian, right for democratic. Then figure out how to force those on the left to open their societies, rather than encouraging them to shut them tighter by further isolating them. The West's isolation of Kim Jong-il's North Korea gives him the cover he needs to extend his brutal regime (the mistake the U.S. made for a long time with Saddam Hussein and Castro); in Saudi Arabia, western governments should encourage manageable change before the country breaks apart; they should help strengthen China's economy so it can further liberalize; they must encourage Israel to decide what kind of country it will be. Filled with imaginative and surprising examples of how to correct outworn political ideas, The J Curve points the way for western governments to lead the way to a realistic political balance and a healthier economic future.

Do we have the wrong map for the Christian life? Life's inconveniences, disappointments, and trials can leave us confused, cynical, and eventually bitter. But the apostle Paul traces out the path of dying and rising with Jesus—what Paul Miller calls the “J-Curve”—as the normal Christian life. The J-Curve maps the ups and downs of daily life onto the story of Jesus. It grounds our journeys not in some abstract idea but in union with Christ and his work of love. Understanding our lives in light of the J-Curve roots our hope, centers our love, and tethers our faith to Christ.

Building on the success of the author’s previous book Beyond the J Curve:Managing a Portfolio of Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds, this work covers new and additional material and offers advanced guidance on the practical questions faced by institutions when setting up and managing a successful private equity investment programme. Written from the practitioner’s viewpoint, the book offers private equity and venture capital professionals an advanced guide that will make high return targets more realistic and sustainable. Factors that can sometimes cause institutions to shy away from venture capital are the industry’s opaque track record, unclear valuations and risks, perceived lack of transparency as well as the significant entry barriers to overcome before tangible results show. These issues are all addressed in details with practical solutions to the problems. Among other topics J-Curve Exposure includes discussions of: Experiences with the adoption of the International Private Equity and Venture Capital Valuation Guidelines to address fair value under IFRS. Approaches for splitting and prioritizing distributions from private equity funds. Techniques for track record analysis and other tools to help limited partners in their due diligence. Approaches to dealing with uncertainty, the relevance of real options, and co-investments and side funds as advanced portfolio management techniques. Questions related to limited partner decision making fallacies and how to manage portfolios of VC funds. Securitization backed by portfolios of investments in private equity funds. Real life case studies illustrate the issues relevant for the practitioner.

In recent times, venture capital and private equity funds have become household names, but so far little has been written for the investors in such funds, the so-called limited partners. There is far more to the management of a portfolio of venture capital and private equity funds than usually perceived. Beyond the J Curve describes an innovative toolset for such limited partners to design and manage portfolios tailored to the dynamics of this market place, going far beyond the typical and often-simplistic recipe to 'go for top quartile funds'. Beyond the J Curve provides the answers to key questions, including: Why 'top-quartile' promises should be taken with a huge pinch of salt and what it takes to select superior fund managers? What do limited partners need to consider when designing and managing portfolios? How one can determine the funds' economic value to help addressing the questions of 'fair value' under IAS 39 and 'risk' under Basel II or Solvency II? Why is monitoring important, and how does a limited partner manage his portfolio? How the portfolio's returns can be improved through proper liquidity management and what to consider when over-committing? And, why uncertainty rather than risk is an issue and how a limited partner can address and benefit from the fast changing private equity environment? Beyond the J Curve takes the practitioner's view and offers private equity and venture capital professionals a comprehensive guide making high return targets more realistic and sustainable. This book is a must have for all parties involved in this market, as well as academic and students.

The world's foremost entrepreneurial coach shows you how to make a mindset shift that opens the door to explosive growth and limitless possibility--in your business and your life. Have you ever had a new idea or a goal that excites you... but not enough time to execute it? What about a goal you really want to accomplish...but can't because instead of taking action, you procrastinate? Do you feel like the only way things are going to get done is if you do them? But what if it wasn't that way? What if you had a team of people around you that helped you accomplish your goals (while you helped them accomplish theirs)? When we want something done, we've been trained to ask ourselves: "How can I do this?" Well, there is a better question to ask. One that unlocks a whole new world of ease and accomplishment. Expert coach Dan Sullivan knows the question we should ask instead: "Who can do this for me?" This may seem simple. And it is. But don't let the lack of complexity fool you. By mastering this question, you will quickly learn how billionaires and successful entrepreneurs like Dan build incredible businesses and personal freedom. This book will teach you how to make this essential paradigm-shift so you can: • Build a successful business effectively while not killing yourself • Immediately free-up 1,000+ hours of work that you shouldn't be doing anyway • Bypass the typical scarcity and decline of aging and other societal norms • Increase your vision in all areas of life and build teams of WHOs to support you in that vision • Never be limited in your goals and ambitions again • Expand your abundance of wealth, innovation, relationships, and joy • Build a life where everything you do is your choice--how you spend your time, how much money you make, the quality of your relationships, and the type of work you do Making this shift involves retraining your brain to stop limiting your potential based on what you solely can do and instead focus on the nearly infinite and endless connections between yourself and other people as well as the limitless transformation possible through those connections.