Startup 101: Introducing Our Serialized "How to Build a Startup" Book
This post is part of our ReadWriteStart channel, which is a resource and guide for first-time entrepreneurs and startups. The channel is sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark. To sign up for BizSpark, click here.
"Startup 101" is a serialized book about the thrills and spills of starting a Web technology venture. It will be a regular feature in our new channel ReadWriteStart, dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs. Startup 101 is for first-time entrepreneurs who want to go through the whole startup life cycle - including raising money, building a valuable business, and making a lot of money by selling the venture or taking it public.
The founding entrepreneur is the hero and primary reader of this how-to guide. Most of what we say will be well known to investors and advisers who support entrepreneurs, but we hope they also find some value here.
We really hope this will be helpful to the early employees who believe in the dream and do the actual hard work of making it real. They are often the apprentice entrepreneurs, learning the game before starting their own ventures. Or they may just want to understand the overall context faced by the owners, so that they can be more effective at their jobs. Not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur or has the characteristics of an entrepreneur, a subject we'll explore in the second chapter/post, "Are You an Entrepreneur?"
This series is designed for Web technology startups. But if you are building a clean tech, bio tech, outsourcing, hardware, or other type of technology venture, we hope some of Startup 101 will be useful to you, too.
We do assume that you want to build a large and valuable business in a relatively short amount of time. That normally involves raising money. In which case, you'll need to exit -- by either selling or doing an IPO -- within a few years. Startup 101 is designed for those "shoot for the moon," high-trajectory ventures. Some of the early posts/chapters will help you decide whether this really is what you want to do. It is certainly not for everyone.
We will also explore options for building smaller, slower-growth ventures, using less money and with less of a need to seek an early exit. Our aim is to help you think through what is right for you and your venture and then to build and execute a plan that is appropriate for that decision. The third chapter/post, "What Kind of Startup Do You Want to Be?," focuses on that decision.
This won't be a dry, academic tome. Nor will it give you all the details on every subject, which you can get from specialists. We will publish links to the most valuable resources of specialists. We also hope ReadWriteStart will become a forum for specialists to publish such detailed how-to guides themselves.
Startup 101 won't give you up-to-the-minute information about trends you can use at a tactical level, either. We hope you'll get those from our regular ReadWriteStart posts.
Our aim with Startup 101, rather, is to put this all in context for the very busy entrepreneur.
This is a serialized reference book. The posts and their comments will always live here at ReadWriteStart, and we hope entrepreneurs find them via search engines when they need specific advice. It is designed as a reference work that you can dip into at the right time. Advice is only useful when it is "just in time," so treat this as a reference. Sometimes seeing the whole journey laid out is useful, and that is why we are creating a book.
We'll try as much as possible to follow the chronology of a typical venture. So, the first chapter/post is "10 Things to Be Clear About Before You Start," and the final chapter/post is "Congratulations! What's Next?" (for when you've received the wire transfer and have started celebrating the sale of your venture). But we recognize that not every venture follows the same trajectory and that yours will follow its own order.
At the end, we will publish this as a book. We aim to publish both an online and print version. We will improve the chapters based on the comments we get. We also plan to be diligent in giving thanks to all who contribute to the book. You know the ritual in printed books where the author always apologizes to those he or she has neglected to thank? In the serialized web version, those people are never forgotten; they are immortalized in our comments.
The chapters/posts we have planned are as follows. In line with the iterative/agile model of the Web, we reserve the right to change the order and to add, delete, and alter chapters as we progress on this journey.
- 10 things to be clear about before you start
- Are you really an entrepreneur?
- How first-time entrepreneurs can work well with investors
- Creating your vision, mission, strategy, and plan
- Finding the right wave to ride (secular trends)
- Working booms and busts to your advantage (cyclical trends)
- Building your team pre-financing
- Building an advisory board
- Finding a URL and company name
- Company registration choices
- The Capital-Raising Ladder
- How to pitch to a VC or angel
- How not to get screwed by VCs
- Understand the scale vs. profitability trade-off
- Build an insanely great Web service
- Learn to negotiate and close
- How to be an effective CEO
- How to hire an A-Team
- How to fire non-performers
- How to hit your numbers
- How to build age-appropriate processes
- Three steps to building an online brand
- How to scale without losing your shirt
- Maintaining focus, health, and passion during the grind-it-out phase
- Planning your exit
- When and how founders should hire a professional CEO
- Congratulations! What's next?
Finally, the name. "Startup 101" is temporary... and hardly inspired. If you can think of a better name, please tell us in the comments. If we choose your suggestion, your name will go in the Forward in the published book.
Microsoft BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest
Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide
network of investors and incubators. Click here to apply.
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Comments
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Call it
From Start To Go - What You Need To Know To Make The Next Big Thing
Great idea. Looking forward to it!
This should be interesting.
Good luck.
How about:
So, you wanna retire at 25?
Can't wait.
Seems pretty extensice - Looking forward to it...
Sounds great! Looking forward to it.
Startup 101 is a great idea. I hope ReadWrite will join (free) the new Denver Startup Forum, let us know there each time there is a new post.
The Denver Startup Forum is an online community of practice for entrepreneurs and their advisors. We video speakers at our face-to-face meetings, make an audio recording of the follow up discussion, and then continue the discussion online with our members from around the world.
Join us at http://DenverStartupForum.ning.com
George Gendron, Editor in Chief of Inc Magazine said that The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses by Amar Bhide is, "the single most significant contribution to our understanding of entrepreneurship to date."
It is still available in Tattered Cover, Barnes & Noble, etc. But here's a tip: Bargain used copies are now available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Evolution-New-Businesses/dp/0195170318/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241573605&sr=1-1
hahahahah
So, you wanna retire at 25?
http://officialtech.com
So, where is the book?
startips
Thanks for all the kind words.
Acidace, the book is serialized. Which means we publish here. The next two "chapters" will post this week. After that it will be a weekly schedule. The best way to make sure you don't miss any is to sign up for the RSS feed or Newsletter for ReadWriteStart.
John, I will check out that book. I admire Amar Bhide's work. I plan to publish a list of favorite books on the subject. Maybe I will buy a 2nd hand one or being even more cheapskate, get from my local library (one of the best deals in America).
"Microsoft BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools"
I got a headache just reading that.
Seriously.
I think it's fantastic, I just wrote a blog about startup yesterday. The recession is great opportunity for entrepreneurs, keep up the goodwork RRW!
Here is my suggestion for name:
Startup Smarter
Looking forward to this!
Here's a title suggestion:
Ride the Rocket!
Killer advise from entrepreneurs who made their startup dreams reality.
Waiting for the next chapter...
Considering the focus of this blog, I like "App to Bootstrap" as a name, but since there are sections on procuring outside financing it's not entirely accurate...
This sounds like a great series. I hope you intend to cover how the entrepreneur matches the funding type (FF, angel, VC, strategic, loans) to the size of investment needed, stage of company, and the type of company. Some discussion of the mechanism of funding should also be included for FF and angels: convertible notes, common stock or preferred stock?
This is exactly what I have been looking for.
I am going to take this information apply it directly to a web startup and see how well it works.
The title should be a little more descriptive. I think two things are important - first that you're writing about web startups, and second that you're writing about them in 2009. So how about "ReadWriteWeb's Web Startup Book, 2009 edition". Or something like that. :) Another aspect of startups which is really interesting is the relationship with capital, particularly venture capital. A startup is an economic engine that needs fuel to run - and one's it's running it's an engine that can actually produce it's own fuel. Thermodynamically impossible, but definitely economically possible. The venture capitalists are the economic madmen looking for the next monetary perpetual motion machine! But like with so many things, I think you can waste a lot of time worrying about details. There are surely some tools that an entrepreneur can use - understanding term sheets, navigating the sometimes rocky legal waters of business ownership and being an employer. But the thing that they need is vision, energy, and above all simple...
Make sure you add the chapter:
"How to survive with a start-up during a long lasting recession."
My suggestions:
Start up Startup
The Startup Guide
ReadWriteStartup
This is a great idea! I look forward to following the serialisation.
Regarding the naming, there are a number of routes you can take:
1. Instruction manual. For example 'How to start a tech venture in 30 easy steps'
2. Coursebook. '30 days to launch your tech enterprise'
3. Management book (like Blue Ocean Strategy, The World is Flat etc). 'Day Zero'
4. Branded. 'ReadWriteStartRight'
You can, of course, combine and mashup some or all of the above.
I have to agree with Alex Guest. 'ReadWriteStartRight'. This series is just in time, I am building my first startup now and hope to follow the whole guide.
What about:
'Don't Forget the Toothbrush' The Startup Checklist
Overcome Premature Failure...In business!
Building Profits from Day dreams
'Lord, why did my business fail?'
Thanks for all the kind words.
for startup, the most difficult is to get financing, we can hel you with our China exim bank financing: http://www.china-power-contractor.cn/Government-finance.html
thanks for your sharing. it is interesting.
Hey !!
This is SUPERSTAR & ROCKSTAR !!!
I want to adopt you as my big brother.
Thank you very much for the powerful insight, advice & everything!
You enlighten my life !!
Jose G.
Can you/anyone help me to find the best reading on "Building an A Team"? I have a friend who has a problem relating to this title, and can't wait for the chapter to be written.
This CEO has 2 partners who are more of a pair of lead bookends, than contributors.
I've made recommendations, but he's too timid to call them to task or better still, hit the eject button them.
Hate to see him sink.
Gary, the beauty of doing a serialized book as I can listen to reader comments and make changes quickly. Consider it done. The next post in this series will be How To Hire The A Team. So we have switched around the chapter order. It should be up on Tues.
Actually, it sounds like he needs a chapter I have not yet written which is How To Fire Non-Performers.
These commenters' title suggestions are all terrible. "Startup 101" is fine. Great series so far, btw.
Start up 101 is a fine title. Cute is so boring and useless. The content matters most. Looking forward to your chapter on firing.
After several entrepreneurial start ups, I found that everything I had read lacked information on firing. As a woman, I tended more to the nurturing/gardening style, which was useful in many situations but could be disastrous without knowledge of when to draw the line. I found the two top executives I hired with dazzling resumes including Ivy league universities and world leading organizations were the worst for a small small business. Horrifically bad fit. I didn't have the knowledge to know how to cut my losses quickly. That wasn't in the management books I read. I just kept trying to solve unsolvable problems. So I will be eagerly looking forward to your chapter on firing.
Could you include a chapter on gender differences in management styles? There are some great women execs out there who could contribute mightily.
Thanks and good luck with the book project. Well done.
S.
I think it's fantastic, I just wrote a blog about startup yesterday. The recession is great opportunity for entrepreneurs, keep up the goodwork RRW!
Another aspect of startups which is really interesting is the relationship with capital, particularly venture capital.
where is the book?
http://www.loadnew.com
Great expertise. It there a way to download them in one pdf ? Thanks.
Subject to very good, but thank you very much for help
Great expertise. It there a way to download them in one pdf ? Thanks.
Great expertise. It there a way to download them in one pdf ? Thanks. have a nice days.
I think it's fantastic, I just wrote a blog about startup yesterday. The recession is great opportunity for entrepreneurs, keep up the goodwork RRW!
Have you guys thought of self-publishing ala Getting Real to make it available to people who like to read hard copy things. Could be an extra stream of revenue for you.
As a company that starts up businesses for people in Australia we see a lot of start ups.
It would be a fair call - at least in Australia - to say the tech ventures often are made up of individuals with the least experience and as a result, the highest failure rate.
Why? Usually it is an age issue. Younger, tech savvy people willing to take a risk. However, often it is simply a case that the entrepreneur lacks real world business experience.
Regardless, we are sure this resource will be of benefit.
The founding entrepreneur is the hero and primary reader of this how-to guide. Most of what we say will be well known to investors and advisers who support entrepreneurs, but we hope they also find some value here.
Great article, I wish I knew it earlier
I think it's fantastic, I just wrote a blog about startup yesterday. The recession is great opportunity for entrepreneurs, keep up the goodwork RRW!
Welcome idea.
How about Upstarting your Web Star up?
Lots of success for you, which means for us too.
Hi, thanks - do you have any more links for me ? E.G for european companys or esprecially germany ?
Great expertise. It there a way to download them in one pdf ? Thanks.
Hi, thanks - do you have any more links for me ? E.G for european companys or esprecially germany ?
Great expertise. It there a way to download them in one pdf ? Thanks.
It there a way to download them in one pdf ? Thanks.
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