Startup opportunities : know when to quit your day job / Brad Feld and Sean Wise.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Feld, Brad, author.

Wise, Sean, 1970- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

New business enterprises.

Entrepreneurship.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (203 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, 2017.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Start strong with essential early-stage guidance from the VC perspective Startup Opportunities is the go-to guide for anyone with a great business idea. Whether it's your first business or your fifth, realistic assessment from the outset can save you a lot of time and money; why pour your heart and soul into a venture that is doomed to fail? Instead, position yourself to win from the very beginning. In this book, accomplished venture capitalists share their insight on startups and entrepreneurs: who will fail, who will succeed and why, and what you should do to give your business the very best shot at becoming a global success story. You'll learn how to evaluate your business with a critical eye, and how early customer development can be key in turning a good idea into a great opportunity. If you're serious about building a business that lasts, this book provides invaluable guidance that you really cannot miss. More than five million people will launch a business this year, and many of them will be great ideas—yet few will be around in five years, and even fewer in ten years. A great idea is not enough to build a successful business. You need to fortify your idea with the proper foundation, and a scaffolding of good planning and early action. This book shows you how. Assess your business's viability using the 10x Rule Learn when you can quit your day job—or not Take the key steps to making your business succeed Discover the opportunities worth selling everything for This expert author team has witnessed more than 30,000 pitches over two decades, and have participated in over 500 startup launches. Startup Opportunities gives you the benefit of their experience to help you start strong and stay strong.

Contents:

Intro

Startup Opportunities

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Trust Me, Your Idea Is Worthless

Note

Chapter 1 What Is a Startup?

How to Use This Book

Who This Book Is For

Notes

Chapter 2 The Democratization of Startups

The Cost to Launch Is Approaching Zero

The World Is Flat

The Path Is Known

Access to Capital

Chapter 3 Opportunities

The Four Criteria for an Opportunity

What Is Opportunity Evaluation?

What Is the Cost of Poor Opportunity Evaluation?

Execution Trumps Opportunity

Risk, Uncertainty, and Ambiguity

The Issue of Bias

Chapter 4 Approaches to Opportunity Evaluation

Where Does Opportunity Evaluation Fit into the Overall Startup Process?

Overview of Business Model Generation

Overview of Customer Development and Lean Startup

Overview of the Disciplined Entrepreneur

A Modern Version of the Scientific Method

Chapter 5 People

Team

Working Full Time

Been There, Done That

Passion

Coachability

Ability to Attract Talent

Business Acumen

Domain Knowledge

Operational Experience

Mentors

Board of Directors/Advisors

Customers

Social Capital

Chapter 6 Pain

Compelling Unmet Need

Size

Durability and Timeliness

Chapter 7 Product

The 10× Rule

Rate of Adoption

Rogers' (1976) Diffusion of Innovations Theory

Intellectual Property

Key Asset Access

Proof of Concept-Selling Your Product in Advance of Making It

Gross Margins

Scalability

Chapter 8 Market

Market Stage

Product/Market Fit

Disruptive Innovation

Industry CAGR

Distribution Strength

Customer Acquisition Costs

Viral Marketing

Competition

The Goliath Paradox

Barriers to Entry

Government Regulations

Partnership Status

Knowing Why You Need to Raise Money

Notes.

Chapter 9 Plan

Time to Launch

Plan to Scale

Reasonable Not Right

Get Out of the Building

Plan B

Chapter 10 Pitch

Short Form (Under 10 Minutes)

Long Form (30 Minutes)

Business Plan-or Not

Executive Summary

Q&amp

A

Chapter 11 Raising Money

Building a Relationship with a Potential Investor

Who Makes the Ask?

Use of Proceeds

Raise the Least Amount of Money to Get to the Next Level

Ask for Money from the Right Kind of Investor

Raise Money When It's Available

You Aren't an Exception

Why Anything Other Than a Yes Is a No

Be Realistic about Your Valuation

Even Angels Have Investment Committees

Chapter 12 Pitfalls

Showstoppers and Red Herrings

Excessive Valuation

Taboo Businesses

No Skin in the Game

The No Asshole Rule

The Key Person Dependency

Drinking Your Own Kool-Aid

Chapter 13 Don't Quit Your Day Job If You Aren't . . .

Passionate about the Space

Able to Execute the Solution

Certain That the Problem Is a Need (as Opposed to a Want)

Certain That the Problem Is Shared by a Large (and Growing) Market

Able to Offer a Solution That Is 10× Better Than Anything Else in the Market

Ready to "Burn the Ships"

Able to Access Potential Customers

Able to Spend Six Months without Personal Income

Able to Garner Enough People, Users, and Money to Create a Minimum Viable Product

Prepared to Get into the Weeds and Do the Grunt Work

Glossary

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Index

Excerpt from Brad Feld's Venture Deals, Third Edition

Crowdfunding

Product Crowdfunding

Equity Crowdfunding

How Equity Crowdfunding Differs

EULA.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-119-37819-2

1-119-37817-6

OCLC:

987750213