in 111 Books in 2011

#58/111: Startup from the Ground Up

What is it about?

Cynthia Kocialski writes about starting a startup from the idea to the exit. She focuses on venture-backed tech startups.

What can I learn?

Hire college students: This is a great source for hiring people. They are mostly open to new experiences and eager to learn and try new things. Furthermore, they are affordable.

Your Team is king: Angel investors bet often on the jockey (team) instead of on the horse (product). Why? One great example is the team behind PayPal. They started of building a payment and cryptography product for the Palm. Today you know PayPal as a service for online payments. The successfully transformed their company.

Conclusion

I found this book a bit weak and short. You have to consider that it is focused on venture-backed startups. But would you just read such a short book if you are going to have $500k – $5m in founding? Probably not. If you’re interested in this topic, I would recommend start reading The Art of Start by Guy Kawasaki.

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