Best start-up books
Posted: December 9, 2011 Filed under: Startup thoughts | Tags: book, entrepreneur, Facebook, founder, idea, lean startup, startup, Stephen Kaufer, Steve Wozniak 7 Comments »
Just like watching TV with popcorn in hand won’t make you a Hollywood actor so reading books won’t make you a good entrepreneur. But it can certainly make you smarter and help avoid the most common pitfalls that everyone including the smartest is susceptible to. Amongst the plethora of books on start-ups and entrepreneurship, we though the following titles are particularly worth reading and learning from, each of them for a specific reason. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list though, or a list of technical or industry specific literature; rather, this is our personal take on what’s worth your time if you are thinking about your own business or are already running one.
When to start your own business? The answer is yesterday.
Posted: November 23, 2011 Filed under: Startup thoughts | Tags: business plan, founder, idea, network, startup 10 Comments »
Because of my dual venture capital and entrepreneurship background, folks often ask me when the right time to start your own business is, and my answer to that is yesterday. Maybe it’s partly the difference between the Old Continent and the US (I will post on that separately), but in Europe common wisdom says that in order to do a startup, you need a fantastic business idea, an excellent team ready to execute flawlessly on that fantastic idea, capital to make happen that fantastic idea which is being executed by your excellent team, a gaping market hole that’s just waiting for you to pour in some cash and have your excellent team drive home on that fantastic idea, and the list goes on and on. It all makes sense, right? Well, that’s bull-shiitake (© Guy Kawasaki).
