Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup
352Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup
352Overview
It is a cold, hard fact of business life that most startups fail. Even many of those entrepreneurs who ultimately succeed have stories of personal challenges, unsuccessful companies, and difficulties along the way. The founders of TechStars, a mentorship-driven startup accelerator, have worked with entrepreneurs and companies over the past twenty-five years, and have seen a number of the same issues come up again and again.
In Do More Faster, the founders of TechStars identify the key issues that first-time entrepreneurs encounter, and offer proven advice from successful entrepreneurs who have worked with the TechStars program.
The authors organize the most critical issues into seven themes: Idea and Vision, People, Execution, Product, Fundraising, Legal and Structure, and Work and Life Balance. Many of the examples are personal experiences from the entrepreneurs themselves, integrated into a cohesive narrativewhile at the same time able to stand on their own. Throughout the book, they debunk numerous myths about startups and reveal some surprising truths. They explain, for instance, that the core of a startup is not always a world-changing and earth-shattering ideain fact, it is often the case that successful startups started out doing something else. They also underscore the efficiency of execution: great entrepreneurs know how to synthesize data, make a decision about the path they are going down, and execute. And they offer some alternatives to traditional ways of raising money, while stressing that you shouldn't start with the assumption that you need to raise money.
Mastering the seven themes may not ensure success, but understanding the issues, reading the stories, and getting advice pertaining to these issues will increase your chances dramatically. And if nothing else, you'll realize that you aren't alone in facing these challenges.
About the Author
BRAD FELD is a managing director of Foundry Group, an early stage venture capital firm. He has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty-five years.
Table of Contents
Foreword xiiiPreface xv
About Techstars xix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Do More Faster 3David Cohen
Chapter 2 Do or Do Not; There Is No Try 7Brad Feld
Theme One: Idea and Vision 9
Chapter 3 Trust Me, Your Idea Is Worthless 13Tim Ferriss
Chapter 4 Start with Your Passion 17Kevin Mann
Chapter 5 Look for the Pain 21Isaac Saldana
Chapter 6 Get Feedback Early 25Nate Abbott and Natty Zola
Chapter 7 Usage Is Like Oxygen for Ideas 29Matt Mullenweg
Chapter 8 Forget the Kitchen Sink 33David Cohen
Chapter 9 Find That One Thing They Love 37Darren Crystal
Chapter 10 Don’t Plan. Prototype! 39Greg Reinacker
Chapter 11 You Never Need Another Original Idea 43Niel Robertson
Chapter 12 Get It Out There 45Sean Corbett
Chapter 13 Avoid Tunnel Vision 49Bijan Sabet
Chapter 14 Focus 51Jared Polis
Chapter 15 Iterate Again 55Colin Angle
Chapter 16 Fail Fast 59Alex White
Chapter 17 Pull the Plug When You Know It’s Time 63Paul Berberian
Chapter 18 Love Doesn’t Scale, or Does It? 67Nicole Glaros
Chapter 19 Reconciling Vision and Focus 71David Cohen
Theme Two: People 73
Chapter 20 Be Open to Randomness 75David Cohen
Chapter 21 Entrepreneurship Is a Group Sport 79Mark O’Sullivan
Chapter 22 Avoid Cofounder Confl ict 83Dharmesh Shah
Chapter 23 Hire People Better than You 87Will Herman
Chapter 24 How to Find and Engage Mentors 91David Cohen
Chapter 25 Hire Slowly, Fire Quickly 99Matt Blumberg
Chapter 26 If You Can Quit, You Should 103Laura Fitton
Chapter 27 Build a Balanced Team 107Alex White
Chapter 28 Startups Seek Friends 111Micah Baldwin
Chapter 29 Engage Great Mentors 115Emily Olson
Chapter 30 The Mentor Manifesto 119David Cohen
Chapter 31 Define Your Culture 123Greg Gottesman
Chapter 32 Two Strikes and You Are Out 129Brad Feld
Chapter 33 Karma Matters 133Warren Katz
Theme Three: Working Effectively 137
Chapter 34 Assume That You’re Wrong 139Howard Diamond
Chapter 35 Make Decisions Quickly 143Ari Newman
Chapter 36 It’s Just Data 145Bill Warner
Chapter 37 Use Your Head, then Trust Your Gut 149Ryan McIntyre
Chapter 38 Progress Equals Validated Learning 153Eric Ries
Chapter 39 The Plural of Anecdote Is Not Data 157Brad Feld
Chapter 40 Don’t Suck at Email 161David Cohen
Chapter 41 Use What’s Free 165Jason Seats
Chapter 42 Be Tiny Until You Shouldn’t Be 169Jeffrey Powers
Chapter 43 Don’t Celebrate the Wrong Things 173Rob Johnson
Chapter 44 Be Specific 179Brad Feld
Chapter 45 Learn from Your Failures 181Fred Wilson
Chapter 46 Quality over Quantity 183Andy Smith
Chapter 47 Have a Bias Toward Action 187Ben Casnocha
Theme Four: Product 191
Chapter 48 Don’t Wait Until You Are Prouvéd of Your Product 193Ajay Kulkarni and Andy Cheung
Chapter 49 Find Your Whitespace 197Raj Aggarwal
Chapter 50 Focus on What Matters 201Dick Costolo
Chapter 51 Obsess over Metrics 203Dave McClure
Chapter 52 Avoid Distractions 205Andy Sack
Chapter 53 Know Your Customer 209Bill Flagg
Chapter 54 Beware the Big Companies 213Michael Zeisser
Chapter 55 Throw Things Away 215Eric Marcoullier
Chapter 56 Pivot 219Rob Hayes
Theme Five: Fundraising 221
Chapter 57 There’s More than One Way to Raise Money 223Brad Feld
Chapter 58 Beware of Angel Investors Who Aren’t 227David Cohen
Chapter 59 Don’t Forget about Bootstrapping 231David Brown
Chapter 60 You Don’t Have to Raise Money 235Joe Aigboboh and Jesse Tevelow
Chapter 61 Seed Investors Care about Three Things 239Jeff Clavier
Chapter 62 Practice Like You Play 243Alex White
Chapter 63 If You Want Money, Ask for Advice 247Nicole Glaros
Chapter 64 Show, Don’t Tell 251Brad Feld
Chapter 65 Turn the Knife after You Stick It In 253David Cohen
Chapter 66 Don’t Overoptimize on Valuations 257Kirk Holland
Chapter 67 Get Help with Your Term Sheet 261Jason Mendelson
Chapter 68 Focus on the First One-Third 265Brad Feld
Theme Six: Legal and Structure 267
Chapter 69 Choose the Right Company Structure 269Brad Feld
Chapter 70 Form the Company Early 273Brad Bernthal
Chapter 71 Default to Delaware 277Jon Taylor
Chapter 72 Lawyers Don’t Have to Be Expensive 279Michael Platt
Chapter 73 Vesting Is Good for You 283Jon Fox
Chapter 74 Your Brother-in-Law Is Probably Not the Right Corporate Lawyer 287Brad Feld
Chapter 75 To 83(b) or Not to 83(b), There Is No Question 291Matt Galligan
Theme Seven: Work–Life Harmony 295
Chapter 76 Discover Work–Life Harmony 297Brad Feld
Chapter 77 Practice Your Passion 301Eran Egozy
Chapter 78 Follow Your Heart 305Mark Solon
Chapter 79 Turn Work into Play 309Howard Lindzon
Chapter 80 Don’t Make Yourself Indispensable 313David Cohen
Chapter 81 Get Out from Behind Your Computer 315Seth Levine
Chapter 82 Stay Healthy 319Andy Smith
Chapter 83 Get Away from It All 323Amy Batchelor
Conclusion 327
Appendix 1: The Evolution of Techstars 331
Appendix 2: Original Edition’s Foreword 345
Appendix 3: Where Are the Techstars Companies Now? 349
About the Authors 355
Acknowledgments 357
Index 359