Zero to Sold is a comprehensive and actionable guide through the four stages of a bootstrapped business: Preparation, Survival, Stability, and Growth. This is a book by me, Arvid Kahl. I am a software engineer turned entrepreneur turned writer. It’s a book about what I learned in over a decade, culminating in the successful sale of FeedbackPanda, an EdTech Software-as-a-Service business that I founded with my partner Danielle Simpson.
This Strategy e-book provides an overview of why startups are not smaller versions of large companies. It explains how startups search for a business model using Customer Development, and explains the overall customer development methodology, and key implementation steps. It is designed for founders, advisors, entrepreneurs and others curious about how the Customer Development process works. Many readers prefer to use the Strategy Guide along with either The Startup Owner’s Manual for Physical Channel Startups or The Startup Owner’s Manual for Web/Mobile Startups as they work to build a successful startup.
They say you shouldn’t ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn’t ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It’s a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little . As a matter of fact, it’s not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It’s your responsibility to find it and it’s worth doing right.
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.
In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don’t cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses.
Do you want to start a Tech Startup but have limited technical expertise? Or you interested in growing your startup? The 30 Day Startup examines the concept of building a minimum viable product (MVP) in 6 weeks for under $50,000.
Drawing on a wide range of real-life stories, Sinek weaves together a clear vision of what it truly takes to lead and inspire. This book is for anyone who wants to inspire others or who wants to find someone to inspire them.
How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It. if you really want to share your ideas, you have to find a way to build an audience, communicate your message, and inspire others to embrace your vision. Starting small is fine; Clark provides a step-by-step guide to help you leverage your existing networks, attract new people to your cause, and, ultimately, build a community around your ideas.
What are venture capitalists saying about your startup behind closed doors? And what can you do to influence that conversation? with Kupor’s firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.
The bestselling, award-winning classic on how maverick companies have passed up the growth treadmill to focus on greatness, now in a revised and updated tenth-anniversary edition.
The “work from home” phenomenon is thoroughly explored in this illuminating new book from bestselling 37signals founders Fried and Hansson, who point to the surging trend of employees working from home (and anywhere else) and explain the challenges and unexpected benefits. Most important, they show why – with a few controversial exceptions such as Yahoo — more businesses will want to promote this new model of getting things done.
Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly. The story of ideas that fly is the story of the people who embrace them, love them, adopt them, care about them and share them. Successful ideas are the ones that become meaningful to others—helping them to see what’s possible for them.
Rand Fishkin, the founder and former CEO of Moz, reveals how traditional Silicon Valley “wisdom” leads far too many startups astray, with the transparency and humor that his hundreds of thousands of blog readers have come to love.
In today’s world, there is a permanent advantage to becoming known in your field. Those who are known get the customers, the better jobs, and the invitations to exclusive opportunities. But can anybody become known? In this path-finding book, author Mark Schaefer provides a step-by-step plan followed by the most successful people in diverse careers like banking, education, real estate, construction, fashion, and more. With amazing case studies, dozens of exercises, and inspiring stories, KNOWN is the first book its kind, providing a path to personal business success in the digital age.
Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal. Bilton’s exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting—drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails—have enabled him to write an intimate portrait of fame, influence, and power. He also captures the zeitgeist and global influence of Twitter, which has been used to help overthrow governments in the Middle East and disrupt the very fabric of the way people communicate.
By cutting out the noise and providing a clear and proven plan, this roadmap helps even brand-new entrepreneurs make decisions quickly, get their product up for sale, and launch it to a crowd that is ready and waiting to buy.
What if the real key to a richer and more fulfilling career was not to create and scale a new start-up, but rather, to be able to work for yourself, determine your own hours, and become a (highly profitable) and sustainable company of one? Suppose the better—and smarter—solution is simply to remain small? This book explains how to do just that.
Our world is flooded by advice, ideas, and experts, but we shouldn’t make decisions based on “best practices.” Instead, we should do what works best for us, building careers and companies with the sort of clarity that leads to exceptional work. Only, first, we need to escape the endless cycle of stale approaches and trendy tactics that holds us back. We need to Break the Wheel.
Book Yourself Solid-now in paperback-is a complete instructional guide for starting and growing a successful service business. It gives you simple, yet effective techniques for creating relentless demand and endless leads. It includes more than 200 proven marketing strategies for attracting new clients, earning more referrals, and building profitable, long-lasting professional relationships. If you want to take your service business to the next level, start here and “Book Yourself Solid.
