Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Startup Blueprint: 7 Skills For Founders, Builders & Leaders
    Startup Blueprint: 7 Skills For Founders, Builders & Leaders
    Startup Blueprint: 7 Skills For Founders, Builders & Leaders
    Ebook154 pages2 hours

    Startup Blueprint: 7 Skills For Founders, Builders & Leaders

    By Robert Andrews

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Can you feel it? Something is stirring. It’s an awakening. Around the world, people are becoming their own boss, chasing their dream, scratching an itch, building a team, creating wealth, forging the future, defining the new, leading the way. 

    It’s called the startup explosion, and it’s getting hotter. But how can anyone learn how to kickstart a great business when everything is moving so fast, and when founders are busy competing, rather than lending a hand? 

    If you are thinking of joining the ranks of the new startup creators, if you are already working away at building the next big business, of if you are simply fascinated by how the new breed of entrepreneur carefully nurtures a business in the 21st century, Startup Blueprint is for you. 

    In Startup Blueprint, you will find the inspiration you need to ignite your business. Through the stories of fellow founders who have been there, have endured torrid times and have built successful companies, you will learn seven key - and sometimes unconventional - skills that will help you start, manage and grow a business. 

    By meeting Startup Blueprint's entrepreneurs, you will learn how to: 
    - be more persuasive 
    - maximise your opportunities ten-fold 
    - be a better leader 
    - put a price on yourself 
    - become an inspirational manager 
    - bounce back from failure 
    - iterate on the route to success

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Andrews
    Release dateOct 15, 2015
    ISBN9781517464417
    Startup Blueprint: 7 Skills For Founders, Builders & Leaders

    Related to Startup Blueprint

    Related ebooks

    Leadership For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for Startup Blueprint

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Startup Blueprint - Robert Andrews

      Introduction

      Can you feel it? Something is stirring. It’s an awakening. Around the world, people are becoming their own boss, chasing their dream, scratching an itch, building a team, creating wealth, forging the future, defining the new, leading the way.

      It’s called the startup explosion, and it’s getting hotter. More than 400,000 new businesses were created in the US[1] alone last year. Across in the UK, entrepreneurs created more than two million startups in the last four years. And, in the developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, startups are being created even faster than in the west.

      Like many things in life these days, we can thank technology for this growth. Today, the building blocks for creating new services and products have become so cheap, ubiquitous and easy to use, it’s no wonder so many people are starting up.

      According to a recent survey by Bentley University, Massachusetts, only 13% of millennials say their career goal involves climbing the corporate ladder[2] of seniority. By contrast, an overwhelming 67% said their plans involve starting their own business.

      And why not? Compared with the nine-to-five, rat race economy in which nobody’s job seems safe anymore, running your own business is increasingly attractive, and has many advantages - like freedom, control, satisfaction, flexibility fame, and potential wealth. Not forgetting contentment, of course - business owners are the happiest workers on the planet, according to Babson College’s Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

      Startups exist in a fast-moving world where a good idea can save the day and potentially develop into an intense adventure with a lucrative return. It’s a playing field that rewards the innovative and energetic (and ingenious) among us. Who wouldn’t want to, for at least a while, be part of that scene? - Forbes[3]

      Maybe you are thinking of joining the ranks of the new startup creators. Maybe you are already a paid-up member of the founders’ club, working away at building the next big business. Or perhaps you are simply fascinated by how the new breed of entrepreneur carefully nurtures a business in the 21st century. If so, this book is for you.

      Startup skills gap

      There is one hump in the road to startup heaven - forming, running and growing a business is not as easy as it’s often cracked up to be. Technology may now be cheap, but the acumen to start and scale a fledgling company is as expensive as ever.

      Don’t let this put you off starting, but your chance of creating a unicorn (the latest lingo for a startup valued at $1 billion or greater) is miniscule. In fact, more than 90% of all startups will simply wither and die, according to an analysis of 3,200 such firms by Startup Genome Project.

      I STILL get feedback that Euro entrepreneurs don't share enough info between them. People - please change this. Don't be closed. – Mike Butcher, editor at large, TechCrunch[4]

      A byproduct of so many new businesses coming to market is a consequential influx of inexperienced founders. Forming and growing a company is like raising a child - it is hard as hell, there is no instruction manual and, most days, you feel like you are simply winging it.

      It does not help that, too often, founders are so reluctant to share their learnings and experiences with their peers and with the next generation of entrepreneur. In the age of online sharing, how can company bosses become successful strategic leaders when rivals are so busy keeping secrets? How does anyone learn how to be an entrepreneur?

      Learning to act

      That is a question I have often asked myself in my own career. As a journalist, editor and analyst who has documented the evolution of technology and digital media industries and companies over the last 20 years, I have interviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of executives and founders.

      I have sipped cocktails with YouTube’s co-founder on a rooftop in Cannes. I have charted the story of the close-knit founders of the music service Last.fm, and I told the world about an amazing new tool for designing tablet magazines - a path which set it on an acquisition to Apple, no less.

      Not all startup stories are so pretty. For instance, I have asked difficult, direct questions of founders of companies like Netflix, Spinvox and Joost when their firms were on the ropes or had already gone belly-up. My prize for asking an under-pressure venture capital investor about the disappointing opening performance of his portfolio company’s shares was a verbal assault that will stay with me for a long time.

      Over the years, I have joined the dots, followed the money and asked the hard questions in our multi-billion dollar industry. But what is apparent now is that all this reporting and analysis, no matter how incisive, really amounts to external observation, peering in at the life of a company from the outside.

      I have gained a pretty good feel for the rhythm of growing technology companies - but I have never grown one myself. The sacrifices founders make, the challenges they face, they tough decisions they are confronted with, the daunting compulsion not just to start but to drive, to nurture, to lead and to make a success of their creation so as to reward their investors, their family and themselves for the sheer effort... these are not experiences I can draw on.

      Skills for growth

      And so I began to wonder – what does it does it take to be a startup founder, and can anyone do it? So I decided to do one of the things I know I can do well - simply, to ask the questions, and to write up the answers. I reached out to interview seven founders and CEOs of some of today’s most interesting startups - companies which I have met over the last year or two and which could be tomorrow’s giants of Wall Street - to uncover, learn and distil stories that can illuminate value for the rest of us. What do their experiences and beliefs tell us about the way you can better run your business?

      That is the purpose of this book - to open the door to your entrepreneurial dreams by answering questions like: What does it take to be a leader? How do you cope with setbacks? What characteristics does it take to succeed? And how do you bring other folks along for the ride?

      Whether you are a current startup founder building the next BuzzFeed or Uber, a future entrepreneur keen to learn vital skills or a startup executive eager to inject new thinking in to your business, this book aims to help.

      Startup Blueprint will shine a light on some of the best, most surprising tactics, tools and strategies for growing and driving a startup business, by telling unique stories of founders who either have already been there and done it, or who are going through some of the same business challenges right now. It aims to be a practical resource to fire the imagination and to inspire day-to-day decision-making for today’s generation of business creators.

      By sharing these stories, insights and advice, I hope you will find and apply new skills, approaches and outlooks that can grow your business dream.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1