The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

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Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson

"An engaging guide to excelling in today's venture capital arenaBeginning in 2005, Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, managing directors at Foundry Group, wrote a long series of blog posts describing all the parts of a typical venture capital Term Sheet: a document which outlines key financial and other terms of a proposed investment. Since this time, they've seen the series used as the basis for a number of college courses, and have been thanked by thousands of people who have used the information to gain a better understanding of the venture capital field.Drawn from the past work Feld and Mendelson have written about in their blog and augmented with newer material, Venture Capital Financings puts this discipline in perspective and lays out the strategies that allow entrepreneurs to excel in their start-up companies. Page by page, this book discusses all facets of the venture capital fundraising process. Along the way, Feld and Mendelson touch on everything from how valuations are set to what externalities venture capitalists face that factor into entrepreneurs' businesses. Includes a breakdown analysis of the mechanics of a Term Sheet and the tactics needed to negotiate Details the different stages of the venture capital process, from starting a venture and seeing it through to the later stages Explores the entire venture capital ecosystem including those who invest in venture capitalist Contain standard documents that are used in these transactions Written by two highly regarded experts in the world of venture capital The venture capital arena is a complex and competitive place, but with this book as your guide, you'll discover what it takes to make your way through it"--

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William D. Bygrave

Sixty-million years ago dinosaurs were driven to extinction by global climatic changes, making way, in the process, for the small, more adaptable, warm-blooded mammals. Similarly, in the new economic climate of the 1980s and '90s, small business owners and entrepreneurs are quickly becoming the dominant business species. While the floundering corporate giants continue to lay off workers at a rate of 400,000 annually, small businesses create millions of new jobs each year - a trend, most experts agree, that will continue well into the 21st century. In The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, you'll find out how top business schools are preparing students to meet the challenges of the entrepreneurial-driven business climate of the 1990s and beyond. William Bygrave, a successful entrepreneur and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College, has brought together an all-star team of thinkers and doers to offer both established and aspiring entrepreneurs this comprehensive, highly practical guide. They include professors, consultants, and entrepreneurs - most of them successful business people, in addition to being first-class academics. Over the course of fourteen chapters, these experts cover all the angles, including how to tell if you've got the "right stuff" to be a success; start-up strategies; spotting market opportunities, marketing, and advertising; getting financing and managing debt; preparing business plans; managing a growing business and strategies for growth; legal and tax issues every small business person and entrepreneur should know; protecting intellectual property; and much more. Amazingly, while The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship brings you the collective wisdom of some of the top guns in the academic and business worlds, it requires no background or academic prerequisites. Featuring solid, substantive information written in an interesting and engaging style, this book is your golden opportunity to get a state-of-the-art education in entrepreneurship in your spare time and at a tiny fraction of the cost of an MBA program.

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Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n.

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David E. Rye, Craig R. Hickman

You've just made one of the most dramatic decisions of your life. After being "downsized" out of your executive-level position, you've decided to leave the corporate world for good and start your own company. Your mission: find a business venture under $250,000 that will replace your lost corporate income and provide for your retirement. If you succeed, your new startup could emerge as a huge success where you would stand to gain more job satisfaction than you've ever experienced in your working life. If you fail, your limited personal funds will be exhausted and you may have to go back to a dreaded corporate job - at a fraction of your former pay. Here's the book that challenges your savvy, your judgment, and your nerve. You'll hammer out the sequence of tough decisions that an entrepreneur must make - and face the often unforeseen consequences that each choice triggers. As you assume control of your new company, you meet clients, customers, and business associates who are determined to influence your every move. You must carefully weigh their advice and arguments. Whatever decisions you make, there will be consequences that demand further analysis and action. You will be required to make tough choices involving finance, the competition, strategic alliances, market share, and your own personal desires. Each decision can take you one step closer to triumphant success - or plunge you and your company into disaster. Whether you succeed or fail in your first attempts as entrepreneur and business owner, the best is yet to come. Starting Up's unique "what if" approach lets you replay your choices to explore different outcomes. In all, you'll find more than 100 decision points and 25 different outcomes, for hour after hour of provocative reading. Part razor-sharp business manual, part adventure novel, this always-entertaining book provides expert insight into the real-world problems and challenges faced by today's entrepreneurs. It gives you a fascinating way to sharpen your practical knowledge while giving you a real-life view into one of today's most exciting opportunities: starting and running your own business.