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| business mentors for startups: Mentoring Startups George Vukotich, Ph.d., George Vukotich Ph D, 2016-10-21 Mentoring Startups is a unique book. While there are many books on mentoring this is the only one that focuses on mentoring startups. With the growth in individuals starting and running their own companies the challenge of how to find mentors that can help has become a top priority. Unlike a corporate environment where programs are designed with timelines and assigned mentors, the startup world leaves the entrepreneur on their own to find the help and resources they need. This book goes into detail on both sides of the equation. It helps the mentee/entrepreneur understand what it takes to find the right kind of mentor at the right time and it also helps the potential mentor understand how to use the skills they have developed to help the entrepreneur. For mentors having skills is one thing, being able to use them effectively is another Bringing both the mentor and mentee together so they can have an effective relationship is the key to success. This book looks at how to find the right mentor, how to get the relationship off to a good start, and what to do if things get off-track. It provides a number of tools to keep the relationship focused and gives guidance on what to do when. It is a resource to use on an ongoing basis to keep the relationship progressing forward. George Vukotich, Ph.D. works with startups and the incubators and accelerators that help them become more successful. After a successful career in larger organizations including; IBM, Accenture, and BP he moved into higher education where he developed an interest in disruption and innovation which led him to the startup world. As the Senior Vice-President of 1871 he built the programs that were responsible for it being recognized as the #1 incubator in the U.S. His work included the design of mentoring programs and the recruiting and development of over 500 mentors in a wide range of areas that gave the 400 plus member companies the guidance and direction they needed. His work also included the design of the overall education process, workshops, and networking. He is frequently contacted by incubators from around the world for his expertise and is often referred to as; The man behind making 1871 run. He is on the advisory board of a number of companies and works to help improve the startup eco-system. Feel free to reach out to George at his LinkedIn link: https: //www.linkedin.com/in/georgevukotich |
| business mentors for startups: The Mentee's Guide Lois J. Zachary, Lory A. Fischler, 2009-07-01 PRAISE FOR THE MENTEE'S GUIDE The Mentee's Guide inspires and guides the potential mentee, provides new insights for the adventure in learning that lies ahead, and underscores my personal belief and experience that mentoring is circular. The mentor gains as much as the mentee in this evocative relationship. Lois Zachary's new book is a great gift. Frances Hesselbein, chairman and founding president, Leader to Leader Institute Whether you are the mentee or mentor, born or made for the role, you will gain much more from the relationship by practicing the fun and easy A-to-Z principles of The Mentee's Guide by the master of excellence, Lois Zachary. Ken Shelton, editor, Leadership Excellence With this deeply practical book filled with stories and useful exercises, Lois Zachary completes her groundbreaking trilogy on mentoring. Must-reading for those in search of a richer understanding of this deeply human relationship as well as anyone seeking a mentor, whether for new skills, job advancement, or deeper wisdom. Laurent A. Parks Daloz, senior fellow, the Whidbey Institute, and author, Mentor: Guiding the Journey of Adult Learners |
| business mentors for startups: Lead Upwards Sarah E. Brown, 2022-05-03 In Lead Upwards: How Startup Joiners Can Impact New Ventures, Build Amazing Careers, and Inspire Great Teams, startup marketing leader Sarah E. Brown delivers an illuminating and accessible guide to maximizing your impact and delivering results in a startup leadership role. The author draws on over a decade of experience scaling SaaS companies as she explains how to prepare for, earn, and succeed in an executive role at a startup company. The book describes every step on the way to realizing your goals—and the goals of your startup—as you navigate the gap between a management role and the executive team. It covers what to do in your first 90 days, how to build and sustain a healthy team culture, and the art of communicating results to your leadership team and board. You’ll also learn: How to manage the challenges posed by leading a remote, distributed, or hybrid team Management strategies based on inclusive and diverse teambuilding, alignment with business objectives, and inspirational leadership Effective ways to level up your skills and stay current as your company grows A must-read book for current and aspiring executives at startup firms, Lead Upwards will also earn a place on the bookshelves of startup board members, founders, funders, and managers seeking a singularly insightful discussion of business leadership. |
| business mentors for startups: Venture Capital For Dummies Nicole Gravagna, Peter K. Adams, 2013-08-15 Secure venture capital? Easy. Getting a business up and running or pushing a brilliant product to the marketplace requires capital. For many entrepreneurs, a lack of start-up capital can be the single biggest roadblock to their dreams of success and fortune. Venture Capital For Dummies takes entrepreneurs step by step through the process of finding and securing venture capital for their own projects. Find and secure venture capital for your business Get your business up and running Push a product to the marketplace If you're an entrepreneur looking for hands-on guidance on how to secure capital for your business, the information in Venture Capital For Dummies gives you the edge you need to succeed. |
| business mentors for startups: Startup Communities Brad Feld, 2012-09-06 An essential guide to building supportive entrepreneurial communities Startup communities are popping up everywhere, from cities like Boulder to Boston and even in countries such as Iceland. These types of entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation and small business energy. Startup Communities documents the buzz, strategy, long-term perspective, and dynamics of building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other's talent, creativity, and support. Based on more than twenty years of Boulder-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist Brad Feld's experience in the field?as well as contributions from other innovative startup communities?this reliable resource skillfully explores what it takes to create an entrepreneurial community in any city, at any time. Along the way, it offers valuable insights into increasing the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improving access to entrepreneurial education, and much more. Details the four critical principles needed to form a sustainable startup community Perfect for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists seeking fresh ideas and new opportunities Written by Brad Feld, a thought-leader in this field who has been an early-stage investor and successful entrepreneur for more than twenty years Engaging and informative, this practical guide not only shows you how startup communities work, but it also shows you how to make them work anywhere in the world. |
| business mentors for startups: Disciplined Entrepreneurship Bill Aulet, 2013-08-12 24 Steps to Success! Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren’t born with something special – they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn: Why the “F” word – focus – is crucial to a startup’s success Common obstacles that entrepreneurs face – and how to overcome them How to use innovation to stand out in the crowd – it’s not just about technology Whether you’re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want. Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/ |
| business mentors for startups: Why Startups Fail Tom Eisenmann, 2021-03-30 If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success. |
| business mentors for startups: Do More Faster Brad Feld, David G. Cohen, 2010-10-01 Practical advice from some of today's top early stage investors and entrepreneurs TechStars is a mentorship-driven startup accelerator with operations in three U.S. cities. Once a year in each city, it funds about ten Internet startups with a small amount of capital and surrounds them with around fifty top Internet entrepreneurs and investors. Historically, about seventy-five percent of the companies that go through TechStars raise a meaningful amount of angel or venture capital. Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup is a collection of advice that comes from individuals who have passed through, or are part of, this proven program. Each vignette is an exploration of information often heard during the TechStars program and provides practical insights into early stage entrepreneurship. Contains seven sections, each focusing on a major theme within the TechStars program, including idea and vision, fundraising, legal and structure, and work/life balance Created by two highly regarded experts in the world of early stage investing Essays in each section come from the experienced author team as well as TechStar mentors, entrepreneurs, and founders of companies While you'll ultimately have to make your own decisions about what's right for your business, Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup can get your entrepreneurial endeavor headed in the right direction. |
| business mentors for startups: Start Up Nation Jeffrey Sloan, Richard Sloan, 2005 A guide to starting a profitable business includes advice, tips, and strategies for assessing one's tolerance for risk, taking advantage of one's skills, avoiding common mistakes, and focusing on what one loves to do. |
| business mentors for startups: Mentor to Millions Kevin Harrington, Mark Timm, 2022-11-01 Kevin Harrington, one of the original sharks of the TV hit Shark Tank, and serial entrepreneur Mark Timm take you on a journey that radically redefines what it means to truly succeed--at work, at home, and in every area of life. On one of the best days of his life as an entrepreneur, Mark Timm found himself sitting in his car at the end of his driveway. In just a minute he would go into the house and greet his wife and children. But as he basked in the success he'd just had, he also had to face a surprising realization: he didn't really want to go home. Mark knew that once he stepped into the happy chaos of his family, the euphoria of the day would evaporate. His work life and his home life might as well have been two different worlds. And at that moment, he acknowledged--as he puts it--that my businesses were getting my first and my best, while my family got my last and my least. Mentor to Millions charts Mark's journey from that pivotal moment to a whole new understanding of how work, life, and relationships can coexist and thrive together. His guide through this journey: his accomplished mentor, Kevin Harrington, one of the original sharks from Shark Tank, who shares amazing stories and imparts invaluable wisdom about how to win in business and in every area of life. This deeply personal, easy-to-follow book invites you to join Mark and Kevin on the journey. Every page pulls back the curtain on entrepreneurship at the highest level, revealing priceless business lessons--which lead to the biggest lesson of all: combining the best of business, family, and personal life. If you're succeeding in business, struggling, or just starting out, and want your life at home to be what you've always dreamed it can be, this is the lesson you need to learn: the most valuable business you'll ever own, work for, or be a part of isn't the business you go to every day, it's the one you go home to. |
| business mentors for startups: The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick, 2013-10-09 The Mom Test is a quick, practical guide that will save you time, money, and heartbreak. 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 . Talking to customers is one of the foundational skills of both Customer Development and Lean Startup. We all know we're supposed to do it, but nobody seems willing to admit that it's easy to screw up and hard to do right. This book is going to show you how customer conversations go wrong and how you can do better. |
| business mentors for startups: The Unfair Advantage Ash Ali, Hasan Kubba, 2022-06-07 The winner of the UK's Business Book of the Year Award for 2021, this is a groundbreaking exposé of the myths behind startup success and a blueprint for harnessing the things that really matter. What is the difference between a startup that makes it, and one that crashes and burns? Behind every story of success is an unfair advantage. But an Unfair Advantage is not just about your parents' wealth or who you know: anyone can have one. An Unfair Advantage is the element that gives you an edge over your competition. This groundbreaking book shows how to identify your own Unfair Advantages and apply them to any project. Drawing on over two decades of hands-on experience, Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba offer a unique framework for assessing your external circumstances in addition to your internal strengths. Hard work and grit aren't enough, so they explore the importance of money, intelligence, location, education, expertise, status, and luck in the journey to success. From starting your company, to gaining traction, raising funds, and growth hacking, The Unfair Advantage helps you look at yourself and find the ingredients you didn't realize you already had, to succeed in the cut-throat world of business. |
| business mentors for startups: Startup Myths and Models Rizwan Virk, 2020-06-02 Budding entrepreneurs face a challenging road. The path is not made any easier by all the clichés they hear about how to make a startup succeed—from platitudes and conventional wisdom to downright contradictions. This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths—legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley—Rizwan Virk provides startup models—frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors readers in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life. In snappy prose with savvy pop-culture and real-world examples, Virk recasts entrepreneurship as a grand adventure. He points out the pitfalls that appear along the way and offers insights into how to avoid them, sharing the secrets of founding a startup, raising money, hiring and firing, when to enter a market and when to exit, and how to value a company. Virk combines lessons learned the hard way during his twenty-five years of founding, investing in, and advising startups with reflections from well-known venture capitalists and experts. His candid advice makes Startup Myths and Models an ideal guide for those readers just embarking on the startup life and those looking for their next adventure. |
| business mentors for startups: Connecting the Dots John Chambers, Diane Brady, 2018-09-25 Silicon Valley visionary John Chambers shares the lessons that transformed a dyslexic kid from West Virginia into one of the world's best business leaders and turned a simple router company into a global tech titan. When Chambers joined Cisco in 1991, it was a company with 400 employees, a single product, and about $70 million in revenue. When he stepped down as CEO in 2015, he left a $47 billion tech giant that was the backbone of the internet and a leader in areas from cybersecurity to data center convergence. Along the way, he had acquired 180 companies and turned more than 10,000 employees into millionaires. Widely recognized as an innovator, an industry leader, and one of the world's best CEOs, Chambers has outlasted and outmaneuvered practically every rival that ever tried to take Cisco on--Nortel, Lucent, Alcatel, IBM, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard, to name a few. Now Chambers is sharing his unique strategies for winning in a digital world. From his early lessons and struggles with dyslexia in West Virginia to his bold bets and battles with some of the biggest names in tech, Chambers gives readers a playbook on how to act before the market shifts, tap customers for strategy, partner for growth, build teams, and disrupt themselves. He also adapted those lessons to transform government, helping global leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to create new models for growth. As CEO of JC2 Ventures, he's now investing in a new generation of game-changing startups by helping founders become great leaders and scale their companies. Connecting the Dots is destined to become a business classic, providing hard-won insights and critical tools to thrive during the accelerating disruption of the digital age. |
| business mentors for startups: Make Your Own Waves Louis Patler, Shaun TOMSON, 2016-07-01 Like the ocean, the marketplace constantly changes and today's cresting?reward?becomes tomorrow's crashing?risk. Even the best surfers fall, but they learn from their wipeouts and paddle back out again, knowing that with big waves come big opportunities. Innovation expert Louis Patler explores why 8 out of 10 business ventures fail and offers lessons learned from elite athletes that apply to business.?Before you venture out, take some advice from unlikely experts: Big Wave surfers who ride waves the size of a five-story office building using only a 9-foot piece of styrofoam. Like successful entrepreneurs, they must rely on preparation, planning, patience, and passion--and they relish a challenge. Packed with stories of innovators, entrepreneurs, and legends, Make Your Own Waves reveals 10 Surfer's Rules that will guide entrepreneurs and innovators including: Learn to swim--the basics set the stage for everything Get wet--you can't succeed if you stick to the shore Always look outside--watch for what's coming or you may miss a better opportunity Commit, charge, shred--you have to go all out to be all in Never turn your back on the ocean--always stay in touch with the marketplace and the customer Stay stoked--desire drives success Discover the do’s and don’ts for innovators and entrepreneurs that will lead you to success. |
| business mentors for startups: 21 Secrets of Successful Startups Sam Wong, 2019-04-01 Thousands of entrepreneurs aspire to start and build companies that disrupt markets and transform the business landscape. Most start with a novel idea, assemble a team of founders, fashion a business model, and begin the long road to raise funds. Unfortunately, 95% of startups fail or dramatically miss expectations. However, industry analysts, advisors and investors agree that great execution maximizes the likelihood of success. After serving as an executive for five different startups, Silicon Valley advisor Sam Wong can provide unique execution guidance for founders, entrepreneurs and leaders. 21 Secrets of Successful Startups draws upon the battle scars of 30 years of victories and defeats to present actionable advice, guidance, and frameworks spanning numerous topics related to startup execution, fundraising, talent and lifestyle. Whether you are thinking of launching a company or are currently working to grow, fund, and scale your startup, 21 Secrets of Successful Startups provides a playbook to build your startup and achieve success. |
| business mentors for startups: Venture Deals Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, 2011-07-05 An engaging guide to excelling in today's venture capital arena Beginning 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. |
| business mentors for startups: Startup Boards Brad Feld, Mahendra Ramsinghani, 2013-12-09 An essential guide to understanding the dynamics of a startup's board of directors Let's face it, as founders and entrepreneurs, you have a lot on your plate—getting to your minimum viable product, developing customer interaction, hiring team members, and managing the accounts/books. Sooner or later, you have a board of directors, three to five (or even seven) Type A personalities who seek your attention and at times will tell you what to do. While you might be hesitant to form a board, establishing an objective outside group is essential for startups, especially to keep you on track, call you out when you flail, and in some cases, save you from yourself. In Startup Boards, Brad Feld—a Boulder, Colorado-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist—shares his experience in this area by talking about the importance of having the right board members on your team and how to manage them well. Along the way, he shares valuable insights on various aspects of the board, including how they can support you, help you understand your startup's milestones and get to them faster, and hold you accountable. Details the process of choosing board members, including interviewing many people, checking references, and remembering that there should be no fear in rejecting a wrong fit Explores the importance of running great meetings, mixing social time with business time, and much more Recommends being a board member yourself at some other organization so you see the other side of the equation Engaging and informative, Startup Boards is a practical guide to one of the most important pieces of the startup puzzle. |
| business mentors for startups: The Green Bride Guide Kate Harrison, 2008-12-01 A beautiful and sustainable wedding for the environmentally conscious couple! For an original and actionable guide to creating your dream green wedding, The Green Bride Guide has everything eco-conscious couples need to make their big day a wonderful, and eco-friendly, celebration. Emphasizing elegance and individual taste on every budget, this has the essential environmental tips that cover all aspects of the big day and beyond because... every choice, at every stage of wedding planning, can make a difference. Covering topics like: Engagement Location Invitations Bridal party attire Flowers The ceremony The reception Gifts The honeymoon You can include just a few green elements in your decor or have a carbon-neutral wedding with local organic food and a peace silk dress, the choice is yours and you'll find the resources you need to pull it off with panache. The Green Bride Guide is an invaluable reference for anyone interested in planning an alegant, exciting, eco-friendly wedding. |
| business mentors for startups: Startup CEO Matt Blumberg, 2020-08-04 You’re only a startup CEO once. Do it well with Startup CEO, a master class in building a business. —Dick Costolo, Former CEO, Twitter Being a startup CEO is a job like no other: it’s difficult, risky, stressful, lonely, and often learned through trial and error. As a startup CEO seeing things for the first time, you’re likely to make mistakes, fail, get things wrong, and feel like you don’t have any control over outcomes. Author Matt Blumberg has been there, and in Startup CEO he shares his experience, mistakes, and lessons learned as he guided Return Path from a handful of employees and no revenues to over $100 million in revenues and 500 employees. Startup CEO is not a memoir of Return Path's 20-year journey but a thoughtful CEO-focused book that provides first-time CEOs with advice, tools, and approaches for the situations that startup CEOs will face. You'll learn: How to tell your story to new hires, investors, and customers for greater alignment How to create a values-based culture for speed and engagement How to create business and personal operating systems so that you can balance your life and grow your company at the same time How to develop, lead, and leverage your board of directors for greater impact How to ensure that your company is bought, not sold, when you exit Startup CEO is the field guide every CEO needs throughout the growth of their company. |
| business mentors for startups: Billions of Entrepreneurs Tarun Khanna, 2008-02-01 China and India are home to one-third of the world's population. And they're undergoing social and economic revolutions that are capturing the best minds--and money--of Western business. In Billions of Entrepreneurs, Tarun Khanna examines the entrepreneurial forces driving China's and India's trajectories of development. He shows where these trajectories overlap and complement one another--and where they diverge and compete. He also reveals how Western companies can participate in this development. Through intriguing comparisons, the author probes important differences between China and India in areas such as information and transparency, the roles of capital markets and talent, public and private property rights, social constraints on market forces, attitudes toward expatriates abroad and foreigners at home, entrepreneurial and corporate opportunities, and the importance of urban and rural communities. He explains how these differences will influence China's and India's future development, what the two countries can learn from each other, and how they will ultimately reshape business, politics, and society in the world around them. Engaging and incisive, this book is a critical resource for anyone working in China or India or planning to do business in these two countries. |
| business mentors for startups: The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, Revised Elaine Pofeldt, 2018-01-02 The self-employment revolution is here. Learn the latest pioneering tactics from real people who are bringing in $1 million a year on their own terms. Join the record number of people who have ended their dependence on traditional employment and embraced entrepreneurship as the ultimate way to control their futures. Determine when, where, and how much you work, and by what values. With up-to-date advice and more real-life success stories, this revised edition of The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business shows the latest strategies you can apply from everyday people who--on their own--are bringing in $1 million a year to live exactly how they want. |
| business mentors for startups: Smartups Rob Ryan, 2002 Ryan focuses on methods he has developed over the years for building a sustainable business that makes money. He shows how to turn an idea into real product. |
| business mentors for startups: Fundamentals of Software Startups Anh Nguyen-Duc, Jürgen Münch, Rafael Prikladnicki, Xiaofeng Wang, Pekka Abrahamsson, 2020-03-13 This book discusses important topics for engineering and managing software startups, such as how technical and business aspects are related, which complications may arise and how they can be dealt with. It also addresses the use of scientific, engineering, and managerial approaches to successfully develop software products in startup companies. The book covers a wide range of software startup phenomena, and includes the knowledge, skills, and capabilities required for startup product development; team capacity and team roles; technical debt; minimal viable products; startup metrics; common pitfalls and patterns observed; as well as lessons learned from startups in Finland, Norway, Brazil, Russia and USA. All results are based on empirical findings, and the claims are backed by evidence and concrete observations, measurements and experiments from qualitative and quantitative research, as is common in empirical software engineering. The book helps entrepreneurs and practitioners to become aware of various phenomena, challenges, and practices that occur in real-world startups, and provides insights based on sound research methodologies presented in a simple and easy-to-read manner. It also allows students in business and engineering programs to learn about the important engineering concepts and technical building blocks of a software startup. It is also suitable for researchers at different levels in areas such as software and systems engineering, or information systems who are studying advanced topics related to software business. |
| business mentors for startups: Pizza Pilgrims: Recipes from the Backstreets of Italy Thom Elliot, 2013-05-23 Incredible pizzas and authentic Italian recipes from street-foodie brothers who have taken London by storm. |
| business mentors for startups: Mentoring Programs That Work Jenn Labin, 2017-02-15 Amazing Benefits, Unique Risks A stellar mentor can change the trajectory of a career. And an enduring mentoring program can become an organization’s most powerful talent development tool. But fixing a “broken” mentoring program or developing a new program from scratch requires a unique process, not a standard training methodology. Over the course of her career, seasoned program development specialist Jenn Labin has encountered dozens of mentoring programs unable to stand the test of their organizations’ natural talent cycles. These programs applied a training methodology to a nontraining solution and were ineffective at best and poorly designed at worst. What’s needed is a solid planning framework developed from hands-on experimentation. And you’ll find it here. Mentoring Programs That Work is framed around Labin’s AXLES model—the first framework devoted to the unique challenges of a sustained learning process. This step-by-step approach will help you navigate the early phases of mentoring program alignment all the way through program launch and measurement. Whether your goal is to recruit and retain Millennials or deepen organizational commitment, it’s time to embrace mentoring as one of the most powerful tools of talent development. Mentoring Programs That Work will help your organization succeed by building mentoring programs that connect people and inspire learning transfer. |
| business mentors for startups: Late-Blooming Entrepreneurs Lynne Beverly Strang, 2014-03-14 A one-time flight attendant founds a cybersecurity business. A yoga instructor opens an organic mattress company. A former steel industry executive forms a limousine service. A retired nurse creates an international golf clothing line. Late-Blooming Entrepreneurs introduces these and other contemporary entrepreneurs who started prosperous businesses in their 40s, 50s and later. Just about all of them say they wouldn't have succeeded if they had started their companies when they were younger. This easy-to-read book shows why the second half of life can be the right time to start a business. It will deliver a healthy dose of inspiration and leave you with a belief that you're never too old to fulfill a dream. --Amazon. |
| business mentors for startups: Women as Global Leaders Faith Wambura Ngunjiri, Susan R. Madsen, 2015-02-01 Women as Global Leaders is the second volume in the new Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice book series published for the International Leadership Association by IAP. Global leadership is an emerging area of research, with only a small but growing published literature base. More specifically, the topic of women’s advances and adventures in leading within the global context is barely covered in the existing leadership literature. Although few women are serving in global leadership roles in corporate and non-profit arenas, and as heads of nations, that number is growing (e.g., Indira Nooyi at PepsiCo, Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook, Marissa Mayer at Yahoo, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president of Liberia, Angela Merkel as chancellor of Germany). The purpose of this volume is to provide the reader with current conceptualizations and theory related to women as global leaders, recent empirical investigations of the phenomenon, analysis of effective global leadership development programs, and portraits of women who lead, or have led, in a global role. The volume is divided into four sections. The first section covers the state of women as global leaders, containing chapters by Joyce Osland and Nancy Adler, pioneers in the field of global and/or women’s leadership. The second section describes approaches to women’s global leadership. The third section offers an analysis of programs that are useful in developing women as global leaders, with the final section profiling women as global leaders, including Margaret Thatcher, Nobel Laureate Malala Yousfazai, and Golda Meir. As Barbara Kellerman noted in the Foreword, this book... should be understood as a collection whose time has come, precisely because women now have opportunities to lead that are far more expansive than they were even in the recent past. Though their numbers remain low, they are able in some cases to exercise leadership not only as outsiders, but also as insiders, from the very positions of power and authority to which men forever have had access. |
| business mentors for startups: Creating Successful Mentoring Programs Catalyst, inc, 2002 A how to guide on mentoring programs. |
| business mentors for startups: The Lean Startup Eric Ries, 2011-09-13 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. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever. |
| business mentors for startups: The Fundable Startup Fred Haney, 2017-10-17 If you are the founder of a high-tech startup company, you know it’s a daunting task, and the odds of success are slim. All founders dream of achieving a rewarding outcome like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, but few reach such a pinnacle. In The Fundable Startup: How Disruptive Companies Attract Capital, Fred M. Haney, an experienced venture capitalist, angel investor, and company founder, explains startup strategies that will help you: Understand the thinking of investors Build a “virtual team” Create initial value in a product or prototype Recruit management that will help you raise capital The Fundable Startup contains eight personal interviews with executives and entrepreneurs that will change the way founders think about managing a startup company. Understand the thinking of investors Build a “virtual team” Create initial value in a product or prototype Recruit management that will help you raise capital The Fundable Startup contains eight personal interviews with executives and entrepreneurs that will change the way founders think about managing a startup company. |
| business mentors for startups: On Being a Mentor W. Brad Johnson, 2015-10-16 On Being a Mentor is the definitive guide to the art and science of engaging students and faculty in effective mentoring relationships in all academic disciplines. Written with pithy clarity and rooted in the latest research on developmental relationships in higher educational settings, this essential primer reviews the strategies, guidelines, and best practices for those who want to excel as mentors. Evidence-based advice on the rules of engagement for mentoring, mentor functions, qualities of good mentors, and methods for forming and managing these relationships are provided. Summaries of mentorship relationship phases and guidance for adhering to ethical principles are reviewed along with guidance about mentoring specific populations and those who differ from the mentor in terms of sex and race. Advice about managing problem mentorships, selecting and training mentors, and measuring mentorship outcomes and recommendations for department chairs and deans on how to foster a culture of excellent mentoring in an academic community is provided. Chalk full of illustrative case-vignettes, this book is the ideal training tool for mentoring workshops. Highlights of the new edition include: Introduces a new model for conceptualizing mentoring relationships in the context of the various relationships professors typically develop with students and faculty (ch. 2). Provides guidance for creating a successful mentoring culture and structure within a department or institution (ch. 16). Now includes questions for reflection and discussion and recommended readings at the end of each chapter for those who wish to delve deeper into the content. Best Practices sections highlight the key takeaway messages. The latest research on mentoring in higher education throughout. Part I introduces mentoring in academia and distinguishes mentoring from other types of relationships. The nuts and bolts of good mentoring from the qualities of those who succeed as mentors to the common behaviors of outstanding mentors are the focus of Part II. Guidance in establishing mentorships with students and faculty, the common phases of mentorship, and the ethical principles governing the mentoring enterprise is also provided. Part III addresses the unique issues and answers to successfully mentoring undergraduates, graduate students, and junior faculty members and considers skills required of faculty who mentor across gender and race. Part IV addresses management of dysfunctional mentorships and the documentation of mentorship outcomes. The book concludes with a chapter designed to encourage academic leaders to make high quality mentorship a salient part of the culture in their institutions. Ideal for faculty or career development seminars and teaching and learning centers in colleges and universities, this practical primer is appreciated by professors, department chairs, deans, and graduate students in colleges, universities, and professional schools in all academic fields including the social and behavioral sciences, education, natural sciences, humanities, and business, legal, and medical schools. |
| business mentors for startups: Startups Grow with People Ozan Dagdeviren, 2018-05-20 Startups can only grow with the right people decisions. This is a playbook for managing the most complex variable in a startup's success.Startups Grow With People makes good use of metaphors and real life examples for clarity. You will find lists, action plans and frameworks you can immediately start using in your own startup.Part One: How to Pick Partners will discuss when it is best to go at it solo and when it is best to partner-up; how to choose a co-founder; which indicators and warning signs to look for before making the handshake.Part Two: How to Recruit the Top Talent will tell about the most important principles of making the very first hires of the company. You will learn about all the stages of top level hiring, from the interview to drafting up an offer that will get a yes.Part Three: How to Build a Culture is based on the appreciation that as a company grows, culture becomes the main map of reference people use for their actions and decisions. Here, you will learn about the Universal Cultural Codes Startups Need, Actions-Rituals-Symbols-Stories, how to use them. You'll also get a Culture Shaping Toolbox!***The Author, Ozan Dagdeviren has studied sociology, psychology and marketing communications followed by holding people-related roles in large organizations. He's an entrepreneur and the founder of CommonWisdom.co.uk based in London. CommonWisdom helps growing startups with their people decisions & strategies. For early level startups, it provides go-to-market and customer acquisition strategies as well as mentoring to help them scale. |
| business mentors for startups: Startup Opportunities Sean Wise, Brad Feld, 2017-05-30 Start strong with essential early-stage guidance from the VC perspective Startup Opportunities is the go-to guide for anyone with a great business idea. Whether it's your first business or your fifth, realistic assessment from the outset can save you a lot of time and money; why pour your heart and soul into a venture that is doomed to fail? Instead, position yourself to win from the very beginning. In this book, accomplished venture capitalists share their insight on startups and entrepreneurs: who will fail, who will succeed and why, and what you should do to give your business the very best shot at becoming a global success story. You'll learn how to evaluate your business with a critical eye, and how early customer development can be key in turning a good idea into a great opportunity. If you're serious about building a business that lasts, this book provides invaluable guidance that you really cannot miss. More than five million people will launch a business this year, and many of them will be great ideas—yet few will be around in five years, and even fewer in ten years. A great idea is not enough to build a successful business. You need to fortify your idea with the proper foundation, and a scaffolding of good planning and early action. This book shows you how. Assess your business's viability using the 10x Rule Learn when you can quit your day job—or not Take the key steps to making your business succeed Discover the opportunities worth selling everything for This expert author team has witnessed more than 30,000 pitches over two decades, and have participated in over 500 startup launches. Startup Opportunities gives you the benefit of their experience to help you start strong and stay strong. |
| business mentors for startups: Accelerators Mike Wright, 2018 Accelerators are a rapidly growing new form of organization that aim to stimulate entrepreneurship through intensive, limited-period educational programs, including mentoring and networking for the cohort of start-up participants selected for each program, to improve their ability to attract investment at the end of the program. Drawing on novel evidence from across the world, this is the first book to provide rigorous analysis of the nature and effectiveness of accelerators that will be invaluable for researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurs. |
| business mentors for startups: Running Lean Ash Maurya, 2012-02-28 Offers a systematic approach to product/market fit, discussing customer involvment, optimal time to obtain funding, and when to change the plan. |
| business mentors for startups: Burn the Business Plan Carl J. Schramm, 2018-01-16 Business startup advice from the former president of the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation and cofounder of Global Entrepreneurship Week and StartUp America, this “thoughtful study of ‘how businesses really start, grow, and prosper’...dispels quite a few business myths along the way” (Publishers Weekly). Carl Schramm, the man described by The Economist as “The Evangelist of Entrepreneurship,” has written a myth-busting guide packed with tools and techniques to help you get your big idea off the ground. Schramm believes that entrepreneurship has been misrepresented by the media, business books, university programs, and MBA courses. For example, despite the emphasis on the business plan in most business schools, some of the most successful companies in history—Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and hundreds of others—achieved success before they ever had a business plan. Burn the Business Plan punctures the myth of the cool, tech-savvy twenty-something entrepreneur with nothing to lose and venture capital to burn. In fact most people who start businesses are juggling careers and mortgages just like you. The average entrepreneur is actually thirty-nine years old, and the success rate of entrepreneurs over forty is five times higher than that of those under age thirty. Entrepreneurs who come out of the corporate world often have discovered a need for a product or service and have valuable contacts to help them get started. Filled with stories of successful entrepreneurs who drew on real-life experience rather than academic coursework, Burn the Business Plan is the guide to starting and running a business that will actually work for the rest of us. |
| business mentors for startups: Product-Led Growth Bush Wes, 2019-05 Product-Led Growth is about helping your customers experience the ongoing value your product provides. It is a critical step in successful product design and this book shows you how it's done. - Nir Eyal, Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of Hooked |
| business mentors for startups: How to Validate Your Startup Business Idea Ravi Kikan, 2018-10-22 Many startups and entrepreneurs fail because they do not validate their startup business idea. I run some of the largest startup communities on LinkedIn. One of the largest communities that I moderate and engage on LinkedIn has around 300,000 global members including startups, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, mentors and global experts. With my own experience of working with many startups, entrepreneurs, corporates and my regular interactions with successful business ventures I have understood the importance of validating your startup business idea before launching your product or services in the market.In this book not only have I collected my thoughts and experiences for validating a business idea but I have reached out to many experts globally to understand how to validate a business idea before going all out and launching your own business. Who Is This Book For ? It is extremely important that you validate your startup business idea in the market if you are a wannabe entrepreneur, a student, homemaker, professional, expert or anyone who is trying to launch a startup business This is extremely important for you to understand this right from the ideation stage itself. Sometimes in the enlightenment of the business idea or in the haste of getting things done faster with shortcuts (Howsoever the idea might be great), we end up doing the following: 1. We forget the simple basics 2. We tend to overlook similar experiences 3. We do not take stable advises 4. We rush into getting things done faster 5. We often get misguided 6. We overlook readily available data 7. We sometimes ONLY look at money and not the business process 8. We don't validate things before going all out Why This Book? Time and again I have seen my friends, colleagues, students, awesome entrepreneurs, startups (including myself) getting into a new business without validating their startup business idea. This often has led to extremely disastrous and sometimes fatal outcomes. Lot of things get on stake when you risk getting into a new business e.g. you risk your time, money, resources, relationships, career etcNever hurry into things. Always validate things from a rational and practical perspective. This will give you depth, more understanding and a far clear picture of how, when,where and what to do while going ahead into a new ventureThis book is a step to overcome all those hassles and validate your awesome business idea. A huge thanks to all these awesome global experts,entrepreneurs who have also contributed their ideas with me on the topic: Tina Zurbi, Sandeep Balaji, Neeraj Saini, Praval Kant, Dr Aniruddha Malpani, Joseph Roos, Avigail Berg, Diana Palchik, Dr Rajeev Tewari, Patrick Osman, Tishana Simon, Dr Pranab Sen, Nitin Jain, Ed Zimmer, Andrea Sica, Zile Soilihi, Jeffrey Hilton, Guy Cleveland, Richard Coleness, Tabitha Jean Taylor, Andrew MacWhirter, Matt Kurleto, Daniel Leping I would also love to hear from you once you have read this book on your experiences and how you have dealt with validating your own startup business idea. If you still might have some doubts please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Scroll To The Top and Buy Now With Single Click and I Look Forward To Hearing From You. |
| business mentors for startups: The Tao of Startups James LaLonde, 2018-09-25 This book, The Tao of Startups: A guidebook for your entrepreneurial life (a step-by-step, how to guide for doing a successful startup) is the one book you need if you are considering doing, or in the process of doing, a startup. Face it. Odds-wise you have a much better chance of becoming a pro athlete than a successful startup entrepreneur. Internationally successful serial entrepreneur James LaLonde takes you through the key things you need to get right in the early days of your startup before you turn the next 5+ years of your life and your startup into a stress-laden nightmare. How to do all the things that most first-time entrepreneurs get wrong or ignore are here in this book: - How to select the right co-founders- How to build a winning Minimum Viable Product (MVP)- How to make a bulletproof pitch deck and then successfully use it to get VC funding also, a lot of essential information that has never been organized and gathered in one place is all here: - All the ways you can get funding without giving up precious equity to VCs- How to split the equity between co-founders to ensure its fair and won't end up being a point of contention that destroys your startup- How to set the valuation for your startup and how to get investors to accept it- How to get through all the investor meetings and the inevitable due diligence so you can get the investment you need to grow your business- and much more! The author, James LaLonde, is a sought-after speaker and startup mentor with 15 years of doing multiple startups in Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Beijing. In addition to his startup and investment activities, James serves as a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing (affiliated with Loyola University) and is a mentor for ChinaAccelerator, Stanford University Graduate School of Business and The Beijing Center. The materials contained in this book have perfected over years of the author's actual startup experience, thousands of hours of startup founder mentoring, hundreds of hours of presentations and university lectures to people who are planning to start companies. The book gives you everything you need to get you and your startup team and product launched and funded without any fluff or non-essential filler. The 8-minute presentation that formed the genesis of this book idea and subsequent university course is on YouTube. Feel free to have a look at the video before you buy to get a feel for the content: https: //youtu.be/3Goi2z-7bXQ |
BUSINESS | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
BUSINESS definition: 1. the activity of buying and selling goods and services: 2. a particular company that buys and….
VENTURE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
VENTURE definition: 1. a new activity, usually in business, that involves risk or uncertainty: 2. to risk going….
ENTERPRISE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
ENTERPRISE definition: 1. an organization, especially a business, or a difficult and important plan, especially one that….
INCUMBENT | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
INCUMBENT definition: 1. officially having the named position: 2. to be necessary for someone: 3. the person who has or….
AD HOC | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
AD HOC definition: 1. made or happening only for a particular purpose or need, not planned before it happens: 2. made….
LEVERAGE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
LEVERAGE definition: 1. the action or advantage of using a lever: 2. power to influence people and get the results you….
ENTREPRENEUR | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
ENTREPRENEUR definition: 1. someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity….
CULTIVATE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
CULTIVATE definition: 1. to prepare land and grow crops on it, or to grow a particular crop: 2. to try to develop and….
EQUITY | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
EQUITY definition: 1. the value of a company, divided into many equal parts owned by the shareholders, or one of the….
LIAISE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
LIAISE definition: 1. to speak to people in other organizations, etc. in order to work with them or exchange….
BUSINESS | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
BUSINESS definition: 1. the activity of buying and selling goods and services: 2. a particular company that buys and….
VENTURE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
VENTURE definition: 1. a new activity, usually in business, that involves risk or uncertainty: 2. to risk going….
ENTERPRISE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
ENTERPRISE definition: 1. an organization, especially a business, or a difficult and important plan, especially one that….
INCUMBENT | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
INCUMBENT definition: 1. officially having the named position: 2. to be necessary for someone: 3. the person who has or….
AD HOC | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
AD HOC definition: 1. made or happening only for a particular purpose or need, not planned before it happens: 2. made….
LEVERAGE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
LEVERAGE definition: 1. the action or advantage of using a lever: 2. power to influence people and get the results you….
ENTREPRENEUR | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
ENTREPRENEUR definition: 1. someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity….
CULTIVATE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
CULTIVATE definition: 1. to prepare land and grow crops on it, or to grow a particular crop: 2. to try to develop and….
EQUITY | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
EQUITY definition: 1. the value of a company, divided into many equal parts owned by the shareholders, or one of the….
LIAISE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
LIAISE definition: 1. to speak to people in other organizations, etc. in order to work with them or exchange….
