999 Posts Found

The dominant entrepreneurship narrative is still the lone individual with the brilliant idea who, against tremendous odds, makes it big. The founder myth focuses on and bestows celebrity status on a relatively small set of highly successful, rich, predominantly male, technology-focused entrepreneurs. However, the majority of entrepreneurs fall outside this narrative. At the Babson Entrepreneur Experience Lab we have studied over 250 entrepreneurs launching ventures … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Heidi Neck | Source: Babson | Subject: Entrepreneurship

There’s an element […] that is completely disregarded in formal management education. We’re supposed to figure things out. We’re supposed to make the machine work and correct problems when they come up. But, in fact, in creating something, a lot of the most important developments are what you didn’t expect. And it’s how you recognize and deal with surprise. It’s a very different mindset. The … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter Senge | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subjects: Education, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Management

This article introduces cognitive ambidexterity, the way of thinking and acting that underlies entrepreneurial leadership. Cognitive ambidexterity presumes two different approaches to thought and action: prediction logic and creation logic. To be an effective entrepreneurial leader, one must be skilled in both prediction and creation logics and be able to cycle between them.

Content: Article | Author: Heidi Neck | Source: Babson | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Leadership

First of all, you need to fund the people, not the projects. You need both a dream and a vision without breaking the vision down into goals or missions. This, of course, is antithetical to business. Business rationale thinks problem solving is a good rubric and a metaphor for what they’re trying to do. Articulating goals actually stifles innovation.

Content: Quotation | Author: Alan Kay | Source: CGE&Y Center for Business Innovation (CBI) | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation

Success at a startup means winning in the air and on the ground. Being a visionary isn’t enough. You also need to nail the day-to-day operations.

Content: Article | Author: Eric Paley | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subject: Entrepreneurship

After 10 years, eight South by Southwests, two startups, and zero dollars in profit, will Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley ever find his way?

Content: Case Study | Author: Austin Carr | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Entrepreneurship | Company: Foursquare

In new businesses, the start-up group—which may be 10, 20, 50 people—has a psychological stake and often a financial stake in the business. These people use what I describe as the twin hierarchy approach. That is, there is the hierarchy of status—though not more than three or four levels. You find this in professional organizations, with senior partners, ordinary partners, and associates who would like … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Charles Handy | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

In my experience, the more true we are to our own creative gifts the less there is an outer reassurance or help at the beginning. The more we are on the path, the deeper the silence in the first stages of the process. Following our path is in effect a kind of going off the path, through open country, there is a certain early stage … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David Whyte | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Personal Development

An inventor is simply a person who doesn’t take his education too seriously. You see, from the time a person is six years old until he graduates from college, he has to take three or four examinations a year. If he flunks once, he’s out. But an inventor is almost always failing. He tries and fails, maybe a thousand times. If he succeeds once, he’s … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Charles Kettering | Subjects: Education, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Success / Failure

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

The success of ‘stretch goals’ to power performance in existing businesses can blind managers to the reality that similar techniques cannot be used to drive the creation of new businesses. Stretch goals work in existing businesses because managers get stuck in ruts and the stretch can unlock their thinking. In the search for new businesses managers have no ruts to unlock. Stretch just distracts them … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Andrew Campbell | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management

Daily Muse co-founder and startup advisor Kathryn Minshew has started several startups and has the battle scars to prove it. In this 99U talk, Minshew shares common mistakes made by startup founders, and reveals the remedies to each. Chief among them? The “Gollum Syndrome” where founders treat their companies as “their precious.” Just launch and iterate, says Minshew, because “an ugly baby is better than … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Kathryn Minshew | Source: 99U | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Most startups that raise money do it more than once. A typical trajectory might be (1) to get started with a few tens of thousands from something like Y Combinator or individual angels, then (2) raise a few hundred thousand to a few million to build the company, and then (3) once the company is clearly succeeding, raise one or more later rounds to accelerate … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Paul Graham | Subject: Entrepreneurship

To founders, the behavior of investors is often opaque—partly because their motivations are obscure, but partly because they deliberately mislead you. And the misleading ways of investors combine horribly with the wishful thinking of inexperienced founders.

Content: Quotation | Author: Paul Graham | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

The most important thing to understand about valuation is that it’s not that important.

Founders who raise money at high valuations tend to be unduly proud of it. Founders are often competitive people, and since valuation is usually the only visible number attached to a startup, they end up competing to raise money at the highest valuation. This is stupid, because fundraising is not the test … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Paul Graham | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Be nice when investors reject you. The best investors are not wedded to their initial opinion of you. If they reject you in phase 2 and you end up doing well, they’ll often invest in phase 3. In fact investors who reject you are some of your warmest leads for future fundraising. Any investor who spent significant time deciding probably came close to saying yes. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Paul Graham | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Avoid investors till you decide to raise money, and then when you do, talk to them all in parallel, prioritized by expected value, and accept offers greedily. That’s fundraising in one sentence. Don’t introduce complicated optimizations, and don’t let investors introduce complications either.

Content: Quotation | Author: Paul Graham | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

There have been fantastic essays written about the fundraising process. This is not a guide to fundraising, but rather a look behind the curtain from experience as a venture investor at most of the quantitative metrics that are analyzed when judging an early-stage startup. These metrics fall into five groups: financial, user, acquisition, sales, and marketing. While the statistics are important, the relevant weight any … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Danny Crichton | Source: TechCrunch | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Although many startups hope to become venture capital-backed companies, few understand how the venture capital industry works. In this Crash Course, Jason Mendelson and Brad Bernthal will attempt to illuminate what many consider the venture capital black box. They will explain how venture capitalists think, how they raise their funds, and how they decide to invest their money. If you are a startup looking to … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Brad Bernthal, Jason Mendelson | Subject: Entrepreneurship

The author of The Lean Startup is thinking big about the challenges facing companies in an economy driven by innovation.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Eric Ries, Paul Michelman | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management