992 Posts Found

The first book to combine business management and scientific studies shows how the personality traits of successful entrepreneurs may be inherited–and what you can do to make the jump from employee to entrepreneur. What exactly does it mean to be a “born leader”? Are some people naturally endowed with characteristics that lead to success? Could success be the result of something in our DNA? INSTINCT … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: Mary H. Frakes, Thomas L. Harrison | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Personal Development

There are so many things which Founders have to worry about and do in launching a new venture- financing, people, customers etc. All of these are important but the reality is that most ventures fail because of people issues and are really a failure of the relationships among the team members. Teams come together around an interesting or exciting idea or opportunity and tend … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Joseph G. Hadzima Jr. | Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Capital Ideas offers a collection of four articles:

In “Bet on the Horse,” Per Strömberg and Berk A. Sensoy and Steven N. Kaplan study how particular types of entrepreneurial firms evolve. In so doing, the findings shed light on the relative importance of a company’s product and market versus the company’s founders and management team.

“How Smart is Smart Money?” focuses attention on the role of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Capital Ideas | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Existing research focuses on many interesting aspects of social entrepreneurs and their initiatives, for example, the social entrepreneur as change agent, or the role of the founder and his or her vision and individual traits. However, a number of questions remain unanswered: How do social entrepreneurs actually create social and economic value by setting up self-sustained organizations? And how do strategies for building specific networks … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Johanna Mair, Oliver Schoen | Source: IESE Insight | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Silicon Valley isn’t based on resource allocation, it’s based on resource attraction, where somebody throws out an idea into this kind of marketplace for ideas. Either that idea attracts capital and talent or it doesn’t. But there’s no giant CEO brain making allocational decisions in Silicon Valley. There are many, many people making those decisions – It’s very distributed. If one venture capitalist doesn’t like … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation

To foster greater understanding among the entrepreneurs and VCs, Guy Kawasaki presents an exposé of the top ten lies of venture capitalists.

Editor’s Note: I love the definition of a blogger on his site: “someone with nothing to say writing for someone with nothing to do.”

Content: Article | Author: Guy Kawasaki | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

When societies aren’t organized so that the old vested interests can be brushed aside, entrepreneurs cannot emerge. Social systems have to be built in which entrepreneurs have the freedom to destroy the old. Yet destroying the old can too easily be seen as a step into chaos. Societies that aren’t ready to break with the past aren’t willing to let entrepreneurs come into existence.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Economics, Entrepreneurship

VentureWiki is intended to be a resource for entrepreneurs to capitalize on the collective experience, opinions, and judgement of the venture capital community.

Editor’s Note: the site says it’s a work in progress and it appears that way – some good information already exists, but it is sparse; not sure if it will get popular or whither away but I list it with hope of … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: Woodside Fund | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

They’re hyperconfident risk-takers. They make big decisions on the fly but often fail to see the big picture. They’re charismatic visionaries who don’t play well with others. That’s the stereotype of successful entrepreneurs. But how accurate is it? To find out, I administered the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style, or TAIS–a 144-question personality exam used by the U.S. military, big corporations, and Olympic athletic … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Keith McFarland | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subject: Entrepreneurship

The important difference between an entrepreneur and an administrator is that the entrepreneur is opportunity-driven, whereas the administrator tends to be resource-driven.

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Private equity firms score their biggest wins by helping the companies in their portfolios to outperform industry peers. Our research shows that these firms do so by governing their companies actively, offering focused incentives, investing lots of time during the first 100 days, developing plans to create value, and changing management teams early when necessary.

Content: Article | Authors: Conor Kehoe, Joachim Heel | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Venture Capital

Outsiders think of Silicon Valley as a success, but it is, in truth, a graveyard. Failure is Silicon Valley’s greatest strength. Every failed product or enterprise is a lesson stored in the collective memory. We don’t stigmatize failure; we admire it.

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Success / Failure

Author and Apple alumn Guy Kawasaki shares some lessons learned from wounds suffered during his long tour of duty in the technology trenches.

Content: Article | Author: Guy Kawasaki | Source: AlwaysOn | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, People

Strategy formulation and implementation are critical elements of the small firm’s process of adapting to a changing world. The CEO who hopes to adapt his/her small firm to a changing environment must focus on strategy formulation and implementation. This paper presents theories, concepts, and models that can be used to improve the process of formulating strategies, to determine the content of specific strategies and, to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: John G. Maurer | Source: Wayne State University | Subjects: Small Business, Strategy

This library of business plans includes entries in the Moot Corp® Competition at the University of Texas. Each business plan was a winner or finalist in the competition. The judges (venture capitalists) selected these plans as representing the best in business strategy and presentation.

Content: Online Resource | Source: Center for Business Planning | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Free Stuff / Tools

“Until a few years ago,” notes journalist-consultant Udayan Gupta, “venture capitalists were hardly on anyone’s radar screen.” That’s not the case these days, as financiers who used to work behind the scenes now regularly set markets afire with their public support of high-profile technology and Internet stocks. In Done Deals, Gupta allows 35 of the brightest stars in what has become a $30-billion-a-year business to … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Udayan Gupta | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

VC Ed Sim shares some thoughts on how to make the first VC pitch a better experience for all participants.

Content: Article | Author: Ed Sim | Source: BeyondVC | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Following up on the Term Sheet series, the Feld Thoughts blog offer a series on the Letter of Intent. As stated in the first post, “Deals have to start somewhere, and often the first real ‘document’ that gets negotiated after the foreplay turns serious is the infamous letter of intent…This sometimes delightful and usually non-binding document (except for things like a no shop agreement) is … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Authors: Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson | Source: Feld Thoughts | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Legal, Venture Capital

In this manifesto, clinical psychologist John Gartner hypothesizes that “American entrepreneurs are largely hypomanic.” Where mania is a severe illness, hypomania is not, in and of itself, an illness. It is a temperament characterized by an elevated mood state. And it is largely responsible for entrepreneurial success.

Editor’s Note: this is really an interesting article, and not just for those interested in psychology or entrepreneurship. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: John Gartner | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, International

Visionaries buy on the promise of a product; pragmatists buy when the product’s benefits are proven. But pragmatists usually control the bulk of the money. Understanding how a specific set of pragmatists and visionaries relate to one another in the application that the venture chooses to pursue is the key to rapid revenue growth; because, if you do business with the “wrong” visionaries, they’ll lead … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Marketing / Sales