Robert Nardelli

There’s only a fine line between entrepreneurship and insubordination.

American Venture Capital Syndication from 1960 to 2004

Venture capital is a crucial part of enterprise and job creation, but it also represents a market in itself. Does the venture capital sector behave like other markets, or does it have features that mark it as different? By identifying the characteristic features of the venture capital market, this paper from Bruce Kogut, Pietro Urso and Gordon Walker, provides valuable information for policy makers looking … [ Read more ]

Lead like the Best Entrepreneurs: Learn how they Innovate, Grow and Profit

For people with the mindset and motivation to create entrepreneurial change there is still the question of how they can operate to be successful within their company environment, since each company’s culture, goals and its set of opportunities are different. That is to say, what types of opportunities do they look for, where do they look for them and how do they move these opportunities … [ Read more ]

Subchapter S: Some Myths, Realities and Practical Considerations

I have often had entrepreneurs tell me with great confidence that they either do or do not want to set up their venture as a Subchapter S corporation. Equally often when I ask them why they want to take that course of action I find they don’t really understand what is involved.

Guerrilla Marketing With Technology

To many guerrilla marketers, technology is to be lauded because it has put them online — giving them access to the speed of email, the power of fresh information, the warmth of closely connected people, and the marketing muscle of the World Wide Web. To others, technology is the hero because it allows them to flourish in a home-based business. This article examines 25 areas … [ Read more ]

Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals

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 ]

Considerations for Founders: Issues in Structuring Relationships Among Members of the Founder Team

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 ]

Selected Papers on 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 ]

Social Entrepreneurship: Three Successful Business Models

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 ]

Gary Hamel

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 ]

The Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists

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.”

Lester C. Thurow

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.

VentureWiki

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 ]

The Psychology of Success

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 ]

H. Irving Grousbeck

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

Why Some Private Equity Firms Do Better Than Others

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.

Mike Malone

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.

The Role of Strategy in Small-Firm Adaptation to a Changing Environment

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 ]