America’s Most Successful Startups: Lessons for Entrepreneurs – Oliver Samwer

Leaving school and standing at the threshold of the next stage in our life, through this study we have had the chance to take a glance at the 21 st century. We hope to be able to communicate some of those impressions to a wider audience through this book. For entrepreneurs, the book develops a series of concrete propositions which provide hands­ on lessons for creating a successful venture. Thus we hope that this book will be used again and again as an Entrepreneur’s Handbook. If we have done our job well, it will soon be full of underlinings, marginal notations and highlighting. It is meant to provide useful advice for people like us, people who want to be entrepreneurs. The book documents empirical research bearing on the question of how to start, build and grow a successful venture. The research is based exclusively on interviews with America’s most successful high-tech startups in Silicon Valley and Massachusetts. In these interviews we came across the most tremendous people, entrepreneurs of the 21 st century, first-tier venture capitalists, investment bankers, lawyers and technologists. People who will be driving the economy of tomorrow.

Table of contents

• Introduction

  Pages 1-6

• The Opportunities

  Pages 7-19

• The Homework

  Pages 20-25

• The Window of Opportunity

  Pages 26-27

• The Background of the Entrepreneur

  Pages 28-29

• The Founders

  Pages 30-31

• The Role of the Founder

  Pages 32-37

• The Ideal Startup

  Pages 38-38

• The Location

  Pages 39-40

• The Advisors

  Pages 41-42

• The Support Players

  Pages 43-44

• Intellectual Property

  Pages 45-45

• The Funding

  Pages 46-65

• The Culture

  Pages 66-113

• The Management Team

  Pages 114-117

• Technology and Market Orientation

  Pages 118-119

• The Flexibility

  Pages 120-123

• The Focus

  Pages 124-126

• The Execution

  Pages 127-129

• The Network

  Pages 130-133

• The Partners

  Pages 134-136

• The Game for Mindshare

  Pages 137-139

• The Breakthrough

  Pages 140-140

• The First Customers

  Pages 141-143

• The Competition

  Pages 144-146

• The Growth Management

  Pages 147-152

• The Motivation

  Pages 153-153

• The Doubts

  Pages 154-154

• The Sacrifices

  Pages 155-155

• The Qualities of an Entrepreneur

  Pages 156-164

• Summary

  Pages 165-165