Entrepreneurial Startup Strategy

Heads I win; tails I don't lose much.
Amar Bhidé

The Best Startup Guides for Entrepreneurs

There is nothing smarter than learning from the successes and mistakes of others so that you do not waste time "re-inventing the wheel". The AVC Smart Startup Guide teaches you the startup strategies and tactics of the founders of America's fastest growing startups, the "Inc 500". Most of these highly successful companies were launched without outside capital. "It can't be done!", you say? Well, here's proof positive that their knowledge can offered in a systemized manner you can apply to your own startup.

Investing in this manual is equivalent to spending a week with the founders of these fast growth companies. The only difference is that the manual is affordably priced.

Stop wasting time on dead ends such as business plans and chasing strangers for money.

Click here for the details.

How Many Different Things Have to Go Right for a Successful Start?

This is an extremely important question to ask early on. Ideally you want one "question mark" in your startup strategy. In most cases, it's whether or not sales will pan out as hoped. You do not want a startup situation with multiple question marks to have to worry about.

Let me give you an example of this, recently I was asked to consult to a Seattle-based startup hoping to introduce a new technology to a consumer market. The technology had two seperate components both of which kept failing in demonstration after demonstration to potential users and investors. In addition, the components had to be produced in China in order to keep unit costs down. This brought a whole new set of scheduling and sales cycle concerns with it. Then there was some delicate final assembly to be handled once the parts had arrived in the States. Again, in order to keep prices down, the startup looked at subcontracting the final assembly to a non-profit employing handicapped persons. Of course there were questions about whether or not any humans--let alone handicapped ones--were capable of the high volume intricate assembly and gluing required by the startup's product.

To make a long story short, the startup never got off the ground. Basically everyone from customers to investors could see that any one of half a dozen things could go wrong and wipe out the company.

Lesson: make sure that you have at the most one question mark to focus on. Ideally, you don't want to be in a position where you have you worry about product reliability in addition to whether or not customers will buy.

Looking to Start a Professional Services Firm?

This is the best marketing manual we have ever come across for professional services providers. If you are making ends meet with consulting while raising capital, this is the manual for you. It males marketing a no-brainer. Just follow the detailed plan offered by the InfoGuru Marketing Manual.

Entrepreneurial Startup Stories:

We're collecting entrepreneurial startup stories. Here's the first batch.

How a Start-up Evolves

Businesses grow from start-up to conglomerate in three distinct phases, each of which is driven by a different type of person. The differences and conflicts between these waves of activity help explain why so many small companies self-destruct as they grow, and why so many large companies are so bad at doing anything new. This is a Motley Fool article from 2000. It's a bit dated but worth the read.

Startup Tools

Check out these tools for startups.

Because They Have To

Why Judy Estrin and Bill Carrico, Who Already Have More Money Than God, Are Doing Their Fourth Startup. Article

The New Road to Riches
By Om Malik
Good article on how software startups are choosing to launch without venture capital from Business 2.0.