Startups That Work Surprising Research on What Makes or Breaks a New Company

by Kurtzman, Joel; Rifkin, Glenn

• ISBN13: 9781591841029
• ISBN10: 159184102X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-06
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover

Summary

"Joel Kurtzman and a research team from PricewaterhouseCoopers spent four years studying 350 companies and interviewing hundreds of venture capitalists, CEOs, boards of directors, and angel investors. Their mission: to understand business startups organically, from the inside out, and to acquire the tools to literally map the success of any new business in any industry." "Entrepreneurs, investors, and venture capitalists have always relied on their gut instincts in predicting which startups are here now/gone later or able to stand the test of time. But now they can rely on hard research that translates into practical and powerful advice."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Joel Kurtzman is chairman of the Kurtzman Group, a consulting firm.

Table of Contents

One The Art of Building Businesses from Scratch	1	(21)
Two To Get Where You're Going, You've Got to Have a Map	22	(16)
Three Management: Nothing Ever Happens Without Great People	38	(18)
Four It's Okay to Be a Watchdog, but Boards Must Create Value	56	(16)
Five Cash Flow: Show Me the Money	72	(11)
Six You Can Only Grow as Big as Your Market	83	(14)
Seven Moats, Walls, and Drawbridges: Maintaining Your Competitive Position Against the Fray	97	(18)
Eight Business Models: It's Not Just What You Do, It's How You Do It	115	(15)
Nine Product Development: You've Got to Have Something "Cool" to Sell	130	(17)
Ten Customer Acquisition: You've Got to Have Someone to Sell Your Product To	147	(20)
Eleven Never Walk Alone: Channels and Alliances	167	(12)
Twelve What We Know Now: Why Startups Succeed	179	(5)
Epilogue	184	(7)
Appendices	191	(94)
Appendix 1: Paths to Value Study	193	(71)
Appendix 2: A Brief Primer on Venture Financing	264	(3)
Appendix 3: Survey Sample and Methodology	267	(3)
Appendix 4: Definitions of Performance Categories and Axes of Value	270	(15)
Index	285