All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line
- 4h 14m
- Diana Kander
- John Wiley & Sons (US)
- 2024
If Owen Chase can't find a way to turn his company around in the next nine days, he'll be forced to shut it down and lay off all of his employees. He has incurred substantial debt and his marriage is on shaky ground.
Through pure happenstance, Owen finds himself pondering this problem while advancing steadily as a contestant at the World Series of Poker. His Las Vegas path quickly introduces him to Samantha, a beautiful and mysterious mentor with a revolutionary approach to entrepreneurship. Sam is a fountain of knowledge that may save his company, but her sexual advances might prove too much for Owen's struggling marriage.
All In Startup is more than just a novel about eschewing temptation and fighting to save a company. It is a lifeline for entrepreneurs who are thinking about launching a new idea or for those who have already started but can't seem to generate the traction they were expecting.
Entrepreneurs who achieve success in the new economy do so using a new "scientific method" of innovation. All In Startup demonstrates why four counterintuitive principles separate successful entrepreneurs from the wanna-preneurs who bounce from idea to idea, unable to generate real revenue.
You will likely get only one opportunity in your life to go "all in" in on an idea: to quit your job, talk your spouse into letting you drain the savings account, and follow your dream. All In Startup will prepare you for that "all in" moment and make sure that you push your chips into the middle only when the odds are in your favor. This book holds the keys to significantly de-risking your idea so that your success appears almost lucky.
Join Owen and Sam for this one-of-a-kind journey that will set you on the right path for when it's your turn to put everything on the line.
About the Author
DIANA KANDER is a successful entrepreneur, having founded and sold a number of ventures, and is a Senior Fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest non-profit in the world dedicated to entrepreneurship and education. A Georgetown-educated attorney who left a successful practice to launch her first company, Diana draws on her experience as a founder, investor, and academic to design and implement curriculum in educational institutions and the private sector. A sought-after public speaker, consultant, and writer, Diana has advised startup founders and Fortune 500 executives on her methodology for launching customer-focused products and services and developing an entrepreneurial mindset throughout an organization.
In this Book
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Foreword
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A Letter from Thom Ruhe: Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation
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Introduction
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First Appearances Can Be Deceiving
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You're Not Fooling Anyone
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You Can't Sell Anything by Doing All of the Talking
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It's How Well You Lose, Not How Well You Win, That Determines Whether You Get to Keep Playing
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The Real Pros Don't Play Every Hand
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Vanity Metrics Can Hide the Real Numbers That Matter to Your Business
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You Won't Find a Mentor if You Don't Ask
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Put Your Customers and Their Needs before Your Vision for a Solution
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Don't Gamble—Use Small Bets to Find Opportunities
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Even Experts Need to Prepare for New Terrain
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People Don't Buy Visionary Products; They Buy Solutions to Their Problems
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Only Customers Can Tell You if You've Found a Problem Worth Solving
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Hoping and Praying for Luck is Not a Strategy
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It's Never Too Late to Test Your Assumptions
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The Secret to Customer Interviews is Nonleading, Open-Ended Questions
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The Only Way to Get Good at Customer Interviews is to Practice
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Finding Out Your Assumptions Were Wrong is Just as Valuable as Proving Them Right
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Don't Pivot to a New Idea Without Testing Your New Assumptions
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Save Your Chips for When You'll Need the Least Amount of Luck to Win
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Successful Entrepreneurs Recognize Failure, Fold, and Live to Fight Another Day
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Test Your Assumptions before Committing Any Resources to an Idea
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Luck Can Be Engineered if You Take Emotion Out of the Equation
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Every Successful Entrepreneur Has More Failures than Successes
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The Harder You Work, the Luckier You'll Get
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Opportunities to Find Prospective Customers are Everywhere—You Just Have to Look
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The Best Feedback from Potential Customers Comes from Meticulous Interviews
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Recognize the Vanity Metrics to Avoid Big Losses
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Keep Interviewing Customers until You Find a Migraine Problem Worth Solving
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People Can't Help Themselves from Sharing When You Bring Up a Migraine Problem
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Stay Objective in Your Interviews Whether You are Getting Good or Bad News
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Nothing Else Matters until You Can Prove That Customers Want Your Product
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Luck Makers Seek Out New Experiences and Find Opportunities Wherever They Go
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Luck Is Not a Good Strategy for Poker or Business—It's the Outcome of a Good Strategy
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To Prove Demand, Find the Shortest Path to the Ultimate Customer Action
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Prepare for Bad Luck by Building Up Reserves
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Fear and Inaction are the Two Greatest Threats to Your Business Idea
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Understand Your Tendencies On Tilt So That You Can Compensate for Them
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There is No Mistaking It When You Uncover Migraine Problems Worth Solving
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Get Comfortable with Being Wrong
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Don't Go All-In Without Confirming Your Assumptions Through Smaller Bets
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Second Chances are Rare—Make Sure You Get It Right the First Time Around
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Even When You Find a Migraine Problem, Crafting a Solution Requires Vigilance and Readjustment
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Don't Commit All-In until You Prove That Customers Want Your Product and There's a Business Model to Support It
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The Strength of Your Initial Idea, or Starting Hand, is Always Relative
