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

Kurtzman, Joel; Rifkin, Glenn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 159184102X ISBN 13: 9781591841029

Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover, 2005

Synopsis

Citing a small percentage of startup companies that survive their first year, a guide based on new research with 350 companies and numerous business leaders and investors explains why most startups fail while identifying nine key factors that enable success. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Joel Kurtzman is Global Lead Partner for Thought Leadership and Innovation at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Formerly the editor of the Harvard Business Review and a business editor and columnist for The New York Times, he is currently the on-air business book reviewer on CNN.

From Publishers Weekly:

Kurtzman (MBA in a Box) offers a meticulous and instructive analysis of 350 startup companies, which he and a PriceWaterhouseCoopers research team tracked from 2001 to 2003. In an effort to determine how investors and entrepreneurs can improve a startup's chance of success (300 of these companies succeeded), he synthesizes data from that study, as well as interviews with high-level players and anecdotes from some well-known success stories, such as the Web services provider Akamai and the online job site Monster.com. Kurtzman (formerly editor of the Harvard Business Review) discusses the importance of selecting a talented management team, assembling a board that offers strategic guidance, managing cash flow, estimating market size, protecting competitive position and establishing a strategic business model, among other points. He sets out with 10 rules of thumb, from putting a marketing or salesperson on the founding team, to starting with an existing market rather than a revolutionary product, to creating an unforgettable brand for your product or service. (Comprehensive appendixes include company assessment charts as well as organizational role- and industry-specific data.) The research is not quite as "surprising" as the subtitle suggests, but Kurtzman's thorough volume will arm entrepreneurs with more than just common sense. (Oct. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 159184102X
• ISBN 13: 9781591841029
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288