Bend The Curve: Accelerate Your Startup's Success (The Techstars Series)

It's supposed to look like a hockey stick: up and to the right. Growth curves of runaway hits are even more dramatic—akin to field hockey sticks—quick start, short dip, followed by an immediate near-vertical climb in a northeasterly direction. It’s a beautiful thing. The problem with growth curves is that they’re like footprints in the sand. You can only see them in hindsight. To make matters more difficult, innovation is a non-linear business. Success does not come in the form of a straight line. As Woody Allen suggests, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”

In the world of innovation, there is no single path forward. The only road that all entrepreneurs share is the road less travelled by. But you can still learn from those who went before you—what to do and what not to do—in order to increase your odds of success.

Bend the Curve is a book about how to get more out of your big idea from people who know—successful entrepreneurs, the venture capitalists who've funded them, and the experienced mentors of the world's leading new venture accelerator, Techstars.

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"Andrew Razeghi has tirelessly captured the brilliance and insights of over a dozen of our most sought-after mentors. As I read this book the first time, the voices and ideas within it challenged my own long-held beliefs and added to my own stock of wisdom. As I read it a second time, I wished that I could apply to Techstars."

-Sam Yagan, Chief Executive Officer, The Match Group; Founding CEO, Excelerate Labs; General Partner, Corazon Capital

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"As an entrepreneur and investor, I have had the good fortune of working alongside the mentors featured in BEND THE CURVE for many years. Individually, their pearls of wisdom are like gold to a startup. Collectively however, to have their advice woven together by Andrew Razeghi into a single book is priceless. I'm thrilled to see it shared with the rest of the world!"

Troy Henikoff, Managing Director, Techstars; Managing Director, MATH Venture Partners; Co-Founder, Excelerate Labs

Andrew Razeghi is Founder of StrategyLab, Inc., a growth strategy and innovation consulting group and is a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is also a Limited Partner in Techstars and an angel investor in many startups. Razeghi has served as Vice Chairman of the Wright Centers of Innovation at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC and has provided testimony to the Congress of the United States on driving economic recovery through innovation. He has appeared in a number of media outlets and has been listed by Inc. Magazine among the 100 best leadership speakers. Razeghi is also a contributor on innovation for a series of shows to air on The Travel Channel and has authored several books on innovation including The Riddle: Where Ideas Come From and How to Have Better Ones chosen by Fast Company as one of its Smart Books.