The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki is required reading for entrepreneurs in any stage of their start-up. He covers everything from choosing a name to pitching venture capitalists to changing the world. The book is all about keeping the balance between your revolutionary, game-changing ideas, and your modesty.
Guy is the founder of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm. In his capacity as CEO, he’s sat through hundreds of pitches from start-ups that all think they’ve got what it takes to be the next big thing in Silicon Valley. Companies like Google are newsworthy because that kind of success is rare. The ones that succeed, he argues, are the ones that ground their “curve-jumping, paradigm-shifting, patent-pending” technology with real business sense.
I also had the opportunity to hear Guy speak at Commission Junction’s annual conference in September. He is a dynamic and entertaining speaker, and I could hear his voice coming off the pages of The Art of the Start. I was surprised how much of his keynote was the same content as the book though. I’m glad I didn’t read it before the conference — I think I would have been dissapointed when the speech was basically the cliffs notes version of the book.
That said, the book was a quick read and was full of useful business tidbits both on the high-level, aim-for-the-stars strategy stuff, and on the day-to-day details of how to build a company. Recommended for start-ups, intrapreneurs (people starting a new project within an existing company), and non-profits.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: Entrepreneurship
