A book for anyone who has started a business, thought about starting a business, or just been close to someone who has, All In Startup introduces the reader to the latest advances in entrepreneurship, including a new understanding of how to launch a company in a way that dramatically improves its chances of success.
The “business plan” curriculum taught in most M.B.A. programs is on the verge of extinction. A new “scientific method” of entrepreneurship built around forming and testing basic assumptions will soon replace the tired old model. The book, told through a case study approach, follows the story of Owen Chase who is tasked with turning his company around in 9 days. Through rich storytelling, All In Startup provides a book-length case study to showcase a new type of entrepreneurship, revealing innovative business principles and the emotional reality of entrepreneurship that goes tragically unmentioned during business school.
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.
Foreword by Steve Blank ix
A Letter from Thom Ruhe, VP of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation xi
Introduction xiii
Chapter 1: First Appearances Can Be Deceiving 1
Chapter 2: You’re Not Fooling Anyone 7
Chapter 3: You Can’t Sell Anything by Doing All of the Talking 13
Chapter 4: It’s How Well You Lose, Not How Well You Win, That Determines Whether You Get to Keep Playing 19
Chapter 5: The Real Pros Don’t Play Every Hand 25
Chapter 6: Vanity Metrics Can Hide the Real Numbers That Matter to Your Business 29
Chapter 7: You Won’t Find a Mentor if You Don’t Ask 35
Chapter 8: Put Your Customers and Their Needs before Your Vision for a Solution 39
Chapter 9: Don’t Gamble—Use Small Bets to Find Opportunities 47
Chapter 10: Even Experts Need to Prepare for New Terrain 51
Chapter 11: People Don’t Buy Visionary Products; They Buy Solutions to Their Problems 55
Chapter 12: Only Customers Can Tell You if You’ve Found a Problem Worth Solving 63
Chapter 13: Hoping and Praying for Luck Is Not a Strategy 75
Chapter 14: It’s Never Too Late to Test Your Assumptions 81
Chapter 15: The Secret to Customer Interviews Is
Nonleading, Open-Ended Questions 87
Chapter 16: The Only Way to Get Good at Customer Interviews Is to Practice 95
Chapter 17: Finding Out Your Assumptions Were Wrong Is Just as Valuable as Proving Them Right 99
Chapter 18: Don’t Pivot to a New Idea without Testing Your New Assumptions 109
Chapter 19: Save Your Chips for When You’ll Need the Least Amount of Luck to Win 117
Chapter 20: Successful Entrepreneurs Recognize Failure, Fold, and Live to Fight Another Day 123
Chapter 21: Test Your Assumptions before Committing Any Resources to an Idea 133
Chapter 22: Luck Can Be Engineered if You Take Emotion Out of the Equation 143
Chapter 23: Every Successful Entrepreneur Has More Failures than Successes 149
Chapter 24: The Harder You Work, the Luckier You’ll Get 153
Chapter 25: Opportunities to Find Prospective Customers Are Everywhere—You Just Have to Look 157
Chapter 26: The Best Feedback from Potential Customers Comes from Meticulous Interviews 161
Chapter 27: Recognize the Vanity Metrics to Avoid Big Losses 169
Chapter 28: Keep Interviewing Customers until You Find a Migraine Problem Worth Solving 173
Chapter 29: People Can’t Help Themselves from Sharing When You Bring Up a Migraine Problem 181
Chapter 30: Stay Objective in Your Interviews Whether You Are Getting Good or Bad News 187
Chapter 31: Nothing Else Matters until You Can Prove That Customers Want Your Product 191
Chapter 32: Luck Makers Seek Out New Experiences and Find Opportunities Wherever They Go 195
Chapter 33: Luck Is Not a Good Strategy for Poker or Business—It’s the Outcome of a Good Strategy 201
Chapter 34: To Prove Demand, Find the Shortest Path to the Ultimate Customer Action 209
Chapter 35: Prepare for Bad Luck by Building Up Reserves 219
Chapter 36: Fear and Inaction Are the Two Greatest Threats to Your Business Idea 225
Chapter 37: Understand Your Tendencies On Tilt So That You Can Compensate for Them 229
Chapter 38: There Is No Mistaking It When You Uncover Migraine Problems Worth Solving 235
Chapter 39: Get Comfortable with Being Wrong 241
Chapter 40: Don’t Go All-In without Confirming Your Assumptions through Smaller Bets 249
Chapter 41: Second Chances Are Rare—Make Sure You Get It Right the First Time Around 253
Chapter 42: Even When You Find a Migraine Problem, Crafting a Solution Requires Vigilance and Readjustment 255
Chapter 43: Don’t Commit All-In until You Prove That Customers Want Your Product and There’s a Business Model to Support It 265
Chapter 44: The Strength of Your Initial Idea, or Starting Hand, Is Always Relative 269
Sam’s Journal 271
Acknowledgments 279
About the Author 283
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