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Fail Fast or Win Big: The Start-Up Plan for Starting Now
With today’s marketplace changing at lightning speed, how can entrepreneurs spend the traditional several months perfecting their business plans and finding investors before finally launching their business? They can’t! Because the truth is, the longer they take to launch their company, the more changes there will be in the marketplace--causing their business to be outdated before it even begins!Today’s entrepreneurs must avoid the temptation to play it safe and launch a business in a bubble. Instead, they need to embrace the idea of “failing fast.” Almost upon genesis of the idea, it is detrimental for the entrepreneur to connect with real customers and determine quickly whether their idea is worth pursuing, needs new direction, or should be abandoned altogether.In the groundbreaking, tell-it-like-it-is Fail Fast or Win Big, entrepreneurs will learn how to: • Create a rapid prototype of their product or service• Develop a business model instead of a business plan• Test it repeatedly with customers so they can spot failure early• Continue to refine the model based on customer interactions• Leverage their network and resources in order to run leanComplete with real-life examples of entrepreneurs who set out to fail fast and ended up winning big, Fail Fast or Win Big is the business plan you didn’t study in college. But just like the marketplace, those outdated concepts have changed too!
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 11, 2015
19 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Bernhard Schroeder
6 books8 followersBERNHARD SCHROEDER is a director at the prestigious Lavin Entrepreneurship Center at San Diego State University. Previously a senior partner at CKS Partners, the world’s largest integrated marketing communications agency, he has served as a marketing and brand expert for successful start-ups such as Amazon and Yahoo as well as Fortune 100 firms such as Apple, Nike, Kellogg’s, GM, and American Express.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 16, 2024
4/5
Lots of solid practical advice and success stories! A few chapters didn't apply to my current situation but took some notes for future reference.
Lots of solid practical advice and success stories! A few chapters didn't apply to my current situation but took some notes for future reference.
June 8, 2019
Not bad, The author has great experience in the startup scene. His Key ideas are the leanModel framework, use of business model canvas and the importance of markets.
Summary :
Be very fucking curious
1. Learn about the market place
2. Talk to the actual customers and find out
* What they want?
* What is missing?
3. Visit competitors
4. Understand key trends in the marketplace
5. Test your idea.
LeanModel Framework
1. Lean resources
* Make use of local universities talent.
* Make use of local opportunities to test your product. Get reviews from them.
* Attend trade shows.
* Keep eye on 3d printing for unique prototype,or as service.
2. Business model
* Business model canvas
3. Rapid prototyping
* Mvp:acceptable, early version of the product that will meet customer's needs.
* Leverage your network. How strong is your network?
4. Customer truth
* You nees to know your customers. Listen to them.
* Customer may not be right, but they are never wrong. They will tell you what they dont want.
* Cannot sacrifice product quality. To really sell, u need good product quality.
* Conquer a niche market segment first. Start w early influencers/innovators, then early adopters and then a larger segment, so on...
* Position the brand for at leadt the top 3 of a niche. If cannot, reconsider strategy and marketplace.
* Branding is how the company makes the custoners feel. Delight them in simple ways. Exceed their expectations.
* Stages of customer truth:
Zero : finding out more about the product
One: people's first impression when they see your product and the critical point where they become customers
Two: when people experience - see, hear, touch, smell your product. This is a point to ensure customer loyalty.
Skill sets
* Sales is the skill that will drive your company forward.
* Build your skills to the point you can become expert in a given area.
Ideas
* Ideas count, market place matters.
* Examine a large or growing marketplace so throughly that a problem or opportunity might surface. Could be changes of taste and preference, technology....
* You really cant put together a business strategy on an idea unless u really understand the marketplace and its potential customers.
* When u see a new product enter a marketplace, look beyond the initial product and ask yourself what accessories, add-ons, applications, and complementary product and services that might be driven by the core product.
Simple questions to ask about ideas in the context of market:
* Can i easily test my idea in the marketplace?
* Is the market easily defined?
* Can i reach people in the marketplace easily?
* Is the market growing?
* Is the marketplace being disrupted?
* Is the marketplace fragmented?
Opportunity
Marketplace quadrant chart
* Competitors
* Major gaps
1. Marketplace is shifting due to industry platers
2. Consumer taste and preferences are changing and no one is noticing
3. Technological shift.
The biggest opportunity is when a trend shifts customer taste and preferrences and an industry. E. G amazon.
Summary :
Be very fucking curious
1. Learn about the market place
2. Talk to the actual customers and find out
* What they want?
* What is missing?
3. Visit competitors
4. Understand key trends in the marketplace
5. Test your idea.
LeanModel Framework
1. Lean resources
* Make use of local universities talent.
* Make use of local opportunities to test your product. Get reviews from them.
* Attend trade shows.
* Keep eye on 3d printing for unique prototype,or as service.
2. Business model
* Business model canvas
3. Rapid prototyping
* Mvp:acceptable, early version of the product that will meet customer's needs.
* Leverage your network. How strong is your network?
4. Customer truth
* You nees to know your customers. Listen to them.
* Customer may not be right, but they are never wrong. They will tell you what they dont want.
* Cannot sacrifice product quality. To really sell, u need good product quality.
* Conquer a niche market segment first. Start w early influencers/innovators, then early adopters and then a larger segment, so on...
* Position the brand for at leadt the top 3 of a niche. If cannot, reconsider strategy and marketplace.
* Branding is how the company makes the custoners feel. Delight them in simple ways. Exceed their expectations.
* Stages of customer truth:
Zero : finding out more about the product
One: people's first impression when they see your product and the critical point where they become customers
Two: when people experience - see, hear, touch, smell your product. This is a point to ensure customer loyalty.
Skill sets
* Sales is the skill that will drive your company forward.
* Build your skills to the point you can become expert in a given area.
Ideas
* Ideas count, market place matters.
* Examine a large or growing marketplace so throughly that a problem or opportunity might surface. Could be changes of taste and preference, technology....
* You really cant put together a business strategy on an idea unless u really understand the marketplace and its potential customers.
* When u see a new product enter a marketplace, look beyond the initial product and ask yourself what accessories, add-ons, applications, and complementary product and services that might be driven by the core product.
Simple questions to ask about ideas in the context of market:
* Can i easily test my idea in the marketplace?
* Is the market easily defined?
* Can i reach people in the marketplace easily?
* Is the market growing?
* Is the marketplace being disrupted?
* Is the marketplace fragmented?
Opportunity
Marketplace quadrant chart
* Competitors
* Major gaps
1. Marketplace is shifting due to industry platers
2. Consumer taste and preferences are changing and no one is noticing
3. Technological shift.
The biggest opportunity is when a trend shifts customer taste and preferrences and an industry. E. G amazon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2017
It's a book that has a few interesting points for entrepreneurs, especially if it's among the first you get to read as there's nothing really groundbreaking. There are some very good points: don't waste time and start doing, solve a problem you care about, analyze the market, keep an eye on trends etc. Also a great lesson is that you don't necessarily have to bring a great innovation; all you have to do is not be the first, but the best.
Very simple stuff. A few tools to play with like the Business Model Canvas. Some stories to keep the interest.
The problems I find are related to the simplicity. The book does not go very in depth and tries to accomplish too much. Crowdfunding is a much more complicated matter and involves putting months of non-stop effort + money. The author barely mentions just how hard a crowdfunding is and does not mention the fact that it usually tends to work for devices and other toys people can get home. Not every business is suitable.
Also the examples are way to brief. It makes it look like it's all nice and simple. But answers are hardly as clear as they are made to be in the examples. It's mostly "entrepreneur has an idea, gets it going, talks to customers, makes millions. The end." I know there wasn't much space in the book, but I personally would prefer one detailed example over man short stories.
Last, I was annoyed by repetition. If I had a penny anytime I read "the customers is not always right, but is never wrong" I would have a lot of pennies. Also the author goes on an on about him teaching entrepreneurship and founding a billion-dollar company, but there's barely mention of that with the purpose of sharing experience. Moreover, all the name throwing of people he got to work with did not really get me anywhere.
Overall it has some interesting points, but it's more useful to just read the books in the bibliography, which detail several aspects presented in the book.
Very simple stuff. A few tools to play with like the Business Model Canvas. Some stories to keep the interest.
The problems I find are related to the simplicity. The book does not go very in depth and tries to accomplish too much. Crowdfunding is a much more complicated matter and involves putting months of non-stop effort + money. The author barely mentions just how hard a crowdfunding is and does not mention the fact that it usually tends to work for devices and other toys people can get home. Not every business is suitable.
Also the examples are way to brief. It makes it look like it's all nice and simple. But answers are hardly as clear as they are made to be in the examples. It's mostly "entrepreneur has an idea, gets it going, talks to customers, makes millions. The end." I know there wasn't much space in the book, but I personally would prefer one detailed example over man short stories.
Last, I was annoyed by repetition. If I had a penny anytime I read "the customers is not always right, but is never wrong" I would have a lot of pennies. Also the author goes on an on about him teaching entrepreneurship and founding a billion-dollar company, but there's barely mention of that with the purpose of sharing experience. Moreover, all the name throwing of people he got to work with did not really get me anywhere.
Overall it has some interesting points, but it's more useful to just read the books in the bibliography, which detail several aspects presented in the book.
June 17, 2017
Hands on ideas, tools and resources in general to get your company started. Listen to your customers constantly and iterate to improve.
February 12, 2021
Great action items to follow up on.
Need to check out the resources mentioned in the book...
Need to check out the resources mentioned in the book...
February 16, 2021
Has some good points but is very repetitive.
January 7, 2015
Don’t read this book late at night. Not that you will be scared but you might have trouble sleeping. You will want to read it from cover-to-cover straight away and then you will be wide awake thinking about its contents, your plans and the future… all at a time when you should be snoring and dreaming.
This book pushes a line that many business schools, gurus and even conventional thinking shy away from. Failure can be good. Of course, you don’t knowingly set up a business venture or do anything with the expectation that it will fail, yet sometimes you can be overly cautious and do nothing due to paralysis. It is a bit like learning to ride a bicycle. If you fall off, try and climb back on again. Learn from your mistakes and try again. Of course, there will be some people who think they could run a business but in reality they would be challenged in running a bath. For the rest of us it should not be viewed as a negative. It is a challenge. An often daunting job and something not everyone will even be brave enough to try. A lot of businesses fail, many due to their owner’s incompetence and bad planning but also many due to sheer bad luck, timing or competition. The potential rewards however can make chasing this eternal goal worthwhile.
Conventional thinking needs to be changed or turned on its head – this is one of the central messages of this book. Spending months writing a business plan, finding investors, conducting focus groups and perfecting your product – all things the experts still teach wannabe entrepreneurs – is outdated. You need to move fast and be agile. That doesn’t mean you skip the research and homework but you have to do things in a different way. If you don’t… well be prepared for someone else to have jumped in and took over your ”space”, whilst you are still arguing with your Excel spreadsheet and practicing a pitch speech.
If one has to fail, the author notes, it is better to fail fast, examine why it happened and move on to the next idea. You’ve ideally not burned up all your capital, can learn valuable lessons and climb back on the bicycle again. You will focus on things a lot differently after reading this book, even if you don’t believe you agree with each and every sentiment. It moves at a fairly fast pace, looking at the whole process from idea to execution, yet it is quite an accessible, open book too. More focus is made on the doing rather than the theory.
It was an enjoyable, considerate thought-provoking read. It would have been nice to have seen a few more international examples and a bit deeper insight to some of the startup companies being mentioned, but one understands that this is heavily based on the author’s own experiences. This is not a reason to avoid this book. Even if you do not plan to start your own company and are “happily” working for someone else, there is a lot you could get from this book both in terms of personal development and how you handle internal projects. Much of the same great knowledge can be used in different situations.
Fail Fast or Win Big: The Start-Up Plan for Starting Now, written by Bernhard Schroeder and published by AMACOM Books. ISBN 9780814434789, 208 pages. YYYYY
This book pushes a line that many business schools, gurus and even conventional thinking shy away from. Failure can be good. Of course, you don’t knowingly set up a business venture or do anything with the expectation that it will fail, yet sometimes you can be overly cautious and do nothing due to paralysis. It is a bit like learning to ride a bicycle. If you fall off, try and climb back on again. Learn from your mistakes and try again. Of course, there will be some people who think they could run a business but in reality they would be challenged in running a bath. For the rest of us it should not be viewed as a negative. It is a challenge. An often daunting job and something not everyone will even be brave enough to try. A lot of businesses fail, many due to their owner’s incompetence and bad planning but also many due to sheer bad luck, timing or competition. The potential rewards however can make chasing this eternal goal worthwhile.
Conventional thinking needs to be changed or turned on its head – this is one of the central messages of this book. Spending months writing a business plan, finding investors, conducting focus groups and perfecting your product – all things the experts still teach wannabe entrepreneurs – is outdated. You need to move fast and be agile. That doesn’t mean you skip the research and homework but you have to do things in a different way. If you don’t… well be prepared for someone else to have jumped in and took over your ”space”, whilst you are still arguing with your Excel spreadsheet and practicing a pitch speech.
If one has to fail, the author notes, it is better to fail fast, examine why it happened and move on to the next idea. You’ve ideally not burned up all your capital, can learn valuable lessons and climb back on the bicycle again. You will focus on things a lot differently after reading this book, even if you don’t believe you agree with each and every sentiment. It moves at a fairly fast pace, looking at the whole process from idea to execution, yet it is quite an accessible, open book too. More focus is made on the doing rather than the theory.
It was an enjoyable, considerate thought-provoking read. It would have been nice to have seen a few more international examples and a bit deeper insight to some of the startup companies being mentioned, but one understands that this is heavily based on the author’s own experiences. This is not a reason to avoid this book. Even if you do not plan to start your own company and are “happily” working for someone else, there is a lot you could get from this book both in terms of personal development and how you handle internal projects. Much of the same great knowledge can be used in different situations.
Fail Fast or Win Big: The Start-Up Plan for Starting Now, written by Bernhard Schroeder and published by AMACOM Books. ISBN 9780814434789, 208 pages. YYYYY
March 12, 2015
A must for the entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur
As an entrepreneur, this book not only opened up additional resources for me to utilize, but also reminded me of some aspects of my current business that need to be of up most importance. I love books that are motivational but also provide ideas and tools, which this book accomplished both! Fantastic read
As an entrepreneur, this book not only opened up additional resources for me to utilize, but also reminded me of some aspects of my current business that need to be of up most importance. I love books that are motivational but also provide ideas and tools, which this book accomplished both! Fantastic read
July 3, 2015
Nice overview with practical, useful, information. If you have a small business,getting started with a business, or thinking of starting up a business, read this book as well as The 4 hr Work Week for plenty of actionable information to get rolling.
May 1, 2025
RESOURCEFUL ENTREPRENEURS. “Entrepreneur” means chasing opportunities even when you don’t have the resources yet. Real entrepreneurs start anyway and figure it out as they go.
TOOL TIPS. There’s a section running through web tools and third-party software - this will be outdated soon.
TOOL TIPS. There’s a section running through web tools and third-party software - this will be outdated soon.
April 5, 2016
Bible, guide for entrepreneurs. Must read.
February 13, 2016
everything's in place,
a very structured & inspirational book.
a very structured & inspirational book.
July 30, 2024
A quick read for some beginner basics but outdated.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews