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The Unicorn's Shadow: Combating the Dangerous Myths that Hold Back Startups, Founders, and Investors
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Bringing hard data to the way we think about entrepreneurial success, this bold call to action draws on the latest scientific evidence to dispel the most pervasive startup myths and light a path to entrepreneurship for those eclipsed by the hype.
When you think of a successful entrepreneur, who comes to mind? Bill Gates? Mark Zuckerberg? Or maybe even Jesse Eisenberg, the m ...more
When you think of a successful entrepreneur, who comes to mind? Bill Gates? Mark Zuckerberg? Or maybe even Jesse Eisenberg, the m ...more
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Startups, especially tech startups, have become mythologized and have assumed greater-than-life status in American, and increasingly global, popular imagination. It is not hard to understand why this might be the case: as I write this, the economic wealth, influence and power is inexorably moving towards the high tech sector, which in turn is dominated by startups-turned-tech-behemots. And in the world of startups, there are those that seem to capture the most attention and imagination: the so-c
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There is a whole lot of counter-intuitive, evidence-based knowledge in this book. Founder age doesn't matter, solo-founded startups actually do better on average than co-founded ones, org charts matter, skilled middle managers matter, and my favorite one: past a basic quality screening, "Experts like venture capitalists are not really any better at predicting which early stage companies will succeed than any other reasonably informed individual."
It's telling that a mere 49 souls have rated this ...more
It's telling that a mere 49 souls have rated this ...more
Great short book dispelling a lot of common misconceptions and general fantasized expectations from both the public and investors who sometimes make structured rules based on conventions when they are actively trying to be contrarian (but ending up hilariously and simultaneously the same).
I did feel towards the second half that much of the data driven approach can also be misleading, maybe that's my own bias on not taking academic data as a proxy for truth, seeing how often academics are far fr ...more
I did feel towards the second half that much of the data driven approach can also be misleading, maybe that's my own bias on not taking academic data as a proxy for truth, seeing how often academics are far fr ...more
This is a nice book about basics of starting a company. Although there is no formulae for success, still there are some basic points at least to read about and decide if the journey is for you. Walking through this path is a tough choice and definitely needs an important component that no one can teach. I call it desire to succeed
This book is very enlightening. It was everything that I expected plus more. Every aspiring entrepreneur should read this book to strip away the misconceptions of startups. It will help you understand there is no such thing as the monomyth in entrepreneurship. Overall a well-written book.
funny facts :)
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“The culture that a founder creates is one of the most durable aspects of the company, outlasting the founder itself and carrying on the tradition of the firm.”
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“In most cases, startups that try to enter a hot market have lower performance than those that avoid chasing the latest trend.25”
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