Louis glassblowing artist and recovering computer scientist named Jim McKelvey lost a sale because he couldn't accept American Express cards. Frustrated by the high costs and difficulty of accepting credit card payments, McKelvey joined his friend Jack Dorsey (the cofounder of Twitter) to launch Square, a startup that would enable small merchants to accept credit card payments on their mobile phones. With no expertise or experience in the world of payments, they approached the problem of credit cards with a new perspective, questioning the industry's assumptions, experimenting and innovating their way through early challenges, and achieving widespread adoption from merchants small and large.But just as Square was taking off, Amazon launched a similar product, marketed it aggressively, and undercut Square on price. For most ordinary startups, this would have spelled the end. Instead, less than a year later, Amazon was in retreat and soon discontinued its service. How did Square beat the most dangerous company on the planet? Was it just luck? These questions motivated McKelvey to study what Square had done differently from all the other companies Amazon had killed. He eventually found the key: a strategy he calls the Innovation Stack.McKelvey's fascinating and humorous stories of Square's early days are blended with historical examples of other world-changing companies built on the Innovation Stack to reveal a pattern of ground-breaking, competition-proof entrepreneurship that is rare but repeatable.The Innovation Stack is a thrilling business narrative that's much bigger than the story of Square. It is an irreverent first-person look inside the world of entrepreneurship, and a call to action for all of us to find the entrepreneur within ourselves and identify and fix unsolved problems--one crazy idea at a time.

    Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn't get done. In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and rebellious marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast. It's literally a single page, divided up into nine squares. With it you'll be able to map out your own sophisticated marketing plan and go from zero to marketing hero. Whether you're just starting out or are an experienced entrepreneur, The 1-Page Marketing Plan is the easiest and fastest way to create a marketing plan that will propel your business growth. In this groundbreaking new book you'll discover: • How to get new customers, clients, or patients and how make more profit from existing ones. • Why “big business” style marketing could kill your business and strategies that actually work for small and medium-sized businesses. • How to close sales without being pushy, needy, or obnoxious while turning the tables and having prospects begging you to take their money. • A simple step-by-step process for creating your own personalized marketing plan that is literally one page. Simply follow along and fill in each of the nine squares that make up your own 1-Page Marketing Plan. • How to annihilate competitors and make yourself the only logical choice. • How to get amazing results on a small budget using the secrets of direct response marketing. • How to charge high prices for your products and services and have customers actually thank you for it.

    The pass was intercepted and the Seahawks lost. Critics called it the dumbest play in history. But was the call really that bad? Or did Carroll actually make a great move that was ruined by bad luck?Even the best decision doesn't yield the best outcome every time. There's always an element of luck that you can't control, and there is always information that is hidden from view. So the key to long-term success (and avoiding worrying yourself to death) is to think in bets: How sure am I? What are the possible ways things could turn out? What decision has the highest odds of success? Did I land in the unlucky 10% on the strategy that works 90% of the time? Or is my success attributable to dumb luck rather than great decision making?Annie Duke, a former World Series of Poker champion turned business consultant, draws on examples from business, sports, politics, and (of course) poker to share tools anyone can use to embrace uncertainty and make better decisions. For most people, it's difficult to say "I'm not sure" in a world that values and, even, rewards the appearance of certainty. But professional poker players are comfortable with the fact that great decisions don't always lead to great outcomes and bad decisions don't always lead to bad outcomes.By shifting your thinking from a need for certainty to a goal of accurately assessing what you know and what you don't, you'll be less vulnerable to reactive emotions, knee-jerk biases, and destructive habits in your decision making. You'll become more confident, calm, compassionate and successful in the long run.

    Rather than believing they have to start with a big idea or plan a whole project out in advance, trying to foresee the final outcome, they make a series of little bets about what might be a good direction, learning from lots of little failures and from small but highly significant wins that allow them to happen upon unexpected avenues and arrive at extraordinary outcomes.           Based on deep and extensive research, including more than 200 interviews with leading innovators, Sims discovered that productive, creative thinkers and doers—from Ludwig van Beethoven to Thomas Edison and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos—practice a key set of simple but ingenious experimental methods—such as failing quickly to learn fast, tapping into the genius of play, and engaging in highly immersed observation—that free their minds, opening them up to making unexpected connections and perceiving invaluable insights. These methods also unshackle them from the constraints of overly analytical thinking and linear problem solving that our education places so much emphasis on, as well as from the fear of failure, all of which thwart so many of us in trying to be more innovative.               Reporting on a fascinating range of research, from the psychology of creative blocks to the influential Silicon Valley–based field of design thinking, Sims offers engaging and wonderfully illuminating accounts of breakthrough innovators at work, including how Hewlett-Packard stumbled onto the breakaway success of the first hand-held calculator; the remarkable storyboarding process at Pixar films that has been the key to their unbroken streak of box office successes; the playful discovery process by which Frank Gehry arrived at his critically acclaimed design for Disney Hall; the aha revelation that led Amazon to pursue its wildly successful affiliates program; and the U.S. Army’s ingenious approach to counterinsurgency operations that led to the dramatic turnaround in Iraq.               Fast paced and as entertaining as it is illuminating, Little Bets offers a whole new way of thinking about how to break away from the narrow strictures of the methods of analyzing and problem solving we were all taught in school and unleash our untapped creative powers.

    And they often receive an incredible return on their investments. They’re angel investors, some of the most important—and least understood—players in business today, whose investments in startups exceed $20 billion per year. Many, if not most, of the world’s largest companies were originally funded by angels—companies like Apple, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Amazon.com.But until now, little has been written about these angels, due in part to their preference for anonymity. ANGEL INVESTING: The Gust Guide to Making Money and Having Fun Investing in Startups by David S. Rose provides an inside look at who these angels are, how they operate, and how anyone with six figures to invest can potentially generate annual returns of 25% while funding tomorrow’s industry leaders…and having a lot of fun in the process.In the past few years, angel investing has moved from an arcane, tiny backwater of the financial world to a business arena that receives coverage in mainstream newspapers and smash hit television shows such as ABC’s Shark Tank. Every year angels invest over $20 billion into startup companies in the US alone (and double that amount worldwide). Historically this been a virtually random activity, but over the past several years angel investing has begun to be recognized as a legitimate part of the Alternative Investments asset class. With a foreword by Reid Hoffman—co-founder of LinkedIn and a prolific angel investor himself—together with hard research studies and a host of stories from his personal experience as one of the world’s leading angels, Rose explains in this book precisely how angels and venture capitalists differ, describes proven ways for entrepreneurs to attract them, and provides all the relevant resources for investors to enter into the world of startup funding. Rose tackles all the challenging questions that have long confounded angel investors and the entrepreneurs seeking to attract them: • Who can be an angel…and who should be an angel?• Where do angels find hidden startup gems before the public hears about them?• How should an angel build a portfolio that can return 25% annually over a decade?• What is it like to lose all of an investor’s money? And, conversely, what does it feel like to invest in a failed startup as an angel investor? • What are some common mistakes that inexperienced angel investors make?Successful angels know that investing in entrepreneurial ventures is more than just providing money. ANGEL INVESTING is the first complete, up-to-date guide to the subject, including what angel investing is, how one gets started, how to find deal flow, evaluate opportunities, negotiate terms, join an angel group, structure investments, and work with venture capital funds. ANGEL INVESTING includes tools, tactics, and strategies for high-tech, low-tech, and every other kind of early-stage investing. Rose opens the doors to those angels who have limited experience, while augmenting the experience of seasoned investors. Entrepreneurs will gain access to the mind-set of winning angels, and learn how best to win them over, as well as finding information on how to value, structure and bring their companies to a successful exit.The combination of advancing technology, changing federal regulations, rapidly dropping startup costs and new online investment platforms means that it is now possible for any serious investor to undertake angel investing the right way—and that is what the book ANGEL INVESTING is all about.ABOUT DAVID S. ROSE:David S. Rose is an Inc. 500 CEO, serial entrepreneur and angel investor who has founded or funded over 90 pioneering companies. He has been described by Forbes as "New York's Archangel", by BusinessWeek as a “world conquering entrepreneur”, by Crain's New York Business as "the father of angel investing in New York", and by Red Herring magazine as “patriarch of Silicon Alley.”PRAISE FOR ANGEL INVESTING:"As an angel investor and a long-time fan of David S. Rose, I was delighted to hear he finally captured his wit and wisdom in the pages of a book. David is a born teacher — clear minded, witty and provocative, with amazing stories to illustrate every key idea and insight. Those gifts — as well as his unsurpassed knowledge of his field — are teaching me so much more about investing than I've learned over the years doing it! Read every page of Angel Investing."Barbara CorcoranReal Estate Mogul, Shark Tank star, Angel Investor“From the secret economics of angel investing and the best methods for finding and picking tomorrow’s big winners to proven techniques for adding value to any business you invest in, Angel Investing provides readers with everything they need to know to get started in this fascinating, fun—and lucrative—business arena.”David Bach#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Automatic Millionaire and Start Late Finish Rich, Angel Investor“This is the most comprehensive and readable guide to angel investing ever written. The chapter on valuation and expectations lays out a clear framework for understanding one of the least well-known pitfalls in the angel world. And its emphasis on creating a win-win relationship with the entrepreneur is at the heart of being a long-term successful angel—and continuing to see the best deal flow. I recommend this book to anyone even thinking about making or receiving angel investments.”Howard L. MorganFounding Partner, First Round Capital“The world of entrepreneurial startups is where the most exciting and creative action is happening in today’s business world, which is why I was a strong supporter of the JOBS Act of 2012. No wonder millions of people are wondering how they can get involved as investors. There’s no better place to start than by reading David S. Rose’s Angel Investing.”U.S. Senator Charles E. SchumerSenate Finance Committee“David S. Rose’s Angel Investing is the best book on early stage investing ever written. His method of step-by-step explanation is better than any I have read in 20+ years of professional angel investing. I will recommend this to every serious entrepreneur seeking investment as required reading before the effort.”Dave BerkusChairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels and Author of Berkonomics“Only an angel who has backed over 90 start-ups could possess the mastery to provide such illumination into our craft. David’s candor and insights will attract more investors to this entertaining and lucrative activity so essential to economic growth.”John HustonFounder & Manager, The OhioTechAngel Funds"Angel Investing is an engaging, easy read, full of real stories and hard numbers, actual cases and a whole lot of good advice. David S. Rose brings tons of real-world knowledge to the subject that makes this required reading for every new angel."Tim BerryAuthor of Business Plan Pro, Entrepreneur, Angel Investor"David S. Rose is one of the most insightful thinkers about the angel and venture investment markets. It's rare that an investment leader with so much experience and success takes the time to share (systematically!) his knowledge so openly. Whether you are new to angel investing or someone with lots of experience, you will learn a ton from reading this book."Marc BodnickCo-Founder, Elevation Partners“David S. Rose has distilled his vast knowledge into an easy to read yet comprehensive guide to angel investing. It is a must read for all angel investors as well as for entrepreneurs seeking angel financing.”Jeffrey SeltzerManaging Partner, Pierce Yates Ventures, Former Deputy Chairman, CIBC World Markets, Angel Investor"Anyone with a checkbook can be an angel investor, but it takes insight to do it well. David S. Rose has written a terrific new book that will help would-be angels make money, rather than lose it. From explaining the value of diversification, to tips on evaluating deals, to offering up plans to attract good deals, Angel Investing will help you move from a money-losing amateur to a money-making professional angel. And if you’re an entrepreneur looking for angel money, you should read this book too. It will help you understand what knowledgeable angels are seeking and how they will evaluate you."Scott ShaneAuthor of Fool’s Gold? The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America“The future of financial markets will be based on the democratization of capital, as the funding of innovation is no longer limited to large institutions and venture capitalists. Angel Investing is the definitive guidebook for visionary investors seeking to profit from the startups of today that will become the superstars of tomorrow. David S. Rose is both a brilliant futurist and an engaging, accessible writer, and his book reveals the secrets behind investing at the leading edge of technologies and markets."Faith PopcornFuturist, CEO and Author of The Popcorn Report

    I always have. To me it’s very simple: If you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”—Donald J. Trump  Here is Trump in action—how he runs his business and how he runs his life—as he meets the people he needs to meet, chats with family and friends, clashes with enemies, and changes the face of the New York City skyline. But even a maverick plays by rules, and Trump has formulated eleven guidelines for success. He isolates the common elements in his greatest deals; he shatters myths; he names names, spells out the zeros, and fully reveals the deal-maker’s art. And throughout, Trump talks—really talks—about how he does it. Trump: The Art of the Deal is an unguarded look at the mind of a brilliant entrepreneur and an unprecedented education in the practice of deal-making. It’s the most streetwise business book there is—and the ultimate read for anyone interested in achieving money and success, and knowing the man behind the spotlight.

    This guide provides a quick reference to all of the key topics around early-stage startup valuation and provides step-by-step examples for several valuation methods. In more detail, this Founder’s Pocket Guide helps startup founders learn: What a startup valuation is and when you need to start worrying about it. Key terms and definitions associated with valuation, such as pre-money, post-money, and dilution. How investors view the valuation task, and what their expectations are for early-stage companies. How the valuation fits with your target raise amount and resulting founder equity ownership. How to do the simple math for calculating valuation percentages. How to estimate your company valuation using several accepted methods. What accounting valuation methods are and why they are not well suited for early-stage startups.

    Deep inside, we sense that more is possible. We long for soulful workplaces, for authenticity, community, passion, and purpose.In this groundbreaking book, the author shows that every time, in the past, when humanity has shifted to a new stage of consciousness, it has achieved extraordinary breakthroughs in collaboration. A new shift in consciousness is currently underway. Could it help us invent a more soulful and purposeful way to run our businesses and nonprofits, schools and hospitals?A few pioneers have already cracked the code and they show us, in practical detail, how it can be done. Leaders, founders, coaches, and consultants will find this work a joyful handbook, full of insights, examples, and inspiring stories.ADVANCE PRAISE"Congratulations on a spectacular treatise! This is truly pioneering work. In terms of integral sophistication, there is simply nothing like it out there."--Ken Wilber, from the Foreword"The most exciting book I've read in years on organization design and leadership models."--Jenny Wade, Ph.D., Author of Changes of Mind"A book like Reinventing Organizations only comes along once in a decade. Sweeping and brilliant in scope, it is the Good To Great for a more enlightened age. What it reveals about the organizational model of the future is exhilarating and deeply hopeful."--Norman Wolfe, Author of The Living Organization"A comprehensive, highly practical account of the emergent worldview in business. Everything you need to know about building a new paradigm organization!"--Richard Barrett, Chairman and Founder, Barrett Values Center"Frederic Laloux has done business people and professionals everywhere a signal service. He has discovered a better future for organizations by describing, in useful detail, the unusual best practices of today."--Bill Torbert, Author of Action Inquiry"As the rate of change escalates exponentially, the old ways of organizing and educating, which were designed for efficiency and repetition, are dying. Frederic Laloux is one of the few management leaders exploring what comes next. It's deeply different."--Bill Drayton, Founder, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

    In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives—from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture—can be understood as the result of a few long-term, accelerating forces. Kelly both describes these deep trends—flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, tracking, and questioning—and demonstrates how they overlap and are codependent on one another. These larger forces will completely revolutionize the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate with each other. By understanding and embracing them, says Kelly, it will be easier for us to remain on top of the coming wave of changes and to arrange our day-to-day relationships with technology in ways that bring forth maximum benefits. Kelly’s bright, hopeful book will be indispensable to anyone who seeks guidance on where their business, industry, or life is heading—what to invent, where to work, in what to invest, how to better reach customers, and what to begin to put into place—as this new world emerges.

    Within its pages, you'll find everything you need to successfully raise new business capital with the most attractive terms possible.Using informative case studies, detailed charts, and term sheet exercises, Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur discusses the basic principles of the venture capital method, strategies for raising capital, methods of valuing the early-stage venture, and proven techniques for negotiating the deal. The author leads you step-by-step through:Developing a Financing MapGetting to the First Stepping StoneUnderstanding the Unique Cash Flow and Risk Dynamics of Early Stage VenturesDetermining the Amount of Capital to Raise and What to Spend It onLearning How Venture Capital Firms ThinkCreating a Winning Business PlanFunding Early-Stage CompaniesAgreeing on a Term Sheet with a Venture CapitalistSetting Terms for Splitting the RewardsAllocating Control between Founders/Management and InvestorsAligning the Interests of Founders/Management and InvestorsThis invaluable guide also includes term sheet exercises that test your understanding of various financing situations facing companies. In addition, the book features three extensive case studies: the first covering a fictional start-up company used throughout the book, the second offering a stepping stone map, and the third presenting a term sheet used in practice by venture capitalists.

    Carlota Perez draws upon Schumpeter's theories of the clustering of innovations to explain why each technological revolution gives rise to a paradigm shift and a "New Economy" and how these "opportunity explosions", focused on specific industries, also lead to the recurrence of financial bubbles and crises. These findings are illustrated with examples from the past two centuries: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel and electricity, the emergence of mass production and automobiles, and the current information revolution/knowledge society. By analyzing the changing relationship between finance capital and production capital during the emergence, diffusion and assimilation of new technologies throughout the global economic system, this book sheds light on some of the most pressing economic problems of today.

    By outlining the process every organization must go through to achieve its goals, and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.Needed more today than at any time in the past, this immensely relevant bestselling business book serves as both visionary guide and practical toolkit on how to approach the difficult yet crucial work of leading change in any type of organization. Reading this highly personal book is like spending a day with the world’s foremost expert on business leadership. You’re sure to walk away inspired—and armed with the tools you need to inspire others. Published by Harvard Business Review Press.

    cities. Once a year in each city, it funds about ten Internet startups with a small amount of capital and surrounds them with around fifty top Internet entrepreneurs and investors. Historically, about seventy-five percent of the companies that go through TechStars raise a meaningful amount of angel or venture capital. Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup is a collection of advice that comes from individuals who have passed through, or are part of, this proven program. Each vignette is an exploration of information often heard during the TechStars program and provides practical insights into early stage entrepreneurship.Contains seven sections, each focusing on a major theme within the TechStars program, including idea and vision, fundraising, legal and structure, and work/life balance Created by two highly regarded experts in the world of early stage investing Essays in each section come from the experienced author team as well as TechStar mentors, entrepreneurs, and founders of companies While you'll ultimately have to make your own decisions about what's right for your business, Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup can get your entrepreneurial endeavor headed in the right direction.

    Less inventory. The highest quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer. In factories around the globe, Toyota consistently raises the bar for manufacturing, product development, and process excellence. The result is an amazing business success story: steadily taking market share from price-cutting competitors, earning far more profit than any other automaker, and winning the praise of business leaders worldwide.The Toyota Way reveals the management principles behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability. Dr. Jeffrey Liker, a renowned authority on Toyota's Lean methods, explains how you can adopt these principles--known as the "Toyota Production System" or "Lean Production"--to improve the speed of your business processes, improve product and service quality, and cut costs, no matter what your industry.Drawing on his extensive research on Toyota, Dr. Liker shares his insights into the foundational principles at work in the Toyota culture. He explains how the Toyota Production System evolved as a new paradigm of manufacturing excellence, transforming businesses across industries. You'll learn how Toyota fosters employee involvement at all levels, discover the difference between traditional process improvement and Toyota's Lean improvement, and learn why companies often think they are Lean--but aren't.

    "Congratulations, Mr. Chairman", said Reg. It was a defining moment for American business. So begins the story of a self-made man and a self-described rebel who thrived in one of the most volatile and economically robust eras in U.S. history, while managing to maintain a unique leadership style. In what is the most anticipated book on business management for our time, Jack Welch surveys the landscape of his career running one of the world's largest and most successful corporations.