Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning To Play The High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game [Hardcover]

Kay Koplovitz (Author), Peter Israel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2002

Kay Koplovitz went from selling cable TV services in New Jersey to founding and running the incredibly successful cable television franchise, USA Networks. But when the company was sold in 1997 for $4. 5 billion, not a nickel of the sale proceeds came her way. Instead, she was on the street without a job. Why? She didn't have equity. And equity-ownership-is all that counts. Looking for money to start new businesses, Koplovitz soon learned another tough lesson: Over 95% of American venture capitalists are men and 95% of the money they invest goes to male-owned businesses. So how do women get money to fund their start-ups? They don't. This realization spurred Koplovitz into action. She developed a venture capital forum called Springboard, designed to help women develop the networks and presentational skills to get the money they need. In Bold Women, Big Ideas, Kay Koplovitz shares the lessons of Springboard: how to craft a business plan; how to create a winning pitch; how to figure out what investors are looking for and what to look for in investors. Using examples of pioneering women entrepreneurs, she shows us how a new generation of gutsy, ambitious, smart women are breaking the barriers of the old-boy network and forging their own start-ups. Her inspiration, wisdom, and clear-eyed advice are crucial for anyone who wants to create, launch, and finance a brand new enterprise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Koplovitz ran the USA Networks for 21 years, negotiating enormously successful deals, including the televising of National Baseball League games. However, in 1997 USA Networks became a bargaining chip in an unpleasant lawsuit between Viacom and MCA, and was sold for $4.5 billion. Since Koplovitz had no equity in the company, she made no money from the sale. She suddenly found herself looking for a new employment opportunity and confronted with the reality that women, according to her, are still at a distinct and tangible disadvantage in the business world, whether in raising venture capital or finding ownership opportunities. This led Koplovitz, along with some other well-connected women, to form Springboard, a venture capital group intended to help women start and grow businesses. Now involved in Springboard, as well as a company that televises Broadway shows, Koplovitz tells her own career story and gives advice for female entrepreneurs on such subjects as how to create a pitch and how to prepare for the tough questioning of investors. She offers readers a look into the psyche of today's venture capitalists and shares the business stories of other women who've sought funding from Springboard. Though Koplovitz's claim that female entrepreneurs face greater challenges than men may be true, this topic has already received much attention, and readers might be familiar with some of the material here. Also, Koplovitz only discuses professional life; this is not a book for those who want to read about balancing career and family. However, for fledgling female entrepreneurs and anyone else who wants an inspiring and educational look at successful businesswomen making high-stakes deals, this book fits the bill.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

An entrepreneur who founded the successful cable TV franchise USA Networks, Koplovitz later developed a nonprofit venture capital forum called Springboard, after learning that only 1.7 percent of the billions invested by venture capitalists in new businesses the previous year (1997) went to enterprises owned or led by women. In this book, she gives her expert advice on formulating a successful business plan or winning pitch and on sizing up today's investors. She uses examples of pioneering women entrepreneurs and provides inspiration and advice to anyone who wants to launch and finance a new business venture. The glossary and practical list of resources at the end of the book will help beginners get started learning about and finding venture capital. The book is written in a crisp, businesslike tone but with numerous glimmers of humor; current and wannabe entrepreneurs will gain information, understanding, and appreciation of how business works in today's economy. Most public and academic libraries will want to purchase. Susan C. Awe, Univ. of New Mexico Lib., Albuquerque
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1st edition (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158648107X
• ISBN-13: 978-1586481070
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,270,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women Take Their Piece Of The Money Pie And It Tastes Great, May 3, 2002

By 

Susan K. Straus (Washington D.C. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning To Play The High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game (Hardcover)

I liked this book because it reveals the dirty little secret that men play power games in business at the expense of women. More important, it takes a good look at how women are doing amazing things to take business power for themselves. I liked what I saw. Koplovitz pulls no punches. She names names -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. And there are alot of names.
Koplovitz decribes how, after twenty some years of high flying success, she was pushed out of USA Networks, a company she built from nothing to several billlion dollars. She was a CEO without equity despite her repeated offers to buy in. The boys said no. That was O.K. because they let her run the show. And she made them a fortune. But when Barry Diller, a member in good standing of the incestuous old boys network, ended up owning USA, he pushed her out so that he could play with his new toy. Koplovitz makes this tale a good read. But the book is alot more.

Koplovitz is convincing that she is not bitter. She describes her catastrophe as a wakeup call. The glass ceiling turns out to be lead if you want to own a piece of the men's game. So she has set out to make it happen for herself and for other women who want to own big dollar companies based on the kinds of risks that earn big payoffs. She takes us along on her journey to find money for women with great business prosects.

This is more than a serious "how to" book for anyone who wants to raise venture capital, although Koplovitz offers several chapters that read like a "to do" list if you want to win the hearts (and money) of venture capitalists. The book also inspires. It includes terrific stories of women who were sucessful participatnts in the Koplovitz brain child, Springboard 2000, a kind of boot camp to give hard driving women the unique presentation skills that rake in ventrue capital. Koplovitz initiated Springboard 2000 after she was appointed by the President as chair of the National Women's Business Council, a sub-cabinet department in Wasington D.C. She tells how hard it was to get ventrue captialist-- mostly men-- to participate in the Springboard forum where women presented their business plans. But the ventrue capitalists came and this is the tale of how the women conquered. Koplovitz's success to date suggests that hers is the best revenge-- that is, living well as the owner of her own business, Broadway Televison Network (BTN), and watching scores of other women push into the business and money game where it won't just be for men any more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honestly Bold, August 12, 2002

By 

"pzny" (New York City, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning To Play The High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game (Hardcover)

As one of the many people Ms. Koplovitz mentions in this book, I found it to be as honest, up front, inspiring and instructive as she is in person. Its appeal is in its focused, quick moving style that engaged me from the first paragraph.
In a comfortable, easy voice, Ms. Koplovitz openly shares her own experiences, good and bad, and also presents case histories of three other women entrepreneurs. I found it easy to identify with so many of the challenges discussed, and so helpful to read about her own story as well as those of the other women CEO's, and their quests for success in the venture capital and entrepreneurial arenas.
Over the years, she has also had business dealings with some of the more "colorful" characters in the contemporary business scene. Her anecdotes about Barry Diller, Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Sumner Redstone, Larry Ellison and many more, are fun to read as well as insightful.
The message Ms. Koplovitz urges is clear. It's time for women to stop banging their heads against the ceiling, and move towards the open skies of entrepreneurship. This is an accessible, forthright book that avoids unnecessary complexity and addresses issues relevant to all women in the workplace. I recommend it highly.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-read, July 4, 2002

By 

Stephanie Daniels (Jersey City, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning To Play The High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game (Hardcover)

I have been thinking for a while about what the next step would be in the much maligned feminist movement, unrepentant former bra-burner that I am. I think I've come upon it in Kay Koplovitz's new book, Bold Women, Big Ideas. Not everyone, myself included, will dream up patents for new biotech (or any other tech for that matter) processes. But sometime in an independent, creative woman's life, she may want to produce something besides the children she's birthed (no disparagement here, I have one myself), something that will cause the revenue stream to flow in, rather than continuously siphon it out. This book is the roadmap to that place, with everything you always wanted to know about making a solid business plan to finding the venture capitalists and convincing them to fund your new baby. Koplovitz serves as the best model herself, a bold woman who had the big idea of USA Network when the cable industry was in its infancy. She shares with her readers her own mistakes and insights learned from those mistakes ("if you're not an owner, it's not your business"). I was inspired, reading about the other fascinating women with big ideas and how they learned to allow their personalities to emerge when pitching their product to the men with the money. And it is the men who usually have the money, guarding it for the most part, from women's businesses, or, perhaps worse, assuming that where a woman's business may not necessarily be in the home, the home should be what her business is about (a la Martha). This is the book that the men who form the tight circle around the money don't want us to read.