From Idea to Success: The Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Guide for Start-Ups [Hardcover]

Gregg Fairbrothers (Author), Tessa Winter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 2011

Turn Your Great Idea into a Thriving Business!

“A guide that sets first-time entrepreneurs’ feet in the right direction.”
Geoffrey Moore, author, Crossing the Chasm

“There are many books on entrepreneurship, but this is one of the few that will convert individuals to entrepreneurs.”
Desh Deshpande, founder, Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, MIT; chairman, A123 Systems; cochair, National Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

About the Book:

Are you among the many Americans who dream of starting a business but think you don’t know how? Help has arrived . . .

For generations, Dartmouth College and the Tuck School of Business have influenced and driven global entrepreneurship. Dartmouth firsts include the world petroleum industry, technological breakthroughs like artificial intelligence and BASIC computer language, as well as popular products, such as the Nerf football and the game Crainium.

Today a key resource for the Dartmouth Community is the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network (DEN), which helps anyone from undergraduates to faculty to alumni get their ideas off the ground and into the marketplace.

In From Idea to Success, entrepreneur, professor, and DEN founder Gregg Fairbrothers takes you step by proven step through the DEN approach, showing you how to apply the same principles to make your vision a reality. If you have an idea—any idea—from major technology innovations, to consumer products or services, to social enterprises, From Idea to Success shows you how to bring it to fruition.

This A to Z guide based on the startup experiences of literally hundreds of entrepreneurs makes the process simple as possible by breaking it down into three distinct parts:

Step 1: Focusing and Refining Your Idea
Define your goals, pinpoint your market, protect your idea, manage the risks in your undertaking
Step 2: Business Planning Best Practices Create a business plan, build your team, learn about the competition, raise finances, get the important legal issues right the first time
Step 3: Managing Your Company Build your negotiating, selling, and decision-making skills; manage your finances; correct your course; manage the transition to a healthy, growing business

Building a vibrant company based on your own creativity and hard work is one of the most fulfilling human enterprises there is. With this book and your own experience you can think and act like a successful entrepreneur from the very start.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Founding a company on a promising idea is serious business. It’s risky, it takes hard work, and it can be a long time before you turn a profit. Entrepreneurship is also extraordinarily exciting, and the rewards—when they come—are many. But only if you do it right.

In From Idea to Success, Gregg Fairbrothers, Tuck School of Business professor and founder of the DEN, Dartmouth College’s Entrepreneurial Network, guides you through the process, so you can avoid common mistakes and seize opportunities many entrepreneurs miss. Learn how to:

• Focus your idea for a product or service
• Protect your idea
• Know your market
• Develop a business plan
• Identify your competition
• Avoid legal problems
• Sell your product
• Manager your finances

Make your vision a reality. Whatever your idea is—from major technology innovations to consumer products or services to social enterprises—learn here how to make the most of it.

About the Author

Gregg Fairbrothers is an adjunct business professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, founding director of Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network (DEN), and founding chair of the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center. He has managed and founded oil exploration and production companies on three continents.
Tessa Winter is a 2009 graduate of Dartmouth College and experienced nonprofit entrepreneur. She is currently studying medicine at Dartmouth Medical School.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (July 19, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071760792
• ISBN-13: 978-0071760799
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #465,168 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 Outstanding Resource August 14, 2011

By John Chancellor TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

From Idea to Success is an outstanding resource and should be read by all entrepreneurs prior to embarking on their entrepreneurial journey.

The most impressive thing about this book is that it is a complete guide, taking the entrepreneur from the idea stage to the liquidity event. However the completeness of the book might be its biggest drawback. It covers everything an entrepreneur needs or should know as they build their company. Because it is so thorough, there are certainly some sections which might not apply to all start-up ventures. And some of the extremely valuable lessons may be only one or two sentences that could easily get lost in the volume of information.

This is one of the best books I have read dealing with the subject of going from start-up to the ultimate disposition of the company. There is a lot of great information in this book. Much of it is drawn from the authors own experience as an entrepreneur and as the Director of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network. He clearly has a lot of hands on experience and has summarized it in a very logical and informative manner.

The book is well written and extremely easy to read - the author attributes the writing style to his co-author. I give them both lots of credit for taking a very complex subject and organizing and presenting it so that it is extremely engaging. In each chapter there is a guest contribution from an entrepreneur titled "What I know now that I wish I had known then". These little snippets gives some great insights into the valuable lessons the individual entrepreneurs learned along the way. These are great nuggets of wisdom.

Also at the end of each chapter are a series of questions designed to make the reader really think about the subject just covered. These questions should be answered in writing - it is the best way to get a better understanding of the material. At the end of each chapter are extensive reference notes on the subject matter covered. Also at the end of the book is a listing of additional resources arranged by chapter.

There are many topics covered in this book that you will not find in most entrepreneurial books. Negotiation and communication are two that are crucial to your success but are generally not covered in books dealing with start-up companies. There are also some great insights in when and how to divide up equity among original participants and some very sound advice on compensation. Again, all necessary topics are covered and the authors share some very valuable insights.

Perhaps the most valuable information is contained in the conclusion. Here the author gives some great philosophical advice for entrepreneurs (really for everyone). Most people want to know the next step to starting their business. His advice is to decide where you want to end up. Get a clear picture of who you want to be and what you want to accomplish - focus more on purpose than on short-term strategy. As he preaches throughout the book, the value is not in the ideas but in the execution.

A really well written book that covers everything the entrepreneur needs to know to get their project from the idea stage to a success. I highly recommend this for anyone wanting to start and grow their own business.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent guide for all companies not just start-ups October 29, 2011

By Csaba Nagy

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is such a practical book that you will put it down only because you want to leap out of your chair and implement something. Why? Because its hands on approach de-clutters the mind enabling the path From Ideas to Success to be much clearer.

I'll admit that maybe I'm prone to a little hyperbole, but that's only because I've read a dozen books on entrepreneurship ranging from the academic to the fable and this is only one that I enjoyed reading AND will use it as a reference in the future. The book is well written and well executed; it distills the essentials into a volume that could have been twice the size.

The book provides both the theory and the resources needed to execute in every area of business with many relevant examples in each chapter from entrepreneurs and investors. It often uses a question and answer format that is very efficient, yet the chapters still flow well and don't feel like a FAQ page on a website. An example of a topic that is often not covered well (if at all) in other books is the Board of Directors. The sections in the thirteen page Chapter 9 "Building Boards" are as follows: Why Do You Need a Board of Directors?, The Roles and Responsibilities of the Board, What do you Look For in a Director?, How Do You Put a Board Together?, How Should a Board Work?, Advisors and Advisory Boards, and What I Know Now I Wish I Had Known Then. While this list may seem disjointed, when you read the chapter you will see it is cohesive, it flows well and it is useful. There is also a very handy resource section at the end of the book organized by chapter.

The book is well structured; you can jump around from chapter to chapter without feeling lost. I couldn't find a table of contents anywhere on the web so here is a list for those who want to know the topics covered.
PART ONE: THE FRAMEWORK -- Who is the entrepreneur? -- The right words to say -- What's the idea? -- Thinking about the market -- Intellectual property and licensing - Risk.
PART TWO: BUILDING YOUR IDEA -- Building a business plan -- The founding team -- Building boards -- Employees and other people resources -- The competition -- Financing -- The law -- Nonprofits and social entrepreneurship.
PART THREE: MANAGING THE COMPANY -- Everything is negotiable! -- On sales and selling -- Communication -- Leaders decide -- Accounting and money management -- Correcting your course -- Growing -- Liquidity events.

What's missing from the book? I'm grasping at straws. The only thing I can think of is a companion workbook/website for those who learn by doing rather than just reading. But that's not a fair request. I haven't seen a workbook accompany a business book, let alone a textbook, in a long time. (But if ever Gregg and Tessa were to tackle such an ambitious project, I know the end result would be fantastic and I would be the first in line to buy it.)

You will not be disappointed if you are an entrepreneur and looking to buy a generalist book. And if you feel you were mislead by my review, I'll gladly trade your copy for one of my dusty reference business books taking up space on my shelf.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Get out your highlighter. August 14, 2011

By David E. McClendon

Format:Hardcover

This book is a very good place to start if you are thinking about starting a new business. It won't answer all of your questions; no book could. But it will give you some ideas and has an extensive list of further readings to help you along.

By reading From Idea to Success, the budding entrepreneur will learn that there are probably a lot of things that they don't know they don't know. Some of the information given in the book is a good review of things the reader might already know.
This book gives a basic overview of most of the subjects anyone seeking to start a business needs to know about, from business law to finance.

Reading this book will give the potential entrepreneur a good rock-solid base from which to start and build a business.

FTC Required Notice:

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for the purpose of writing this review. The opinions I express in my reviews are my own and in no way are influenced by the publisher or any other party. In Red Neck terms, I calls 'em likes I sees 'em, regardless of how I got the book to review.