The Startup Company Bible For Entrepreneurs: The Complete Guide For Building Successful Companies And Raising Venture Capital [Paperback]

Stathis (Primary Contributor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: AVA Publishing (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975577611
• ISBN-13: 978-0975577615
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Its a "Good Book" but not the "Bible", March 5, 2007

By 

S. Roemerman (Dallas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Startup Company Bible For Entrepreneurs: The Complete Guide For Building Successful Companies And Raising Venture Capital (Paperback)

This is a book with great strengths and great weaknesses. If you are a seasoned entrepreneur, this is a useful resource at a fair price. If you are just thinking about starting your first company, be wary of this book; if you use it to chart your course, it could drive you onto a reef. In the hands of the naive, it will cause a lot of damage.

Strengths:

- Comprehensive - it covers a very wide range of topics
- Honest - the book tries to be forthcoming and avoid biases
- Based on Experience - Much of the book is based on the real world

Weaknesses:

- Organization - the organization is simply awful and there are few navigation resources to help you find your way through tangled threads of thought
- Myopic - this book assumes that you want to use Venture Capital - the most expensive money on the planet
- Inconsistent Quality - this is the most severe problem (more on this below).
- Ad Hoc - beyond ad hoc organization, much of the content (tables, chapters...) is ad hoc. It's impossible to tell when a list is supposed to be a list of examples, or when it's supposed to be comprehensive.

In the hands of someone who has started companies before, this is a great handbook and could be a good coaching tool to help others. In the hands of a beginner, it would be incredibly dangerous, since the inconsistent quality makes using it a potential disaster.

Inconsistent Quality: The book lacks quality on several levels.

On the elementary level, it's full of typos. No editor is named, either because there was no editor, or because there was not a single senior editor to sign the work.

On the broad level, there are so many examples of inconsistent quality that it's hard to know what to cite. The intellectual property discussion is, for the most part, quite good, and offers valuable advice that is often omitted. But, at the same time, this discussion is very sloppy in its terminology, so the same people who need the advice could be misled.

On the "sophisticated" level, there is an odd mix of truly useful teaching, and vapid babble. This is most evident when the book quotes business schools, like Harvard. Anyone who has actually run a business and then spent time around a business school knows that many of the professors have never actually DONE anything, and they don't know that they don't know. So, you see B-schools publish books and articles that don't say anything and the authors don't seem to know they have not said anything. These are "vacuum publications" because they are void of any real content. In this book, you'd hope that the vacuum publications would be absent, but sadly there are some quoted, cited, and in some cases, even their figures

A new edition could make this a great book - you can see a great book in there somewhere.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW! This is a FANTASTIC Guide., July 1, 2006

By 

Bootstrap - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Startup Company Bible For Entrepreneurs: The Complete Guide For Building Successful Companies And Raising Venture Capital (Paperback)

If you are trying to start or already have an early stage high tech or internet company, you REALLY NEED TO GET THIS BOOK! Unlike the others I have read that give general direction with no real guidance, THIS BOOK TELLS IT ALL. Here is a brief list of things this book will describe and even teach you in detail:

(1) How to properly structure your company--getting the vision and mission statement right and forming a business structure from it.

(2) How to understand the complex venture capital industry and how to think like a venture capitalist and angel investor so you can tell them what they want to hear so you can get the funding you need.

(3) All sources of funding with an explanation of the best resources for each stage of the business

(4) Never before seen in-depth description of the due diligence process

(5) How to form competitive strategies and position your company to fight off competitors

(6) How Venture firms value each stage of a company and how you can do it to so you go to the table knowing what you are talking about

(7) How to understand term sheets

(8) How to get the most intellectual property from your ideas and resources and how to get the most from your intellectual property

(9) How to run the business like a CFO--financials explained, forecasting interest rates, etc.

(10) How to determine the best exit strategies

(11) All the legal docs you need

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book Written on the Topic Hands Down, May 2, 2006

By 

Steve Johnson "SJ" (San Jose) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Startup Company Bible For Entrepreneurs: The Complete Guide For Building Successful Companies And Raising Venture Capital (Paperback)

I have experience as an entrepreneur and I only wish I had this book a long time ago. I would have saved valuable time and money from the advice and tricks he discusses. Finally, I paid over $800 for legal agreements from an attorney but this book has all the agreements you need, written by a venture attorney.

This is a book for the SERIOUS entrepreneur. It's not one of those generic books on startups you see floating all over. I have read dozens and I was beginning to give up hope finding one that really provides value until I read this book. The author has real experience working with early stage companies and he shares his wealth of knowledge for all to benefit from.

If you want an extremely comprehensive and invaluable guide for building a startup, raising venture capital, understanding term sheets, forming a business strategy, harnessing and protecting your intellectual property, and leading your company to success, this book is for you.

This book is appropriately named because it is like a Bible. And I could see it being required reading for all venture attorneys, consultants and even junior venture capitalists. I can see why the book has been used for a venture finance course. However, it reads much more smoothly than a textbook and contains practical information. The author only discusses theory when it is needed such as in valuations and understanding the venture capital industry.

Go ahead and waste your money buying 20 other start up books for $20. You will feel like you got taken once you read this book.

I must mention though that it is not a book that can be read in two or three days. It is 600 pages and the detail requires attention. But to treat this subject matter with any less detail would not provide value. And the author does a fabulous job balancing detail with practical uses.