Customer Reviews

The Web Startup Success Guide (Books for Professionals by Professionals)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This should be a couple of blog entries in a B+ blog, not a $20 book.

The book is not only badly written, it does not hardly any useful content either. Everything said here should be obvious to any person who has lived for any time near any web business. The author has unnecessarily made the book fat by having many long interviews with his friends - most of them add little to the content .

If you find this book useful - you should ask if you are the right person to run a business and perhaps spend sometime learning "basic business stuff" first.

Here is my recap of content:
* Chapter 1: Introduction: Funding a web startup today is easier than ever and many options exist including self-funding (duh!!)
* Chapter 2: Create value. There is no shortage of just "ideas" (duh, again !!)
* Chapter 3 & 4: There are lot of tools available to you like SaaS platforms, open source cms and local meetup groups (duh, duh ,duh !!)
* Chapter 5 is about raising money. It is filled with meaningless generalizations ("raising money is like falling in love") - none of them of much use.
* Chapter 6 is about social media. More generic stuff. Nothing said here is so remarkable that you cannot find it online - just google "how to market on social media" and just read the top 5 links. you will be WAY AHEAD of this book.
* Chapter 7 - The summary is - You need to be clear about what your USP is (duh !!)
* Chapter 8 - A long chapter on GTD methodology. There is no reason for it to be in this book. If GTD is your way, read a book on GTD.
* Chapter 9 - a needlessly long chapter about author's recommendation of 6 blogs to read.

Throw this book in fireplace - that will be more useful.

I bought this book based on excellent reviews in hope that it would help me to know what and how to do to start my own web business. But "Web Startup Success Guide" turned out to be just a list of general and obvious recommendations with a vast amount of ads of various on-line tools, including author's own "Startup To-Do".

No real help, too long to be read in a spare time, typographic quality is too low. I'm deeply disappointed with this book.

Let's start with the bottom line first. If you're interested in, considering, or currently involved in any kind of small (1-5ish person) tech startup, get this book. The investment in terms of price, and more importantly your time, will be easily recouped many times over. From that point of view, it's a no-brainer.

If you're familiar with Bob's other books, you know what to expect in terms of style and approach. You'll first of all find in depth, well-written and engaging discussions about a number of topics: how to identify the problem your startup will solve (its value), the newly expanded world of modern technology platforms, valuable tools and organizations, raising money, leveraging social media, creating and delivering your message, and startup productivity issues.

Targeted to a technology but not business savvy audience, this is a reasonable selection of topics to cover. Obviously it's not exhaustive, but it does draw attention to the areas where technology people tend to have the biggest blind spots, which is really the point - to get people thinking about those areas that they otherwise wouldn't.

The quality of how each topic was covered varied a bit. Some were excellent - the choice and tradeoffs of platforms, defining your problem, social media and crafting your message (two areas covered in more detail in previous ebooks he's written, but summarized well here). The money chapter, an area that Bob freely admits is outside his personal experience, I found asked far too basic questions (perhaps something most techies need, but even then it doesn't take them far enough, and they really need professional help) and doesn't deal heavily enough with the "costs" of raising money (e.g. control and direction issues, opportunity costs), something that should be treated far more seriously by more potential startups. The productivity chapter is too exclusively GTD-focused for my liking, and a topic more technology people are probably already more familiar with than others in the book.

As with any such book, it pays to think critically about the material presented. What are the unstated assumptions behind each point? What situations does it apply to, and where doesn't it apply? The point is by working through this book, it will raise the issues you need to seriously think about. Whether or not you do... well, there are reasons that not every startup is a success.

Complementing Bob's own discussion of these issues are a large number of interviews with leading experts on different topics. As with his other books, these interviews are a real highlight, and something that makes his books stand out from others. You'll also find brief introductions to a large number of tools and resources that can help startups. Any one of these alone justifies the price and time investment of this book. I know I learned about several tools I had no idea about that I've already found incredibly useful, and others I knew about in passing that now deserve a fresh look.

With these interviews and tool overviews, you're really saving yourself a ton of time going out looking for things on your own, as well as the costs of not using things that could easily put your startup way further ahead. Instead, you're getting the benefit of the many long hours that Bob spent doing this research for you, at a tiny fraction of the cost. This is a huge part of the book's appeal and value.

I did miss a checklist at the end of each chapter, but it sounds like the new site [...]that he is launching will more than eclipse that need...

While this is by no means the definitive comprehensive guide to web startups, it's an incredibly useful and thought-provoking book that you should consider essential reading as part of your own startup adventures.

Where do I start. It seems like the authors claim to fame is that he has a successful small business teaching other small business's how to be successful. Did I miss something here? 90% of the book is just ads/informercials for companies which I assumed paid the author some money to appear in his book. Think of this book like a yellow pages for starting up your own company. The only difference is that the yellow pages is free. Everything in this book can be found just by googling.

I don't find this book really useful. Why? Because everything written in this book can be easily searched from the internet. The information is not covered in depth. I also find that the book does not offer new thoughts or concept that I will need to start a web startup business.

The book reads like a compilation from different online sources and interviews. The interviews are often interesting but this kind of content is easy to find online, for free. There not many author's insights on how to do this or that to achieve web startup success.

The two main gripes I have with this book relate to its title and cover. They make the book look and feel like a bland college textbook which would not be out of place alongside my old edition of Constitutional Law 101.

But that is very misleading - beneath the covers, the book is a lively and contemporary narrative that should help young start-ups with some practical tips and useful tools. The book is up-to-date with current trends, and has a healthy amount of advice on topics such as social media and other recent game-changers.

Included in the mix are verbatim interviews with some industry experts, which I particularly enjoyed. The book is written in an easy-going, friendly style with some subtle humor that I am sure will resonate with most readers.

Some entrepreneurs are naturally gifted; others strike it lucky, but most of us need some help along the way. If you are thinking about a start-up or are in the early stages of getting your start-up going, this book will make a useful, modern and up-to-date addition to your arsenal of start-up literature.

I've read quite a few startup books, and I even have an MBA in entrepreneurship - and I still found this book incredibly useful. I'm just starting up a web-based software as a service company and this book gave me some great information on where to go, what to do,and how to do it.

I really liked that the book is extremely relevant. It provides information that is current - and has a whole list of great suggested sites and services to help you in getting your business up and running.

Overall, I definitely recommend it! The only downside in my opinion was too much coverage of VC and Angel funding.

I loved this book, it has a lot of good interviews and some good examples of startup success stories.It offers great tips, a lot of which may seem like common sense but are very well presented and the book is an easy read. I like the way the author covers most aspects related to starting a Software/Web app based business and gives pointers to several resources to help with those aspects. Its already made an impact on how I plan and execute my own project.

(Warning! I received this book as a gift from the publishers, and promised to write a review on it. Not necessarily good, but fair. I am very glad that I did not have to stand before such a choice, I liked the book.)
Bob Walsh was a programmer with great experience, and now he is author of several books and a consultant in the field of making startups. His previous books dealt with two areas - social media and the idea of micro ISV - that is, the "companies", consisting of one person, a programmer. I do not know about social media, but the idea of micro ISV for Bob is verified by personal experience. And yes - no, Bob is not the author of several successful startups, but this is the perfect example how even very smart and talented people are not necessarily reaching an instant success in a startup. However, he continues to try - look at his project [...] (say, in the gold rush more than anyone earned sellers spades).
I am sure many programmers somehow thought about the idea of micro ISV (of course, under other name). The idea is simple enough: what is it: I write, write, and millions on my code earns someone else? Or, like this: what are these stupid job they give me, who develops like this? I did much better understand how to develop, don't want to work for someone else, who does not understand software? Bob Walsh passed this way, had his suffer, made his homework, got his lessons, and talked with a whole bunch of smart people on this topic. And he wrote a book about it!
What usually do not see programmers, this is a huge world of business, which doesn't care what kind of product you're doing. It quickly becomes clear that brilliant code and architectural solutions - is only part, and not the biggest. Sales and marketing, perhaps more important than interface and the lack of bugs. To win a beauty contest not enough to be beautiful - you must also take part in a beauty contest. What to do? One option - to find a partner who can fulfill these functions, and then, two, or three of you can be a strong team that has talent on all important for a young company lines. The second option, micro ISV - to become a specialist in the other, missing fields. Why would a man not to be a programmer and marketer, and seller, and many other virtual workers in his company-one-man? Of course, Bob Walsh does not know what a bookkeeping and tax accounting in Ukraine, therefore, believes that all this is possible to combine in one talented man.
What you will find in this book? Not a word about programming, you decide yourself what product and how to create. Much more important to understand the value of your product. If you're doing a startup, micro ISV, call it what you are comfortable - you start the game for the money. You must earn, and who does it better, not necessarily better programmer. It is better to understand who pays and why. Know better how to find a need and satisfy it. How to talk with your clients, and, at least, let them know that the product exists. How to find the money at a time when they are needed. How to be a very, very productive, because success comes only as a result of persistent and hard work.
The book not only a thoughts of Bob on these topics, there are also many interviews with those who have succeeded in this. Not all names are known in our latitudes (Ukraine), but Guy Kawasaki, Joel Spolsky, and approving and giving interviews to this man. Separately, I want to mention an outstanding selection of epigraphs for each chapter - this is a very comprehensive and interesting quotes.
I believe that every programmer who for more than three times was thinking about how to do something about such things, startup or something else could spend twenty bucks and a couple of days to read this book and become smarter, and perhaps , never think about it. Or continue to think, but much more sober. It is much cheaper and faster than get same experience yourself. That's why the very first phrase on the cover reads as follows: from developer to founder. And, of course, do not forget that the most exciting and famouse projects are made possible in spite of books, lessons and instruction. All of them, of course, to be read.
Knowledge is a force!