Upstart Start-Ups!: How 34 Young Entrepreneurs Overcame Youth, Inexperience, and Lack of Money to Create Thriving Businesses [Paperback]

Ron Lieber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 1998

You're young and ambitious, with a great idea for a new software program, downtown music 'zine, or a better-than-Snapple beverage--but how do you turn your dream concept into a thriving business?

Forget the ultra-conservative suits who scoffed when you brought your hot idea to their door! As Fortune magazine's Ron Lieber shows, you can actually turn your youth, inexperience, and lack of money to your advantage and capitalize on your assets to trump the corporate system, be your own boss, and turn your entrepreneurial vision into a reality.

Based on interviews with more than thirty young, independent entrepreneurs who have developed some of today's hottest--even revolutionary--companies and products, Upstart Start-Ups! provides essential tips and information that will enable you to get your own Nantucket Nectars or Magnetic Poetry off the ground. Check out:

The myths and realities you need to know about starting a business when you're under 30
How to generate your first "brainstorm" and how to act on a good idea
How to overcome the stigmas of youth and inexperience and make your age work to your advantage
How to develop a realistic business plan
Where and how to get the financial backing you need
How to establish credibility for your business or product with consumers
Models that have proved successful, and how to apply them to your own vision


Twenty-six-year-old Ron Lieber writes for Fortune magazine and is the coauthor of the New York Times business bestseller Taking Time Off.  He appears regularly on national television and radio to discuss career issues, corporate management, and his recent columns.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What do Dave Kapell of Magnetic Poetry, Amy Nye Wolf of Altitunes, and the brothers Gardner of the Motley Fool have in common? They're all, says Ron Lieber, founders of promising companies and on the road to success despite youth, skimpy track records, and minimal finances. In Upstart Start-Ups, Leiber--a twentysomething who snagged his first cover story in Fortune at age 24--explains how these aspiring moguls formed the ventures that have allowed them to strike out on their own in such impressive fashion. Leiber is both blunt and inspiring as he weaves their stories around solid advice aimed at readers who might like to follow in their footsteps. Tackling the process from idea formation, he describes finding and living with a business partner, capitalizing a venture without selling your soul, standing out in a crowded marketplace, and calling a meeting even if you've never called one before. He also devotes a chapter to the art of summoning the appropriate backup troops when truly necessary, regardless of whether that help must be secured from family members or professional gurus. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

Fortune writer Lieber (who's 26) gears this chatty guide to people under age 35 who don't have rich parents to help them get started. He distills the hard-won insights of 34 young entrepreneurs who launched successful start-ups?an online personal-finance forum, an art gallery, a wine distributorship, a funky Mexican restaurant, a chain of airport-based music stores, among others?and kept them going. Their firsthand experience is the core of the book, which follows the approach of Lieber's Taking Time Off, which advised college students by example in how to carefully tune in and temporarily drop out. While this is not a comprehensive, detailed handbook, the savvy tips of Lieber's interviewees acquaint tyros conceptually with a variety of standard business practices. They offer such basics as "Do What You Know," as one acne-prone woman now runs a thriving skin-care spa notes, to do-it-yourself market research, like that of a swimwear designer who apprenticed in retail to find out what women really wanted. Other young turks take us through formulating a business plan, attracting venture capital, hiring and firing employees, budgeting and so forth. This upbeat primer will serve as a springboard for readers of any age, though some of less sunny casts will scoff at its lack of fatal mistake-makers. Editor, Suzanne Oakes; agent, Anne Edelstein.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (August 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076790088X
• ISBN-13: 978-0767900881
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes you wanna do it too..., January 22, 2000

By 

Elad Kehat (Ramat Hasharon, Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Upstart Start-Ups!: How 34 Young Entrepreneurs Overcame Youth, Inexperience, and Lack of Money to Create Thriving Businesses (Paperback)

I was lucky enough to read this book when I was fiddling with the idea of starting my own business. The stories of other young people who had the courage to take the plunge realy inspired me and gave me the final push towards the decision, a decision I'm very glad that I made. In short, this book is not a how-to book, it doesn't give you information, but it sure does give you inspiration...

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bingo Bango! Sugar in the gastank!, February 4, 2001

By 

Christopher Wilson "Cartoonist" (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Upstart Start-Ups!: How 34 Young Entrepreneurs Overcame Youth, Inexperience, and Lack of Money to Create Thriving Businesses (Paperback)

Awesome. Well, its hard for a BOOK to be AWESOME, but this one is close. Let's just call it "an exceptionally superb read."

This book closed the book for me (pun intended) on whether or not to begin my little business. And the answer is a resounding YES! This is not a book that will teach you how to file with the IRS, or how to write a business plan. What it will teach you is whether or not you are ready to run your own business.

The lessons I got from this book that have stuck with me are A: Don't wait until you're too old to start a business! By then you'll know better. B: It doesn't matter if you don't really know what you're doing; nobody does. These lessons, and many more, are reinforced by interviews and stories of many different entrepreneurs, who range from tiny companies you've never heard of, to the guy who started CDNOW. You will have a notebook full of ideas by the time you're through.

WARNING: If you're over 30, be prepared to feel crappy about how you're spent your years since graduation from college or high school. Although anyone who wants to start a business will benefit immensely from this book, it is written to appeal to young, hip, headstrong gen-whatevers like me. And there are lots of swear words, which makes it seem even more hip and not stuck-up.

One other thing: the resource section in the back is frab-dabulous and zip-zoop-zabulous.

Buy it now!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Identifies the problems Entrepreneurs face, July 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Upstart Start-Ups!: How 34 Young Entrepreneurs Overcame Youth, Inexperience, and Lack of Money to Create Thriving Businesses (Paperback)

A good read if you are thinking about starting a start up but if you are already have an operating start up, then this book will confirm the obstacles you are facing but no major enlightening answers to overcome these obstacles... only a list of resources in the back of the book.