All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line

All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line

by Diana Kander
Released June 2014
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118857663

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Book description

If Owen Chase can't find a way to turn his company around in the next nine days, he'll be forced to shut it down and lay off all of his employees. He has incurred substantial debt and his marriage is on shaky ground.

Through pure happenstance, Owen finds himself pondering this problem while advancing steadily as a contestant at the World Series of Poker. His Las Vegas path quickly introduces him to Samantha, a beautiful and mysterious mentor with a revolutionary approach to entrepreneurship. Sam is a fountain of knowledge that may save his company, but her sexual advances might prove too much for Owen's struggling marriage.

All In Startup is more than just a novel about eschewing temptation and fighting to save a company. It is a lifeline for entrepreneurs who are thinking about launching a new idea or for those who have already started but can't seem to generate the traction they were expecting.

Entrepreneurs who achieve success in the new economy do so using a new "scientific method" of innovation. All In Startup demonstrates why four counterintuitive principles separate successful entrepreneurs from the wanna-preneurs who bounce from idea to idea, unable to generate real revenue.

You will likely get only one opportunity in your life to go "all in" in on an idea: to quit your job, talk your spouse into letting you drain the savings account, and follow your dream. All In Startup will prepare you for that "all in" moment and make sure that you push your chips into the middle only when the odds are in your favor. This book holds the keys to significantly de-risking your idea so that your success appears almost lucky.

Join Owen and Sam for this one-of-a-kind journey that will set you on the right path for when it's your turn to put everything on the line.

Table of contents

  1. Foreword
  2. A Letter from Thom Ruhe
  3. Introduction
    1. Chapter 1: First Appearances Can Be Deceiving
    2. Chapter 2: You’re Not Fooling Anyone
    3. Chapter 3: You Can’t Sell Anything by Doing All of the Talking
    4. Chapter 4: It’s How Well You Lose, Not How Well You Win, That Determines Whether You Get to Keep Playing
    5. Chapter 5: The Real Pros Don’t Play Every Hand
    6. Chapter 6: Vanity Metrics Can Hide the Real Numbers That Matter to Your Business
    7. Chapter 7: You Won’t Find a Mentor if You Don’t Ask
    8. Chapter 8: Put Your Customers and Their Needs before Your Vision for a Solution
    9. Chapter 9: Don’t Gamble—Use Small Bets to Find Opportunities
    10. Chapter 10: Even Experts Need to Prepare for New Terrain
    11. Chapter 11: People Don’t Buy Visionary Products; They Buy Solutions to Their Problems
    12. Chapter 12: Only Customers Can Tell You if You’ve Found a Problem Worth Solving
    13. Chapter 13: Hoping and Praying for Luck Is Not a Strategy
    14. Chapter 14: It’s Never Too Late to Test Your Assumptions
    15. Chapter 15: The Secret to Customer Interviews Is Nonleading, Open-Ended Questions
    16. Chapter 16: The Only Way to Get Good at Customer Interviews Is to Practice
    17. Chapter 17: Finding Out Your Assumptions Were Wrong Is Just as Valuable as Proving Them Right
    18. Chapter 18: Don’t Pivot to a New Idea without Testing Your New Assumptions
    19. Chapter 19: Save Your Chips for When You’ll Need the Least Amount of Luck to Win
    20. Chapter 20: Successful Entrepreneurs Recognize Failure, Fold, and Live to Fight Another Day
    21. Chapter 21: Test Your Assumptions before Committing Any Resources to an Idea
    22. Chapter 22: Luck Can Be Engineered if You Take Emotion Out of the Equation
    23. Chapter 23: Every Successful Entrepreneur Has More Failures than Successes
    24. Chapter 24: The Harder You Work, the Luckier You’ll Get
    25. Chapter 25: Opportunities to Find Prospective Customers Are Everywhere—You Just Have to Look
    26. Chapter 26: The Best Feedback from Potential Customers Comes from Meticulous Interviews
    27. Chapter 27: Recognize the Vanity Metrics to Avoid Big Losses
    28. Chapter 28: Keep Interviewing Customers until You Find a Migraine Problem Worth Solving
    29. Chapter 29: People Can’t Help Themselves from Sharing When You Bring Up a Migraine Problem
    30. Chapter 30: Stay Objective in Your Interviews Whether You Are Getting Good or Bad News
    31. Chapter 31: Nothing Else Matters until You Can Prove That Customers Want Your Product
    32. Chapter 32: Luck Makers Seek Out New Experiences and Find Opportunities Wherever They Go
    33. Chapter 33: Luck Is Not a Good Strategy for Poker or Business—It’s the Outcome of a Good Strategy
    34. Chapter 34: To Prove Demand, Find the Shortest Path to the Ultimate Customer Action
    35. Chapter 35: Prepare for Bad Luck by Building Up Reserves
    36. Chapter 36: Fear and Inaction Are the Two Greatest Threats to Your Business Idea
    37. Chapter 37: Understand Your Tendencies On Tilt So That You Can Compensate for Them
    38. Chapter 38: There Is No Mistaking It When You Uncover Migraine Problems Worth Solving
    39. Chapter 39: Get Comfortable with Being Wrong
    40. Chapter 40: Don’t Go All-In without Confirming Your Assumptions through Smaller Bets
    41. Chapter 41: Second Chances Are Rare—Make Sure You Get It Right the First Time Around
    42. Chapter 42: Even When You Find a Migraine Problem, Crafting a Solution Requires Vigilance and Readjustment
    43. Chapter 43: Don’t Commit All-In until You Prove That Customers Want Your Product and There’s a Business Model to Support It
    44. Chapter 44: The Strength of Your Initial Idea, or Starting Hand, Is Always Relative
  4. Sam’s Journal
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. About the Author
  7. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line
  • Author(s): Diana Kander
  • Release date: June 2014
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118857663