Startup Opportunities, 2nd Edition

Table of contents

1. Foreword
2. Preface
3. Trust Me, Your Idea Is Worthless
   1. Note
4. Chapter 1 What Is a Startup?
   1. How to Use This Book
   2. Who This Book Is For
   3. Notes
5. Chapter 2 The Democratization of Startups
   1. The Cost to Launch Is Approaching Zero
   2. The World Is Flat
   3. The Path Is Known
   4. Access to Capital
6. Chapter 3 Opportunities
   1. The Four Criteria for an Opportunity
   2. What Is Opportunity Evaluation?
   3. What Is the Cost of Poor Opportunity Evaluation?
   4. Execution Trumps Opportunity
   5. Risk, Uncertainty, and Ambiguity
   6. The Issue of Bias
   7. Notes
7. Chapter 4 Approaches to Opportunity Evaluation
   1. Where Does Opportunity Evaluation Fit into the Overall Startup Process?
   2. Overview of Business Model Generation
   3. Overview of Customer Development and Lean Startup
   4. Overview of the Disciplined Entrepreneur
   5. A Modern Version of the Scientific Method
   6. Notes
8. Chapter 5 People
   1. Team
   2. Working Full Time
   3. Been There, Done That
   4. Passion
   5. Coachability
   6. Ability to Attract Talent
   7. Business Acumen
   8. Domain Knowledge
   9. Operational Experience
   10. Mentors
   11. Board of Directors/Advisors
   12. Customers
   13. Social Capital
   14. Notes
9. Chapter 6 Pain
   1. Compelling Unmet Need
   2. Size
   3. Durability and Timeliness
   4. Notes
10. Chapter 7 Product
    1. The 10× Rule
    2. Rate of Adoption
    3. Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory
    4. Intellectual Property
    5. Key Asset Access
    6. Proof of Concept—Selling Your Product in Advance of Making It
    7. Gross Margins
    8. Scalability
    9. Notes
11. Chapter 8 Market
    1. Market Stage
    2. Product/Market Fit
    3. Disruptive Innovation
    4. Industry CAGR
    5. Distribution Strength
    6. Customer Acquisition Costs
    7. Viral Marketing
    8. Competition
    9. The Goliath Paradox
    10. Barriers to Entry
    11. Government Regulations
    12. Partnership Status
    13. Knowing Why You Need to Raise Money
    14. Notes
12. Chapter 9 Plan
    1. Time to Launch
    2. Plan to Scale
    3. Reasonable Not Right
    4. Get Out of the Building
    5. Plan B
    6. Notes
13. Chapter 10 Pitch
    1. Short Form (Under 10 Minutes)
    2. Long Form (30 Minutes)
    3. Business Plan—or Not
    4. Executive Summary
    5. Q&A
    6. Notes
14. Chapter 11 Raising Money
    1. Building a Relationship with a Potential Investor
    2. Who Makes the Ask?
    3. Use of Proceeds
    4. Raise the Least Amount of Money to Get to the Next Level
    5. Ask for Money from the Right Kind of Investor
    6. Raise Money When It’s Available
    7. You Aren’t an Exception
    8. Why Anything Other Than a Yes Is a No
    9. Be Realistic about Your Valuation
    10. Even Angels Have Investment Committees
    11. Notes
15. Chapter 12 Pitfalls
    1. Showstoppers and Red Herrings
    2. Excessive Valuation
    3. Taboo Businesses
    4. No Skin in the Game
    5. The No Asshole Rule
    6. The Key Person Dependency
    7. Drinking Your Own Kool-Aid
    8. Notes
16. Chapter 13 Don’t Quit Your Day Job If You Aren’t . . .
    1. Passionate about the Space
    2. Able to Execute the Solution
    3. Certain That the Problem Is a Need (as Opposed to a Want)
    4. Certain That the Problem Is Shared by a Large (and Growing) Market
    5. Able to Offer a Solution That Is 10× Better Than Anything Else in the Market
    6. Ready to “Burn the Ships”
    7. Able to Access Potential Customers
    8. Able to Spend Six Months without Personal Income
    9. Able to Garner Enough People, Users, and Money to Create a Minimum Viable Product
    10. Prepared to Get into the Weeds and Do the Grunt Work
17. Glossary
18. Acknowledgments
19. About the Authors
20. Index
21. Excerpt from Brad Feld's Venture Deals, Third Edition
22. Crowdfunding
    1. Product Crowdfunding
    2. Equity Crowdfunding
    3. How Equity Crowdfunding Differs
23. EULA