Startup Opportunities, 2nd Edition

Preface

Entrepreneurs dream of the magical moment in the creative process when they have a flash of clarity about how to solve a problem or make an innovative product. They often have an interesting story about this moment, and the origin stories of some successful companies have become legend. Yet, this moment of clarity often obscures the massive amount of work required to go from an idea to a real startup. From the outside looking in, a great company appeared out of nowhere. But the entrepreneur knows differently and remembers what had to happen to get from the idea to even the most embryonic startup.

As investors, we hear a simple question from entrepreneurs multiple times a day: “What do you think of my idea?” Sometimes the idea is well formed; often it is vague. Some have already been prototyped, others are just a few sentences in an email. Some have been thoroughly researched by an entrepreneur with deep domain knowledge, others are something completely new and different that the entrepreneur is exploring.

While it is easy to have an idea, it is incredibly hard to translate that idea into a successful business. The startup phase of a company requires a wide variety of activities to go from idea to successful startup. In the past few years, many books have been written about this process, including foundational ones such as The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank, and Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet.

Nevertheless, we continue ...