The Agile Startup: Quick and Dirty Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know

 

The Entrepreneur’s Life Cycle

From pre-idea to scale, there are six distinct stages that every entrepreneur goes through. In an effort to maximize the value you get from this book, we’ve stamped every lesson with one or more of the six stages. Referencing the icons would be a good way to get through the book quickly if you’re strapped for time (like most entrepreneurs) and want to focus on your current situation.

1. Pre-Idea

In the Pre-Idea stage, you know that you want to start your own business one day soon, but you aren’t working on any specific ideas yet. This is an exploratory stage, in which you scan broadly for opportunities. Your first ah-ha! moment when an idea starts to take hold will graduate you to the next stage.

2. Idea(s)

Idea is the second stage of an entrepreneur’s life cycle. You move past Pre-Idea when you start to dig into one or more ideas because you think they have potential. Rather than committing to any one idea at this stage, you’re still very much in an exploratory mode and trying to ascertain the feasibility of an idea through interviews and conversations.

3. Some Work Done

It is in the third stage, Some Work Done, that you transition from an exploratory ...