Get the real guidance you need to create and build your first startup company from founders who have been there many times before.
The first run printing of The Startup Playbook SOLD OUT! So, we revised, expanded, and improved this second edition, including a new foreword by Brad Feld, author of Venture Deals.
We still give our personal, how-to guide for building your startup from the ground up. You'll find a collection of the major lessons and shortcuts we've learned that will shift the odds in your favor. We're sharing our tips, secrets, and advice in a frank, founder-to-founder discussion with you.
We make no bones about our bias. We're on your side, the founder's side. While venture capitalists, investors, and accelerators/incubators can add great value in the startup ecosystem, this book isn't about their points of view. We'll tell you where our interests as founders diverge from those on the other side of the table--investors, bankers, advisors, board members, and others--and what to do when that happens.
The Startup Playbook is not a recipe, it's not a template, it's not a list of tasks to do. It's our insider's guide to starting a company and running it successfully in those critical early months. Between us, we've started over a dozen high-tech software companies and raised over $500 million in investment capital. We've acquired over thirty-five companies, had three of our startups go public, sold six of them, and we made billions of dollars for shareholders. We've also invested in over eighty startups, advised and mentored over two hundred companies and actively worked with venture capitalists (VCs), incubators, and accelerators to help launch many other new startups.
We've had plenty of failures, too. And we've probably learned more from those than from the successes. We share those lessons as well.
The Startup Playbook is full of our advice, guidance, do's, and don'ts from our years of experience as founders many times. We want to share our hard-earned knowledge with you to make success easier for you to achieve.
"This book is extraordinarily fresh and exciting. In an accessible, straight talk fashion, this book is a manual, and an inspiration. The Startup Playbook is smart and avoids the 'I am so smart' over-writing endemic to the genre. Read this as it is presented. You'll be doing yourself a tremendous favor."
--Amazon Reviewer
About the Author: RAJAT BHARGAVA is currently co-founder and CEO of JumpCloud, a cloud software company building technology for organizations to securely connect their employees to IT resources. An MIT graduate with over two decades of high-tech experience, Rajat is a ten-time entrepreneur with six exits including two IPOs and four trade sales. The Startup Playbook is the book Rajat wished he had read before he started his first company.
WILL HERMAN is an entrepreneur, active angel investor, corporate director, and startup mentor. He has started and managed five companies, resulting in two IPOs and two corporate sales. Will has also invested in over eighty startups, served on the boards of twenty-five companies, and has advised over a hundred more. The Startup Playbook is the culmination of Will's years of experience across all roles in startups, but focuses on the most important point of view, the founder's perspective.
