The Idea Accelerator


Book Description

The speed at which people in business need to process information, create new solutions and make decisions has increased dramatically in recent years. This book provides 60 practical ways by which the reader can think faster to reach earlier decisions, without neglecting a conscious, deliberate and reflective approach.




Accelerate This!


Book Description

Soooo, what is an accelerator, and how do they actually work? Are they worth it for entrepreneurs, companies, and investors? What pieces of advice should ALL entrepreneurs know (according to the experts)? If these are your questions, "Accelerate This!" is for you. Written by Ryan Kushner (The Accelerator Guy - www.acceleratorguy.com), "Accelerate This!" features interviews and tips from the world's best programs (Y Combinator, Techstars, 500 Startups, Cleantech Open, Google/Alphabet X, The Buckminster Fuller Institute, XPrize, Elemental Excelerator, Free Electrons and many more), and is backed by The World Bank, WWF, Asian Development Bank, New Energy Nexus and The California Clean Energy Fund. This highly visual, thoroughly researched and super not boring book cuts through the confusion so you can: - Understand accelerators from the perspective of an entrepreneur, investor, organization, or government - Learn how to grow your idea into a business through Lean Startup, Business Model Canvas, Customer Development and more- Understand if an accelerator is right for you - Create an accelerator program (or run yours better) Bonus! Each book comes with a carbon offset baked in, so this is a carbon neutral book. Buy, enjoy, share, turn into paper airplanes and throw at your friends. Just get busy doing, creating and making positive change in the world. We need it - and we hope "Accelerate This!" gives you the kick in the pants you are after. Waaaabam!




Startup Accelerators


Book Description

The must – read guidebook for entrepreneurs looking to get into accelerator programs and to build and scale their startups with speed Accelerator programs have become one of the most powerful and valuable resources for entrepreneurs seeking to learn rapidly, build powerful networks, raise capital, build their startups and do this at speed and scale. In recent years, the number of accelerator programs around the world has grown at an incredible rate, propelling startups such as AirBnB, Uber, DropBox, Reddit, and others — many to billion-dollar valuations. The number of accelerators, the differences in accelerator program offerings and the unique benefits and costs of different accelerator locations makes choosing the right accelerator a challenge. Selecting the wrong accelerator, failing to be accepted in the right one, or not fully taking advantage of all the accelerator has to offer can be costly, sometimes fatal. With the stakes so high, entrepreneurs need to understand all their options, choose carefully and do the right things to maximize their chances of success. Startup Accelerators is the go to guide for any entrepreneur, providing a firsthand look into the acceptance criteria and inner workings of different accelerator programs. Written by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, this indispensable resource explains what different accelerator programs offer, how to get accepted, what to do during the program, how to raise money during accelerators, what to do after the program ends, and much more. Packed with real-world case studies and advice from leading experts on startup accelerator programs, this one-stop resource provides step-by-step guidance on the entire accelerator process. Reveals how accelerators help founders navigate different challenges in the startup journey Describes the differences in the benefits and costs of different accelerator programs Explains how to prepare accelerator applications Discloses what actions to take during an accelerator to make the most of it Depicts case studies of entrepreneurs’ accelerator applications, experiences and outcomes across different accelerators Features interviews with accelerator program managers, founders who went through accelerators, and investors in companies going through or having gone through accelerators Includes insightful data and reflections from entrepreneurship education researchers and academics Startup Accelerators: A Field Guide will prove to be invaluable for startup founders considering or going through accelerators, as well as aspiring entrepreneurs, educators, and other startup accelerator stakeholders.




Speed Thinking


Book Description

Every day, business owners, managers and leaders are expected to deliver more and more with less and less. They have fewer people, smaller budgets and -crucially-less time. Lack of time to make decisions has become the most stressful part of life for many business people. In a time-poor, fast-moving world we need a new approach. In this breakthrough book, Ken Hudson shows you how to achieve amazing results in time-pressure situations using Speed Thinking. Speed Thinking is a practical thinking system that will enable you and your team to perform effectively as deadlines hit. You can create powerful new ideas, make better decisions faster and solve problems in literally minutes. If you and your team want to become more efficient and productive quickly - and feel more energis - then the process and tools of Speed Thinking can help you right now!




Entrepreneurship in the Wild


Book Description

A learn-by-doing guide to developing, testing, and pitching a startup idea, balancing a pragmatic approach and rigorous academic content. This innovative book offers a learn-by-doing guide to entrepreneurship that balances practical advice with rigorous academic content. It introduces important concepts, provides highly engaging examples, and supplies the tools needed to put lessons into practice, creating a research-supported, step-by-step reference for developing, testing, and pitching any startup idea. By integrating lean startup principles, design thinking, and elements of the jobs-to-be-done framework, this combination textbook-workbook allows readers to choose for themselves whether, or to what extent, to engage with theory. All of the book's ten chapters encourage hands-on effort, providing readers with easy-to-follow steps, calls to action, and attainable milestones. Aspiring entrepreneurs will find this systematic approach to be more efficient than haphazard trial and error, and much more likely to yield concrete results. Chapters begin with a "mini case," offering real-world examples of each step in the process. These cases--all featuring entrepreneurs working outside the Silicon Valley bubble--include a meadery operator that turned customers into advocates by designing compelling experiences and the development of a dating app for dog lovers that found a unique niche in a crowded market. Throughout, readers are immersed in the activity of starting a business, guided not only through the successful development of a startup but also to an understanding of the principles underlying entrepreneurship. The book can be used as a text in undergraduate and graduate classes and as a reference by entrepreneurs and innovators.




Disciplined Entrepreneurship


Book Description

24 Steps to Success! Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren’t born with something special – they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn: Why the “F” word – focus – is crucial to a startup’s success Common obstacles that entrepreneurs face – and how to overcome them How to use innovation to stand out in the crowd – it’s not just about technology Whether you’re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want. Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/




Startup Communities


Book Description

An essential guide to building supportive entrepreneurial communities "Startup communities" are popping up everywhere, from cities like Boulder to Boston and even in countries such as Iceland. These types of entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation and small business energy. Startup Communities documents the buzz, strategy, long-term perspective, and dynamics of building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other's talent, creativity, and support. Based on more than twenty years of Boulder-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist Brad Feld's experience in the field?as well as contributions from other innovative startup communities?this reliable resource skillfully explores what it takes to create an entrepreneurial community in any city, at any time. Along the way, it offers valuable insights into increasing the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improving access to entrepreneurial education, and much more. Details the four critical principles needed to form a sustainable startup community Perfect for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists seeking fresh ideas and new opportunities Written by Brad Feld, a thought-leader in this field who has been an early-stage investor and successful entrepreneur for more than twenty years Engaging and informative, this practical guide not only shows you how startup communities work, but it also shows you how to make them work anywhere in the world.




The Lean Startup


Book Description

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.




Design Science Research Methodology


Book Description

This book addresses the science of artificial and design theory in the context of the scientific research development environment. The author discusses the concepts, activities and techniques associated with the emerging methodology Design Science Research (DSR). Further, he examines the main challenges for its implementation, based on an analysis of the DSR literature, variations of DSR (i.e. Action Design Research, and Grounded Design), and the applicability of DSR in various disciplines related to innovation, both within and outside of the professional school. As a result, this book goes beyond conceptual issues of DSR, presenting and discussing more pragmatic issues and challenges faced by researchers. Design Science Research Methodology offers researchers in a variety of disciplines an examination of the various phases of scientific research development and communication.




Artscience


Book Description

Scientists are famous for believing in the proven and peer-accepted, the very ground that pioneering artists often subvert; they recognize correct and incorrect where artists see only true and false. And yet in some individuals, crossover learning provides a remarkable kind of catalyst to innovation that sparks the passion, curiosity, and freedom to pursue--and to realize--challenging ideas in culture, industry, society, and research. This book is an attempt to show how innovation in the "post-Google generation" is often catalyzed by those who cross a conventional line so firmly drawn between the arts and the sciences. David Edwards describes how contemporary creators achieve breakthroughs in the arts and sciences by developing their ideas in an intermediate zone of human creativity where neither art nor science is easily defined. These creators may innovate in culture, as in the development of new forms of music composition (through use of chaos theory), or, perhaps, through pioneering scientific investigation in the basement of the Louvre. They may innovate in research institutions, society, or industry, too. Sometimes they experiment in multiple environments, carrying a single idea to social, industrial, and cultural fruition by learning to view traditional art-science barriers as a zone of creativity that Edwards calls artscience. Through analysis of original stories of artscience innovation in France, Germany, and the United States, he argues for the development of a new cultural and educational environment, particularly relevant to today's need to innovate in increasingly complex ways, in which artists and scientists team up with cultural, industrial, social, and educational partners.