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Startup Leadership: How Savvy Entrepreneurs Turn Their Ideas Into Successful Enterprises
Anyone can start a business. But only leaders can succeed.
Most entrepreneurs know the long only a fraction of them will lead their enterprises through the rocky stages of growth to launch self-sustaining companies. Very few know how to outflank the failures that await them at every turn, including the most painful—being abandoned by key members of their team or getting pushed out by their board just as their business starts to generate real value.
Derek Lidow is on a mission to improve these odds and change these outcomes. Throughout his long career—as CEO, innovator, and entrepreneur—he has tested virtually every aspect of launching a business. Lidow now argues that success is far less dependent upon a firm’s idea or any grand strategy than it is upon something more leadership. Emerging companies have specific leadership requirements, stage by fast-moving stage. Few founders have been able to leverage the tremendous power of this underrecognized reality—until now.
Startup Leadership demonstrates how founders can adopt the skills that are required at each stage of their journey. Whether you are at the idea stage or managing a more mature enterprise, you can start to recognize the fundamental how to balance your selfish drives with the more selfless leadership required by the organization at any given time. The book shows you how to achieve this balance
Assessing your unique motivations, traits, and skills Creating a personal leadership strategy that leverages your strengths and mitigates your weaknesses Mastering how to lead teams, including boards Understanding the five prerequisites for driving change Taking control of your inevitable crises, thereby strengthening your team and your leadership With Lidow’s help, you will learn how to become the startup leader your business needs, and you’ll move forward with your plans with greater confidence and success.
Most entrepreneurs know the long only a fraction of them will lead their enterprises through the rocky stages of growth to launch self-sustaining companies. Very few know how to outflank the failures that await them at every turn, including the most painful—being abandoned by key members of their team or getting pushed out by their board just as their business starts to generate real value.
Derek Lidow is on a mission to improve these odds and change these outcomes. Throughout his long career—as CEO, innovator, and entrepreneur—he has tested virtually every aspect of launching a business. Lidow now argues that success is far less dependent upon a firm’s idea or any grand strategy than it is upon something more leadership. Emerging companies have specific leadership requirements, stage by fast-moving stage. Few founders have been able to leverage the tremendous power of this underrecognized reality—until now.
Startup Leadership demonstrates how founders can adopt the skills that are required at each stage of their journey. Whether you are at the idea stage or managing a more mature enterprise, you can start to recognize the fundamental how to balance your selfish drives with the more selfless leadership required by the organization at any given time. The book shows you how to achieve this balance
Assessing your unique motivations, traits, and skills Creating a personal leadership strategy that leverages your strengths and mitigates your weaknesses Mastering how to lead teams, including boards Understanding the five prerequisites for driving change Taking control of your inevitable crises, thereby strengthening your team and your leadership With Lidow’s help, you will learn how to become the startup leader your business needs, and you’ll move forward with your plans with greater confidence and success.
335 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
31 people are currently reading
248 people want to read
About the author
Derek Lidow
5 books12 followersDerek Lidow is a global CEO, startup coach, writer, and researcher. He founded iSuppli, a leading market research firm, which he sold in 2010 for $100 million to global information leader IHS. He currently teaches entrepreneurship at Princeton University and is the author of two books: Startup Leadership and Building on Bedrock. Lidow is also a frequent media commentator in outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Forbes, The Economist, Nikkei, Reuters, and Taipei Times.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 16, 2015
Learnt the 4 stages of company growth:
1) customer validation
2) operational validation
3) financial validation
4) self-sustainability
1) customer validation
2) operational validation
3) financial validation
4) self-sustainability
March 7, 2019
It was an interesting book to read in terms of leadership and thoughts to think about as an entrepreneur leader. Not a CEO for a big established book, but focused on the stages one has to go through to get the startup up and running.
So if you are curious about the caveats out there when trying to start and scale a company, this book gives you good insight!
So if you are curious about the caveats out there when trying to start and scale a company, this book gives you good insight!
April 17, 2023
Today I finished the audiobook "Startup Leadership: How Savvy Entrepreneurs Turn Their Ideas Into Successful Enterprises". In this book author Derek Lidow outlined the 4 stages of a company's growth and the leadership requirements for each of those stages. He mentions that the entrepreneur must move passed being just an entrepreneur to becoming an entrepreneurial leader (EL).
Stage One: "Customer Validation" starts once the idea becomes reality and ends as soon as customers commit.
Stage Two: "Operational Validation" starts as customers use the product and ends when processes ensure customer satisfaction.
Stage Three: "Financial Validation" starts when the value proposition delivers on its promise through a viable business model and ends when the company scales and is consistent.
Stage Four: Self-Sustainability starts when the leader develops not only new customers, but new products and ends (or never ends) with a process of continuous development of both.
Source: https://ashikuzzaman.com/2023/04/16/s...
Stage One: "Customer Validation" starts once the idea becomes reality and ends as soon as customers commit.
Stage Two: "Operational Validation" starts as customers use the product and ends when processes ensure customer satisfaction.
Stage Three: "Financial Validation" starts when the value proposition delivers on its promise through a viable business model and ends when the company scales and is consistent.
Stage Four: Self-Sustainability starts when the leader develops not only new customers, but new products and ends (or never ends) with a process of continuous development of both.
Source: https://ashikuzzaman.com/2023/04/16/s...
January 12, 2020
This book gave me one absolutely fantastic nugget, which is why it gets 2 stars as opposed to 1. And then it did all the things I hate in modern non-fiction. This book should have been a blog post. The opening chapters are all you need. The most valuable info is when he described the 4 stages of a business. It is super helpful for identifying where you are and setting goals. After that, it’s simply impossible to read. Too many examples and stories, so much fluff. Yuck. Grab it from a library, read chapter 1, and call it a day.
November 28, 2016
The framework of the book outlining the 4 stages of a company and the leadership requirements for each is excellent but the book was very difficult to read and get through for me. I love reading and I found myself at times dreading reading this book.
In summary, I think the concepts are spot on but it could have been much better written.
In summary, I think the concepts are spot on but it could have been much better written.
December 13, 2022
Really good book about the dynamics of companies in the early years. Good advice about managing one. Also good if you work at a startup and want better insights into the challenges facing the company.
This is better than "The Hard Thing about Hard Things".
This is better than "The Hard Thing about Hard Things".
July 2, 2025
A Tremendous resource!
Great information. I would love to find business valuation resources in the appendix. Can you recommend any for your readers?
Great information. I would love to find business valuation resources in the appendix. Can you recommend any for your readers?
May 28, 2021
Có rất nhiều doanh nghiệp ra đời từ các ý tưởng nào đó rồi sau đó nhanh chóng biến mất, và chỉ rất ít doanh nghiệp khởi nghiệp có thể tạo ra giá trị cụ thể lâu dài. Đau lòng hơn, có nhiều doanh nhân bước đầu gầy dựng thành công một doanh nghiệp nhưng rồi sau đó nó rơi vào cảnh hoạt động trì trệ, chết dần chết mòn. Khi doanh nghiệp xuất hiện nhà đầu tư bên ngoài, người khởi nghiệp rất thường bị sa thải. Khi đọc xuyên suốt các chương của quyển sách này, bạn sẽ dần nhận ra các doanh nhân khởi nghiệp chỉ có thể thành công khi đã được trang bị những kỹ năng lãnh đạo khởi nghiệp cơ bản.
June 21, 2015
I would have loved a clearer action plan. But I think the idea of understanding that the entrepreneur must move passed being just an entrepreneur to becoming an entrepreneurial leader is profound. Most businesses are limited by the leadership ability of the founders.
December 1, 2014
Lots of good suggestions and checklists to follow. I particularly liked the simplified business plan approach.
November 17, 2020
One of my favorite books on how to operate in all the stages of a start-up and how you have to evolve with the company. I highly recommend it to anyone who starts a business or works within one.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews