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Startup Myths And Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School
Budding entrepreneurs face a challenging road. The path is not made any easier by all the cliches they hear about how to make a startup succeed?from platitudes and conventional wisdom to downright contradictions.
This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths-legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley-Rizwan Virk provides startup models-frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors readers in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life.
In snappy prose with savvy pop-culture and real-world examples, Virk recasts entrepreneurship as a grand adventure. He points out the pitfalls that appear along the way and offers insights into how to avoid them, sharing the secrets of founding a startup, raising money, hiring and firing, when to enter a market and when to exit, and how to value a company.
Virk combines lessons learned the hard way during his twenty-five years of founding, investing in, and advising startups with reflections from well-known venture capitalists and experts. His candid advice makes Startup Myths and Models an ideal guide for those readers just embarking on the startup life and those looking for their next adventure.
This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths-legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley-Rizwan Virk provides startup models-frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors readers in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life.
In snappy prose with savvy pop-culture and real-world examples, Virk recasts entrepreneurship as a grand adventure. He points out the pitfalls that appear along the way and offers insights into how to avoid them, sharing the secrets of founding a startup, raising money, hiring and firing, when to enter a market and when to exit, and how to value a company.
Virk combines lessons learned the hard way during his twenty-five years of founding, investing in, and advising startups with reflections from well-known venture capitalists and experts. His candid advice makes Startup Myths and Models an ideal guide for those readers just embarking on the startup life and those looking for their next adventure.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 30, 2021
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3 people want to read
About the author
Rizwan Virk
19 books184 followersRizwan (“Riz”) Virk is a successful entrepreneur, angel investor, bestselling author, video game industry pioneer, and independent film producer.
Riz currently runs Bayview Labs and Play Labs @ MIT, a startup accelerator held on campus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Riz received a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT, and a M.S. in Management from Stanford's GSB.
Riz's many startups have created products used by thousands of enterprise customers, and his games have been downloaded millions of times, including Tap Fish, Bingo Run, Penny Dreadful: Demimonde, and Grimm: Cards of Fate.
Riz is a prolific Silicon Valley angel investor, having invested in many startups including Tapjoy, Telltale Games, Discord, Funzio, Pocket Gems, Moon Express and many others.
Riz has produced many indie films (imdb link), including Turquoise Rose, Thrive: What On Earth Will It Take? which has been viewed more than 70 million times, Sirius, and the cult classic Knights of Badassdom, starring Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau.
Riz’s first book, Zen Entrepreneurship: Walking the Path of the Career Warrior, reached the top of Amazon’s business and spiritual bestseller lists.
His startups have been featured in Inc. Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, Gamasutra, Venture Beat, and were even skewered on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He speaks regularly on subjects such as startups, video games, meditation and career success both in person and online on shows such as Coast to Coast AM.
He lives in Mountain View, CA and Cambridge, MA
Riz currently runs Bayview Labs and Play Labs @ MIT, a startup accelerator held on campus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Riz received a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT, and a M.S. in Management from Stanford's GSB.
Riz's many startups have created products used by thousands of enterprise customers, and his games have been downloaded millions of times, including Tap Fish, Bingo Run, Penny Dreadful: Demimonde, and Grimm: Cards of Fate.
Riz is a prolific Silicon Valley angel investor, having invested in many startups including Tapjoy, Telltale Games, Discord, Funzio, Pocket Gems, Moon Express and many others.
Riz has produced many indie films (imdb link), including Turquoise Rose, Thrive: What On Earth Will It Take? which has been viewed more than 70 million times, Sirius, and the cult classic Knights of Badassdom, starring Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau.
Riz’s first book, Zen Entrepreneurship: Walking the Path of the Career Warrior, reached the top of Amazon’s business and spiritual bestseller lists.
His startups have been featured in Inc. Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, Gamasutra, Venture Beat, and were even skewered on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He speaks regularly on subjects such as startups, video games, meditation and career success both in person and online on shows such as Coast to Coast AM.
He lives in Mountain View, CA and Cambridge, MA
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