The think tank for global entrepreneurs
Archive for the ‘Start-Up Strategy’ Category.
Lesson Plans To Entrepreneurship
Our Lesson Plans To Entrepreneurship are practical, and the information comes directly from the “front-lines” of business battles. Our approach is aimed at creating knowledge, skills, and awareness in the critical aspects of funding, launching, and growing a new business venture and then leading it to a successful harvest. Continue reading ‘What are the key lessons to entrepreneurship?’ »
As published in Nature Biotechnology
Starting and sustaining a business in the life sciences is not for the faint of heart. And in an increasingly complex business environment, biotech entrepreneurs should look for complementary partners and new business opportunities to effectively build their companies. By Rohit Shukla, CEO Larta Institute
NOTE: This is an Adobe PDF file. Download the Report in PDF
Pointers from Harvard Business School Experts
Thinking about starting your own business? Read this collection of articles from Harvard Business School on legal issues, managing resources, product development, and keeping owner control.
- Should I keep control of my company?
- How do I turn potential into profit?
- How can a resource-challenged start-up grow?
- What legal mistakes should I watch out for in starting a new company?
Quickview At Understanding the Venture Capital Industry
We present answers to some of the most popular questions entrepreneurs have about venture capitalist.
>>See Also Special Guide: Venture Capital, Special Guide: Creating Your Business Plan
Continue reading ‘Venture Capital: Frequently Asked Questions’ »
The business plan is perhaps the most important written document you can ever create. It describes all critical internal and external elements and strategies for guiding the direction of your venture’s first several years as well as giving potential investors an idea of the venture’s structure, objectives, and future plans.
Continue reading ‘Special Guide: Creating Your Business Plan’ »
Special Guide for Raising Money From Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors
Is your company “really” investor ready? Do you know how to market and sell to outside investors? Do you have a sound financing strategy? Here is what Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, once said: “There are only two ways of raising money: the hard way and the very hard way.”
Web Resources: Business Research
We share with you some of the key Web Resources we have referenced, and used in our research, presentations, conferences and books. Continue reading ‘Business Research’ »
Our detailed outline simply follows the content and approach of our online resources. We recommend that the total length of your business plan be no more than 15 to 20 pages. Each Value Driver should be one page (10 total pages) with 3 to 5 paragraphs for each page. Your financial section should be limited to 3 to 5 pages (the notes and assumptions can be embedded on the spreadsheets) and your Executive Summary should also be 3 to 5 pages.
Recently there was a posting at the Wall Street Journal by their editor for the small business section. She opened up the posting by asking, “Are Business Plans a Waste of Time?”
There were a number of interesting comments, of which I invite you to review. Yes, I did contribute a posting. Continue reading ‘Are business plans a waste of time?’ »
Meet the new consumers of the new media age. They want things to be better, faster, cheaper and, even more important, free, according to AOL vice chairman emeritus Ted Leonsis, who is considered an Internet pioneer and whose business portfolio over the years includes an impressive array of online companies.
We’re living in a world where consumers have taken control of everything,” he noted. Leonsis, a keynote speaker at the recent Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference 2007, offered his thoughts on making money, the Internet age, contradictions in today’s consumers, the global marketplace, blogs and philanthropy, among other topics.
>>Read More
Discussions About Bootstrapping The Launch
Traction to move the venture forward comes from capturing one specific slice of a market. This focus-first approach needs to lead to other follow-on markets. But committing to a focus is difficult because of the unknowns. Nothing gets an entrepreneur more focused than uncertainty and fear. And at no other time in the entrepreneurial life cycle is there more uncertainty and fear than in Stage 3, Commitment of Resources, when the entrepreneur and venture has to commit to one direction. Continue reading ‘How can we bootstrap the launch our new business?’ »
Discussions About the Costs For A Start-Up
Many entrepreneurs tend to underestimate both the costs and time that it takes to launch and later manage an early stage business. For the first-time entrepreneurs, especially, there are major challenges, such as having to think in advance and how to plan for expenses. This Article about budgeting will help you to accurately estimate the cash required for starting up your venture so that you will avoid the pitfall of underestimating both the money and time it takes to start your venture. Continue reading ‘What are the specific costs to get started?’ »
Discussion About Assessing Your Critical Capital Resources
Leadership, as we discussed in a previous Article, requires marshalling resources cooperatively toward a goal while simultaneously preserving and encouraging a strategic vision. To successfully execute a business plan, in order to translate the business concept into a reality, entrepreneurs have to surround themselves with the right mix of resources, which includes people, capital, and partners. Continue reading ‘What are the critical capital resources for an entrepreneur?’ »
Discussions About Building Your External Team
Recall from a previous Article that the founders are the first of three strands of DNA assembled, the second being the early employees and specialists, and the third being the board of director members. Effective directors play a key role in ensuring an early stage venture’s future growth and value. Continue reading ‘How do we build our external team?’ »
Discussion About Legal Issues in New Business Venturing
To manage the relationship with any lawyer we feel it is important to know what they do, how they can help you, and how they think. This Article is merely intended to help guide you and to prepare you for your discussions with any legal specialist. Continue reading ‘What are the legal issues with starting a new business?’ »
Discussion About Managing Entrepreneurial Risks
It is important to understand the construct of risk and uncertainty. Businesses have always faced risks. As we discussed in another Article, recent events around the world in the last few years have provided dramatic evidence that, in today’s business world, risk is now a reality. Continue reading ‘What are the specific risks to entrepreneurial capitalism?’ »
Challenges To Entrepreneurs Starting A Business Today
The greatest challenge a new business venture faces is getting the right things done in the right order. Knowing what to do, and in what sequence, is critical, especially since the entrepreneur has very limited time and resources. Craig W. Johnson, chairman of the Venture Law Group, once said that starting companies is much like launching a rocket: If at launch you’re just a fraction of a degree off, you could end up a thousand miles off course downrange. Continue reading ‘Problems Facing Entrepreneurs Today and the Solution’ »
Discussions About Finding Opportunities In the Future
Recall from our previous discussion, that entrepreneurship, risk, and uncertainty are long-time bedfellows and how they push the entrepreneur to the limit. Some influential business thinkers, most notably Geoffrey Moore, seem to suggest that disruptive technologies and the environment of uncertainty that follows favors entrepreneurial activity. When disruptive technologies force changes in common product platforms and force new rules of the game entrepreneurs can be more responsive with their creativity and innovative organizations. Continue reading ‘How do we manage uncertainty and entrepreneurship?’ »
No established company rode higher on the Information Technology Wave than Santa Clara, CA-based Sun Microsystems, whose sales nearly doubled, to $18.3 billion, in the three fiscal years that ended in June 2001. Stanford University graduates Scott McNealy, Bill Joy, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Vinod Khosla got together in 1982 to start SUN (Stanford University Network) Microsystems. Continue reading ‘Case In Point: Sun Microsystems Launches’ »
At 28,900 feet, just 135 feet below the summit of Mt. Everest where the South Summit takes a slight dip, is a 40-foot treacherous ice and rock face that can only be scaled one person at a time. It is the last obstacle all climbers who desire in making it to the true summit must climb. It is called the Hillary Step. Continue reading ‘Case In Point: Sir Edmond Hillary & The Hillary Step on Mt. Everest’ »