Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap) Review

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Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap) ReviewThe Summary
Jessica Livingston has written an amazing book. If you want to read the stories behind some of the most well known software companies in the last 30 years, you will find it in this book. But Livingston hasn't just covered the usual suspects (Google, Microsoft), she has included a diverse collection from Steve Wozniak (Apple) to David Heinemeier Hansson (37 Signals), Dan Bricklin (Visicalc) to Blake Ross (Firefox). It covers a lot of ground from the early 80's software boom to the Web 2.0 starts ups. But there is more than just stories about starting companies, there is real advice from the frontline trenches of software start-ups. Keep your post-it notes and highlighter handy, if you are like me you will be annotating and highlighting a lot!
The Audience
If you have ever considered a start-up you should definitely read this book. It's like picking the brains of some very experienced entrepreneurs. Anybody that has already tried their hand at start-ups will recognize the value of this book. Most will probably feel like I did, and wish that they had had this book before they started their first company. It could have saved me many painful lessons (both financially and personally). Reading these interviews is like having 32 mentors.
The Details
Like many people I am always a little skeptical of `success stories'. Just because someone did x, y and z, doesn't mean that I could follow these very steps and be as successful. Just because Aunt Ethel, who lived to be a 100, attributes her long life to drinking a glass of whisky every day, doesn't mean I can drink a glass of whisky every day and live to be a 100. Instead of a collection of fluffy `creation myth' stories written about software companies, Livingston has put a lot of thought into how she approached these interviews and has collected some real gems of insights from these entrepreneurs. She has uncovered a gold mine of valuable advice and information about starting a company. As you read these stories you start to see some patterns emerging. Some of these patterns I recognize from my own experiences, but others were new to me. Sometimes you see contradictory advice from different founders; one tells you, you need to focus on the technology and somebody else explains that it's more important to focus on business/market opportunity. There are definitely multiple paths to starting a company, but some advice is repeated story after story, and these seem to be universal truths.
The Ideas
Here are some of the universal truths that I culled from the interviews:
- Iterate through ideas, the first idea isn't always the best
- Business plans are important - but be prepared to change it many times
- You need to be naïve - "unencumbered by reality"
- Persistence makes all the difference
- Passion - you need to be really excited about what you are doing and think it's really important
- Understand and listen to your end users
The book is full of ideas and advice like this.
The Take-Aways
Overall, I can't say enough good things about this book. Obviously it's aimed at entrepreneurs, but I know there are going to be many people just interested in the stories behind their favorite companies or people. Personally I loved the interviews with Ray Ozzie, Joel Spolsky, Joe Kraus and Steve Wozniak. I was also fascinated by the stories behind companies like: 37 Signals, Six Apart, del.icio.us and Craigslist. I was even surprised by the story behind `Hot or Not', it's not as shallow as you might think.
Entrepreneurs -- wanna-be, new and experienced -- you NEED to read, think, digest and act on the advice in this book and your next/current entrepreneurial venture will go much smoother.
Kes Sampanthar
Inventor of ThinkCube
Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap) OverviewThis is the paperback edition of the award winning and best selling book, Founders at Work"All the best things that I did at Apple came from (a) not having money and (b) not having done it before, ever." - Steve Wozniak, AppleFounders at Work tells of the early struggles for independence and acceptance of many of modern technology's giants. Their stories are told through personal interviews that are at times hilarious, at times painful, but always inspiring. The personalities represented in this book are role models for all startup wannabes who are committed to their visions and want to know what the sacrifices (and excitement) are like.

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