The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company Paperback – April 1, 2012

Why do I call The Startup Owner's Manual "Disruption Entrepreneurship?" Well...I was a student at the local college, and I was preparing to graduate with a degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Entrepreneurship, and then the college suggested that I participate in the business plan competition. I submitted my business plan and a little while later I was subsequently nominated to compete in the business plan competition. As I was writing the business plan, I must say that I got advice to add "creative elements" to it. Honestly, was the business plan supposed to be accurate or just to make some people happy? As Steve Blank says ..."business plans don't survive first contact with the customer."After listening to the audiobook the Lean Startup, the Lean Startup raised some interesting points, and when I pressed my professor about my doubts before the competition, I got a lot of reassurances. After subsequently getting 3rd place in the competition, I sought to expand what I had heard about in the Lean Startup. I realized that my product concept was so large and encompassing, that it could be applied to various markets, but which market? How should it look? How do I know I'm doing it right? I had so many questions, and the textbooks simply didn't suggest a good route to go. They didn't talk of Customer Development, or the Business Model Canvas. The big question is who are my customers? This is where The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company comes into the equation. This book shows you new ways to go about developing your product, and teaches entrepreneur's the right way to product development. If I had only known about this a few years ago, I might have saved a lot of money in unnecessary product development costs. As I build my next round of prototypes, I feel I have a better chance at success, as I can demonstrate what the customers want. This book is a must have!Here's some more content of the book:As Steve Blank says "There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get Outside."(Rule No. 1) Go out and interview the customer. Find out what they want. Don't wait until the last minute. You simply don't want to build a product, based upon wrong assumptions. That's simply a waste of time and money.Rule No. 6 of the Customer Development Manifesto also says: Design Experiments and Test to Validate Hypotheses. Essentially, you create an experiment to validate your product or target market. In doing so, you'll learn how to make your product better or where to pivot.These are just a few examples of what's not talked about in the traditional textbooks.

I highly recommend this book if you're new to business creation. It guides yo through the stages of startup development by turning your hypotheses into facts. By the end of the book, you'll have a thorough business plan written up with a newfound business ready to go. Just read the book from front to back and take plenty of notes.

Someone I know online introduced me to Steve Blank and his "lean startup" concepts. Before that, I'd never heard of him or his concepts. Before I started reading this book, I attended an online course that explained the concepts. I was glad I did that first because it gave me a good foundation for reading the book.I'm almost halfway through the book. I already have *tons* of highlights and several notes. This book and its concepts have caused me to entirely rethink my business model planning. While I've been quite impressed with the book so far, there are a couple of things I think could be improved upon.I like the fact that Blank includes information for those starting businesses in the web/mobile channel and not just information for those working in the physical channel. However, he sometimes switches between the two and that gets a little confusing on occasion.Secondly, I think sometimes Blank repeats information. I think he could have cut that down a bit. Lastly, the book seems a little long to me. If it wasn't for these items I would have rated this book five stars. Those items aren't huge detriments and I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

For all of those reviewers that note that they are in a startup and don't have time for this process, and that the checklists are boring or tedious, this book is EXACTLY what you need. We all have spent far too much time working "in" our business, not "on" our business, and substituting our instincts and gut feel for data driven decisions that may make the difference of 10x or more in our valuations. Having been involved in several early stage companies, I continue to be amazed at the deltas in success between those who have an agile plan for market feedback and product development and those where the founder has visions of IPO Ferraris and they believe they're the second coming of Bezos or Jobs. The classic MBA doesn't work in a startup - but that also doesn't mean that basic and fundamental business elements are ignored or that the formula to success is somehow magically different. There is a path to success, there is a formula, there is an accepted and proven approach - and this book has it well documented.If you are in leadership, investment or management teams of early stage ventures, you need to read this book. Period. Yes - that means you VC guy or Ruby on Rails genius. You will have better perspective and more realistic expectations once you do so, and if you follow the formulas outlined in the book.

Excellent book. It's thoughtfully conceived and well put together from experienced entrepreneurs, but reads like a textbook, as I suppose a reference manual should. I don't think this book is for everyone, since it is a comprehensive offering, and perhaps best suited for people who haven't started up a company with big start-up plans. I can see where a more concise book, might generally be more worthwhile, but every entrepreneur has different challenges. Still, at 577 pages, it's a long read; but a worthwhile one for the motivated entrepreneur, and I know I'm going to read it from cover to cover. Reading a book like this might just pay off in helping you launch your next big idea, and even if it doesn't, you'll respect those who do start-up a company much more.