Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup

I am probably a bit biased as I know the author well - he has been my professor and also mentor for the last 3 years. That said, it doesnt change the fact that this book is fantastic. I have been involved in three different startups in my life - findood.com (which failed miserably), corengi.com - which is still alive and well, and more recently PillPack, which is reinventing the way pharmacy care is delivered (I also spent a small amount of time as a part time associate at a VC and a lot of time hanging out with other startups, you can see the full list on linkedin if you are interested). So suffice to say in my short career I have seen a couple of successful companies up close and a whole lot of failures.This really is the book I wish I had before I had ever founded a company. It is based both on Bill's personal experience as well as on his experience teaching. In Bill's time at MIT, he has seen the launch and helped foster the early beginnings of Ginger.io, Locu.com, and a slew of energy companies that have raised in excess of $100M. What is captured perfectly in this book is the degree to which entrepreneurship and the early process of validating an idea is both linear and non-linear. Its a linear set of steps - you can't really formulate a sales plan until you know what you are selling. But its also non-linear, sometimes you realize that the product you have imagined is not saleable, and this makes you jump back to the step of re-imagining the exact product or service before continuing forward again. Kind of like a game of shoots and ladders the book helps guide you on this journey of discovery as you validate and discern whether the company and product you are trying to create form the basis of a new company. In that, I think it is a great unification of customer development, and the lean startup methods that get discussed so frequently.Its the guide i wish I had had as an undergraduate and its the guide that formed much of my education in my MBA at MIT. It'll give you the confidence that you are working on a sound new company or convince you that you are wasting your time (which is often even more valuable).I highly recommend this for any young entrepreneur looking for a practical guide based on sound theory to help you through the process of validating (or invalidating) your startup idea.

Bill Aulet has captured decades of hard won knowledge and data analysis to synthesize an outstanding roadmap for entreprneurs. Because hindsight is easier than foresight, this book at times appears to be deceptively simple, obvious, and straightfoward: in fact, the book is very deep, because it steers the reader/entrepreneur clear of many blind alleys and trials and tribulations that others have explored to no avail, and does so with great economy, in very punchy style. To see how hard this is, look at Moneytree, a survey of all funding events by venture capital funds gathered over decades: every fund voluntarily contributes the investment (seed, Series A-B-C-D, bridge, debt) and outcome (sale, IPO, writeoff); from 19802-007, 24000 businesses received venture capital funding (typically venture funds reject hundreds of investment opportunities for any one single investment, so already these are the creme de la creme); 13000 or roughly 71% were writeoffs, 3400 did IPOs (one in seven roughly), and the rest were bought (acquisitions are often done at bottom fishing pennies on the dollar prices, so assume zero return, very difficult to find this out). Net net, the odds are one in seven that the entrepreneurial team will do an IPO and be the huge success that the press talks about so much (ignoring the other 6 ouf 7 which reflect the mass experience in entrepreneurship). Hopefully this book will begin to increase the likelihood of commercial success for startups, especially since most people in the US will be working for one or more startups during their working business career!

The first thing that strikes me about this book is how easy it is to read! There are even comics! When you think of an entrepreneurship, or even business book for that matter, you imagine slogging though pages upon pages of dense material that only an MBA graduate would understand. However, this book allows even the most inept businessperson to fully understand the steps that are necessary to becoming an entrepreneur, and does so in a playful and informal tone that does not become too mundane or boring. Furthermore, the book easily lays out the 24 steps in a sequential and easy to understand manner that allows the reader to understand the transitions form one step to another, and how these steps build on top of one other to create a successful entrepreneurial venture. Along with clear language and explanation, the author also presents multiple examples for every step which display how it can be dealt with in a real world setting, and exemplifying any problems that may occur when implementing any particular step. Another thing that I found really helpful was that once the steps are laid out in a diagram, certain steps are color coded, allowing the reader to see the connection between these elements, and understand why one must build off of the other.One problem that I had with this book came about in chapters 17 and 19 in which the author explains to the reader how to calculate the Lifetime Value (LTV) of an acquired customer, and the Cost of Customer Acquisition. I believe that although these numbers are crucial to becoming an entrepreneur, and determining your optimum customer base, the formulas could have been explained more clearly, as they become very convoluted and complicated. But hey, im not a math guy, so take it with a grain of salt.Other than this minor problem, I found this book to be an engaging read that any budding entrepreneur should have on their bookshelf. It provides a clear framework which fully explains not only the steps that are necessary to becoming an entrepreneur, but also how they can be implemented and applied to a real world setting.Great read

Si es el primer libro que leerás es un buen comienzo, enfoque integral sobre emprendimiento.

This is easily the best practical and a structured way to launch a startup. The chapter on cost of customer acquisition is the most eye opening one since we usually dive into the product design after speaking to a few potential customers only to see ourselves struggling later for a sustainable business model. EXCELLENT

The last steps, based on the lean startup book, should be executed earlier. Maybe in a following revision the author does it.

I totally suggest the book 'Disciplined Entrepreneurship' for everyone who wants to explore the world of entrepreneurship. Bill Aulet, currently working as a professor at MIT, has really nailed down the concise path to IDE. There is all fundamental information which is going to worth every single cent spent on the book.

Book arrived dirty with water damage. This wasn’t from the courier as the courier bag was sealed and in good condition.