Founder-to-Founder Advice from Two Startup Veterans

Get the real guidance you need to create and build your first start-up company from founders who have been there many times before.

We make no bones about our bias. We're on your side, the founder's side. While venture capitalists, investors, and accelerators/incubators can add great value in the start-up ecosystem, this book isn't about their points of view. We'll tell you where our interests as founders diverge from those on the other side of the table - investors, bankers, advisors, board members, and others - and what to do when that happens.

The Startup Playbook is not a recipe, it's not a template, it's not a list of tasks to do. It's our insider's guide to starting a company and running it successfully in those critical early months. Between us, we've started more than a dozen high-tech software companies and raised more than $500 million in investment capital. We've acquired more than 35 companies, had three of our start-ups go public, sold six of them, and we made billions of dollars for shareholders. We've also invested in more than 80 start-ups, advised and mentored more than 200 companies, and worked with venture capitalists (VCs), incubators, and accelerators to help launch many other new start-ups. We've had plenty of failures, too. And we've probably learned more from those than from the successes. We share those lessons as well.