High tech startup

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It's a series of posting on what has and has not changed since the previous edition of "High Tech Startup" was published in 2000. Very much from the VC point of view. Two things stand out: there are no new ideas and it is much more competitive now. I think he is wrong about no new ideas, but I can see the point where he is coming from: there are so many copycat startups. I mean, how many social networking sites or ad management companies do we need. It is way more competitive, because it is so easy to start a web site now. Another series is on what hasn't changed. Still the VCs desire for stellar CEOs. VC funding odds for a given business plan are still in the same ballpark as winning the lottery, although he doesn't take into account that odds of winning the lottery are much worse than 10 years ago.

For startups, -Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki -Blue Ocean Strategy -High Tech Startup by John Nesheim -The Power of Unfair Advantage by John Nesheim -Crossing the Chasm These are all helpful for startups.

…s of writing a business plan to be personally helpful, whether or not a potential investor likes the result. So here's my .02. I'd start with John Nesheim's books, both "High Tech Startup" and "Unfair Advantage." I'd also check out his blog and his reading list. Somewhere in there he has a template that many successful tech companies have found useful for their own business plans. He also has a sample business plan, written by students, that you can take a look at. Again, a rough 10 or 15 page business plan can't hurt at this stage, but you should be focused on making your product awesome, so that people will want it. Get that handled, and then worry about writing a really tight executive summary and you'll be good to go. Good luck.

You might like the book High Tech Startup by Nessheim. It's basically a collection of statistics about startups.

…had about 2 weeks to prepare for our first VC presentation. I needed a quick way to build a professional-looking spreadsheet with projections. John L. Hesheim, author of High Tech Startup, sells a spreadsheet template for $25 on his website. I entered our numbers and specifics into the spreadsheet and it did the trick. I highly recommend it to anybody building a business plan.

…had about 2 weeks to prepare for our first VC presentation. I needed a quick way to build a professional-looking spreadsheet with projections. John L. Hesheim, author of High Tech Startup, sells a spreadsheet template for $25 on his website. I entered our numbers and specifics into the spreadsheet and it did the trick. I highly recommend it to anybody building a business plan. http://www.nesheimgroup.com/quickup

some that haven't been mentioned: - the innovator's dilemma by clayton christensen - blue ocean strategy (kim and mauborgne) -- these two books give you a little bit more of a framework to evaluate where your idea adds value and give you examples of how/why some successful companies have been successful - high tech startup by nesheim -- a little dated, but lots of info - negotiation/people books: getting to yes (fisher, ury) and getting past no (ury), influence by cialdini (useful for more than just startups) - maybe some management books: peopleware (demarco and lister), the art of project management (berkun), first, break all the rules (buckingham) - founders at work (livingston) to get inspired +1 to crossing the chasm, and the godin & gladwell books, art of the start blogs: onstartups.com, fred wilson, brad feld, seth godin, etc., guy…