Notes on The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

One of the most fun and comprehensive books I've read recently is Guy Kawasaki's classic The Art of the Start.

It was a really fun read and covered all the basics of entrepreneurship I had learned about before but gave them a very succinct, clear structure. It also went through pretty much all the important questions an entrepreneur needs to consider, and I can see how it can serve as a helpful guidebook for preparing business plans, pitches, and actually starting a company.

The book starts with a general introduction speaking about economic cycles. It does this through two metaphors: telescopes and microscopes. When things are going great, everyone looks very far into the future (with an all-seeing telescope) and has high hopes. When things aren't going so great, everyone looks very closely at every minute detail and cost (with a microscope). Entrepreneurs need to be able to do both in appropriate measure.

Ch. 1: Starting

1. Make meaning.
   
2. Make mantra.
   
3. Get going. Polarize people to love or hate your product.
   
4. Define your business model.
   
5. Weave a MAT: Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks. This is your action plan to keep you going.
   

Ch. 2: Positioning

• Niche, not broad appeal
  
• Pick a good name.
  
• Make your value proposition personal.
  

Ch. 3: Pitching

• 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font
  
• Good information is listed in the book on the exact slides necessary for investor, sales, and partner pitches
  
• General slide organization: 1) Title/contact info. Say clearly what you do. 2) Problem. 3) Solution. 4) Business model. 5) Underlying magic. 6) Demo. 7) Marketing and sales. 8) Competition. 9) Team. 10) Ask, financials, current status, accomplishments, use of funding.
• Ask at the beginning, "how much time may I have?"
  
• Let one person do the talking.
  
• Ignore market consulting studies.
  
• Use a dark background.
  
• Put your logo on master slide.
  
• Use common sans serif fonts.
  
• No animations
  

Ch. 4: The Art of Business Plans

• Limited use
  
• MAT is better
  
• The planning is better than the plan.
  
• Do your pitch before writing your plan in order to get feedback.
  
• Focus on the executive summary.
  
• People judge a plan on the exec summary.
  
• 20 pages length
  
• Simplify the financials.
  

Ch. 5: The Art of Bootstrapping

• Low upfront capital requirements
  
• Short sales cycle
  
• Manage for cash flow
  
• Bottom up models
  
• Ship, then test
  

Ch. 6: The Art of Recruiting

• Check references early.
  
• Ask structured questions.
  
• Past experience less important
  
• 90 day joint review of hires

Ch. 7: The Art of Raising Capital

• Get an intro.
  
• Get sales, contacts
  
• Competition listing: Company, what they do and we don't, what we do and they don't
• Send reports to board in advance.
  
• Never surprise a board.
  
• Ventureone.com
  
• Venturewire.com
  
• Ask for 25% higher price if given term sheet
  

Ch. 8: The Art of Partnering

• Define deliverables and objectives.
  
• Follow up with people after mtg.
  
• Do things for others.

Ch. 9: The Art of Branding

• 4 Ps: price, product, place, promotion
  
• Contagious product: cool, effective, distinctive, disruptive, emotive, deep, indulgent
  
• Intuitive interface
  
• Write a manual (which serves as marketing) with a good index.
  
• Ask your parents to test.
  
• Give evangelists stuff to promote.
  
• Give goodies out like t-shirts.
  
• Create a brand with emotion; target the young.
  
• Build community.
  
• Feature your customers in promotional materials.
  
• First generate buzz; then press will write about it.
  
• Help reporters at lesser known publications, and they will help you later.
  
• Good speeches: tell stories, self deprecate, tell stories about kids, use a top 10 list format, look at audience, not the moderator.
  
• Designing t-shirts: no white, minimize text, use big/60pt font, spend money on design, make in kid size.
  
• Do not pay evangelists for their help. Honor publicly.

Ch. 10: The Art of Rainmaking

• Get version 1.0 to market to see where it blossoms.
  
• Be open to unintended uses and customers.
  
• Pick right lead gen method.
  
• Small scale seminars
  
• Give speeches.
  
• Get published.
  
• Networking
  
• Trade organizations
  
• Find key influencers; ignore titles.
  
• Suck down, talk to secretaries, empathize, give help, send articles, never complain or go over their heads.
  
• Go after agnostics, not atheists.
  
• Land the prestigious reference account.
  
• Ask prospects what they need.
  
• Enable test drives.
  

Ch. 11: The Art of Being a Mensch

• A mensch is a person who is ethical and admirable.
  
• Help many people.
  
• Do what's right.
  
• Pay back society.

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