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The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide by Bernd Schoner

June 22nd, 2014


You cannot really get any better advice on the world of technopreneur than a technology entrepreneur himself who has been there and done that.

The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide is a guide on how to boostrap your starup, lead it through tough times and making an exit (selling it) for a good price.

The author, Bernd Schoner is a graduate of the MIT Media Laboratory who cofounded ThingMagic, a tech startup focused on RFID. Ten years later the business was bought by Trimble Navigation, a multimillion dollar public technology company where he now serves as VP of Business Development. Over his ten years at ThingMagic Bernd learned all of the business lessons they don’t teach in engineering school.

In The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide, Bernd shares what he learned and what he wished he knew at the time. He explains the major phases in a technology company’s life cycle, helping entrepreneurs avoid common pitfalls and survive crises when they strike. He guides readers from the initial bootstrapping process through venture-capital financing and provides valuable advice on how to sell a technology company profitably–even in a challenging economic environment. Every chapter presents solutions to realworld issues that could otherwise have fatal consequences for a tech venture.

The chapters are organized into three major parts; Bootstrapping, Equity Funding and Exit.
Bootstrapping chapter provide readers some insights into starting a startup, if one is into entrepreneurship. Even with an interest or passion, a startup need important assets or resources, namely cofounders and key staff to bring about success for a startup. Early funding covers multiple options for a startup to obtain funds for further growth. The chapter also talks about getting legal resources to defend a startup as well as being an administrator of the organization.

Part 2 covers a lot of details into the option of further funding the tech company with shares and the hurdles in maintaining an equity based organization. Sound and valuable advices are given here as details are based on experience of ThingMagic in getting fundings.

The final part of the book has advices in helping entrepreneur with a startup exit, to get the best deal with the acquiring organization while maintaining the company’s operation without drastic changes having integrated into a larger organization. The best part of this chapter is its guide towards the right time for an exit.


Part 1

BOOTSTRAPPING
Should I or Should I not Venture Into Entrepreneurship?
Startup Assets
Cofounders
Early Funding
Administration
Compensation


Part 2

EQUITY FUNDING
Venture Deals
Raising a Down-Round
Right-Sizing


Part 3

EXIT
Startup Dynamics in Crisis
Exit Strategies
Corporate Life

Conclusion
If you are a budding technopreneur, or even contemplating to be one, this is one book you should not really miss.
Even better if your startup is in the US, as the examples in this book are primarily for US startups but I would say that any technology startup founders should be able to benefit from the content in this book.
There are many books that I would recommend, but only selected few has extremely high value.
This is one of them.

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Books, business, Software, Technology

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