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The Art of the Start

The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

By Guy Kawasaki

(43)

| Hardcover | 9781591840565

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Book Description

What does it take to turn ideas into action? What are the elements of a perfect pitch? How do you win the war for talent? How do you establish a brand without bucks? These are some of the issues everyone faces when starting or revitalizing any undertaking, and Guy Kawasaki, former marketing mavenContinue

Critics

Having An Entrepreneurial Seizure? Time For "The Art of the Start" Share

Ever read The E-Myth by Michael Gerber? It was a business book from the late 1980s built around an exceptional and theretofore little-understood premise: that most people who start a business aren't entrepreneurs. Instead, they're technicians, crafts ... (read full critics)

blogcritics published on Sun, 9 Jan 2005

7 Reviews

9 people find this helpful

Essential for building a startup

Former evangelist of Apple computer Guy Kawasaki shares his insights about starting a business. Areas covered include:
Positioning
Pitching
Writing biz plans
Bootstrapping
Recruiting
Raising money
...
Highly readable (and funny). Both the exercises and FAQs ... (continue)

Former evangelist of Apple computer Guy Kawasaki shares his insights about starting a business. Areas covered include:
Positioning
Pitching
Writing biz plans
Bootstrapping
Recruiting
Raising money
...
Highly readable (and funny). Both the exercises and FAQs are useful. If you need to sell ideas someday, especially business ones, be sure to read this before you do.

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Greg Sung said on Feb 17, 2007 | Add your feedback

5 people find this helpful

The Art of the Start

Seldom does a book make me feel high. But this one does.
It is not only good for startup people, but also desirable for those who do a lot of pitching, presentation, PR etc. and people who care about "changing the world". I especially like the first and last chapters talking about "making mea ... (continue)

Seldom does a book make me feel high. But this one does.
It is not only good for startup people, but also desirable for those who do a lot of pitching, presentation, PR etc. and people who care about "changing the world". I especially like the first and last chapters talking about "making meaning" and "being a mensch". The chapters on Pitching, Recruiting and raising capital are fascinating too.
Don't miss the "mini-chapters". There you will find a lot of practical and witty advice on the art of powerpointing, email, schmoozing etc..
Funny and easy to read, this book is worth buying.

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Leona said on May 22, 2007 | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

Yes.. The cliche is true

Absolutely the must read for anyone starting anything. A company, a project, a non profit, anything that will need an interaction between your "thing" and people.

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pakman said on Mar 12, 2007 | Add your feedback

The ultimate book for a start up

This is the best business book I have ever read. Its spells it out in Guy Kawasaki's special way. How do you raise funds? How do you write a plan. All business books should be written like this with bulleted points and exercises.

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Chris Book said on Nov 30, 2010 | Add your feedback

Written by Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist, this book provides some essential steps for those who are contemplating to start their own business. The author outlines the process of realizing "entrepreneurship" from the art of starting, positioning, pitching, writing a business plan, raising capita ... (continue)

Written by Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist, this book provides some essential steps for those who are contemplating to start their own business. The author outlines the process of realizing "entrepreneurship" from the art of starting, positioning, pitching, writing a business plan, raising capital, to the art of being a mensch. In fact, entrepreneurship is the state of mind of people who want to make a difference in the future, rather than just “study” the market.
Since media outlets have given much praise to this book, I would like to point out some of my concerns toward the book. First, the author suggests that an entrepreneur sell commodity products to speed up the access to the market, but at the same time he emphasizes that differentiation is the key to increase customers’ impression and awareness of the brand. While a low cost strategy and product differentiation are not necessary two opposite ends on the same scale, doing both simultaneously without much prior experience and knowledge about restructuring the value chain, a novice entrepreneur can “stuck in the middle” and subsequently get outperformed by the competitors who opt for either a low cost model or a differentiation model. Additionally, the author suggests that an entrepreneur use a PR agent to handle business communications with external stakeholders. I wonder how many young entrepreneurs can afford one without sufficient amount of capital at bank.
One thing I found interesting is the author’s view regarding the role of outside investors in start-up firms. It seems that the author sees outside investors as more of a capital provider, rather than a resource provider (resources such as industry and management know-how and network capital) to entrepreneurs. It is, however, not clear about what type of outside investors the author is referring to? A business angel and a venture capitalist are very different financiers in terms of their investment goals and functionalities.
That being said, I enjoyed reading this book by Kawasaki. His call for “Menschhood” is a final reminder to entrepreneurs – A mensch joyfully pays society back for goodness already received and pays forward. There are many ‘currencies’ other than money!
~End~

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SC Chiu said on Apr 12, 2010 | Add your feedback