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Startup Myths and Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School
MP3 CD Format Budding entrepreneurs face a challenging road. The path is not made any easier by all the clichés they hear about how to make a startup succeed—from platitudes and conventional wisdom to downright contradictions.
This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths —legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley—Rizwan Virk provides startup models —frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors listeners in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life.
In snappy prose with savvy pop-culture and real-world examples, Virk recasts entrepreneurship as a grand adventure. He points out the pitfalls that appear along the way and offers insights into how to avoid them, sharing the secrets of founding a startup, raising money, hiring and firing, when to enter a market and when to exit, and how to value a company.
This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths —legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley—Rizwan Virk provides startup models —frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors listeners in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life.
In snappy prose with savvy pop-culture and real-world examples, Virk recasts entrepreneurship as a grand adventure. He points out the pitfalls that appear along the way and offers insights into how to avoid them, sharing the secrets of founding a startup, raising money, hiring and firing, when to enter a market and when to exit, and how to value a company.
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
1 pages, Audio CD
Published March 1, 2021
34 people are currently reading
1019 people want to read
About the author
Rizwan Virk
22Ìýbooks176ÌýfollowersRizwan (“Rizâ€�) Virk is a successful entrepreneur, angel investor, bestselling author, video game industry pioneer, and independent film producer.
​Riz currently runs Bayview Labs and Play Labs @ MIT, a startup accelerator held on campus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Riz received a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT, and a M.S. in Management from Stanford's GSB.
​Riz's many startups have created products used by thousands of enterprise customers, and his games have been downloaded millions of times, including Tap Fish, Bingo Run, Penny Dreadful: Demimonde, and Grimm: Cards of Fate.
Riz is a prolific Silicon Valley angel investor, having invested in many startups including Tapjoy, Telltale Games, Discord, Funzio, Pocket Gems, Moon Express and many others.
Riz has produced many indie films (imdb link), including Turquoise Rose, Thrive: What On Earth Will It Take? which has been viewed more than 70 million times, Sirius, and the cult classic Knights of Badassdom, starring Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau.
​Riz’s first book, Zen Entrepreneurship: Walking the Path of the Career Warrior, reached the top of Amazon’s business and spiritual bestseller lists.
​His startups have been featured in Inc. Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, Gamasutra, Venture Beat, and were even skewered on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He speaks regularly on subjects such as startups, video games, meditation and career success both in person and online on shows such as Coast to Coast AM.
He lives in Mountain View, CA and Cambridge, MA
​Riz currently runs Bayview Labs and Play Labs @ MIT, a startup accelerator held on campus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Riz received a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT, and a M.S. in Management from Stanford's GSB.
​Riz's many startups have created products used by thousands of enterprise customers, and his games have been downloaded millions of times, including Tap Fish, Bingo Run, Penny Dreadful: Demimonde, and Grimm: Cards of Fate.
Riz is a prolific Silicon Valley angel investor, having invested in many startups including Tapjoy, Telltale Games, Discord, Funzio, Pocket Gems, Moon Express and many others.
Riz has produced many indie films (imdb link), including Turquoise Rose, Thrive: What On Earth Will It Take? which has been viewed more than 70 million times, Sirius, and the cult classic Knights of Badassdom, starring Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau.
​Riz’s first book, Zen Entrepreneurship: Walking the Path of the Career Warrior, reached the top of Amazon’s business and spiritual bestseller lists.
​His startups have been featured in Inc. Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, Gamasutra, Venture Beat, and were even skewered on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He speaks regularly on subjects such as startups, video games, meditation and career success both in person and online on shows such as Coast to Coast AM.
He lives in Mountain View, CA and Cambridge, MA
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 8, 2021
I wish I had this book at hand when I first started my startup. The advice from Riz are very practical. I had many of the identical misconceptions as a first-time founder, and took many years to realize what the truth is. What you read in tech news and watch on Shark Tank isn't how tech startup scene works in real life. Now you can arm yourself with all the knowledge and experience from a startup veteran by reading this book. I would highly recommend to any startup founders, Silicon Valley and beyond.
June 9, 2020
I graded this book on the Entreprising Rubric and it scored 85%, which is technically 4.25 stars.
This is an excellent book on startups; specifically, how to think about startups. Virk is giving you the nuanced, detailed thinking of an investor—the kind you're unlikely to find in business school, but also unlikely to find anywhere but with an experienced founder/investor.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested or involved in startups.
This is an excellent book on startups; specifically, how to think about startups. Virk is giving you the nuanced, detailed thinking of an investor—the kind you're unlikely to find in business school, but also unlikely to find anywhere but with an experienced founder/investor.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested or involved in startups.
December 9, 2020
Do you like books about startups? There are so many out there. Rizwan Virk's Startup Myths and Models is a refreshing look at the Silicon Valley Startup. The content of the book gives the title meaning. So if you like books on startups, I recommend reading this.
Use this book when you need it. It's not the type of book you want to read cover to cover and then be done with it. It's also not the type of book you truly need to read unless you are running your own business (unless you're just curious).
Here's how packed the book is with useful and practical tips and strategies to overcome some of the most common mistakes and myths the startup world has created.
The book includes:
6 Stages
19 Startup Myths
6 Bonus Startup Myths
9 Startup Models
and
5 Startup Tools
Just from looking at this description, you can see that Startup Myths and Models is a great book to dip into at the different startup life stages. Its vast knowledge is compacted into 254 pages of value.
Mr. Virk also provides easy to analyze graphs and examples. Overall, this is a great companion book to some of the other books on the same topic such as The Lean Startup.
I highly recommend it to anyone running a business.
Use this book when you need it. It's not the type of book you want to read cover to cover and then be done with it. It's also not the type of book you truly need to read unless you are running your own business (unless you're just curious).
Here's how packed the book is with useful and practical tips and strategies to overcome some of the most common mistakes and myths the startup world has created.
The book includes:
6 Stages
19 Startup Myths
6 Bonus Startup Myths
9 Startup Models
and
5 Startup Tools
Just from looking at this description, you can see that Startup Myths and Models is a great book to dip into at the different startup life stages. Its vast knowledge is compacted into 254 pages of value.
Mr. Virk also provides easy to analyze graphs and examples. Overall, this is a great companion book to some of the other books on the same topic such as The Lean Startup.
I highly recommend it to anyone running a business.
April 22, 2024
Solid book. My biggest takeaways were related to understanding what investors look for in a start-up, and how the team and market matter more than the product at time of investing.
Many good insights about the startup lifecycle and how valuations and opportunities change as the market matures from nascent to mature.
The one reason I couldn’t give it a 5 star is that the business examples in the book weren’t that riveting (e.g., refers to several mobile game companies throughout the book at a high level). The examples were often high level and not fleshed out with much detail.
Many good insights about the startup lifecycle and how valuations and opportunities change as the market matures from nascent to mature.
The one reason I couldn’t give it a 5 star is that the business examples in the book weren’t that riveting (e.g., refers to several mobile game companies throughout the book at a high level). The examples were often high level and not fleshed out with much detail.
November 2, 2021
High level for me right now but a lot of great info...hopefully I get to a point where I'll need to read this again
February 5, 2025
Really good book regarding larger investment businesses and venture capital. Has some good information that even small businesses could apply.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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