Review of "The Ultimate Start-Up Guide: Marketing Lessons War Stories, and Hard-Won Advice From Leading Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors," by Tom Hogan and Carol Broadbent

Review of

The Ultimate Start-Up Guide: Marketing Lessons War Stories, and Hard-Won Advice From Leading Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, by Tom Hogan and Carol Broadbent ISBN 9781632650733

Five out of five stars

 No matter what the level of your genius in thinking up new products and creating a start-up company to build, market and sell them, there are many things that you don’t know. Which is the major point of this book. As the authors and most others are well aware, the genius entrepreneurs are often poor business managers and developers. Great at ideas, they are weak at the blocking and tackling side of running an organization.

 All of the facets of creating a business are covered, from dealing with angel investors and other venture capitalists to the slicing of the equity pie. The best advice is repeated several times and is:

“When determining how much {money, time, whatever} will be needed to get the product out the door, perform a hard-reality analysis of the situation to establish a figure. Then add to it.”

 This is a book that could be used in courses on entrepreneurship from community education to courses in university business majors. It is readable, very little in the way of business knowledge is needed to understand it. Even people with no significant interest in creating a start-up can read it for enjoyment.

 One of the best aspects of the book is the partial removal of the now legendary Steve Jobs from his pedestal. The authors point out that in the early years Steve Jobs was an egotistical tyrant and he failed in many ways before presiding over the dramatic rise of Apple. It is an important lesson, for it demonstrates that failure is often the superior catalyst for success, with personal growth a viable candidate as well.