A Dozen Lessons for Entrepreneurs shows how the insights of leading venture capitalists can teach readers to create a unique approach to building a successful business. Through profiles and interviews of figures such as Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital, Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz of Andreesen Horowitz, and Jenny Lee of GGV Capital, Tren Griffin draws out the fundamental lessons from their ideas and experiences. Entrepreneurs should learn from past successes but also be prepared to break new ground. While there are best practices, there is no single recipe they should follow. By better understanding the views and experiences of a wide range of successful venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, readers can discern which of many possible paths will lead to success.
With insight and verve, Griffin argues that innovation and best practices are discovered by the experimentation of entrepreneurs as they establish the evolutionary fitness of their business. The products and services created through this experimentation that have greater fitness survive, and less-fit products and services die. Entrepreneurs have always experimented when creating or altering a business. What is different today is the existence of modern tools and systems that allow experiments to be conducted more cheaply and rapidly than ever before. Griffin shows that listening to what the best venture capitalists have to say is invaluable for entrepreneurs. Their experiences, if studied carefully, teach bedrock methods and guiding principles for approaching business.
- Table of Contents
- Concept Directory
- Foreword, by Scott Belsky
- Introduction
- I. The Founder Coaches
- 1. Steve Blank
- 2. Bill Campbell
- 3. Eric Ries
- II. The Venture Capitalists
- 4. Sam Altman: Y Combinator
- 5. Steve Anderson: Baseline Ventures
- 6. Marc Andreessen: Andreessen Horowitz
- 7. Rich Barton: Expedia, Glassdoor, Zillow
- 8. Roelof Botha: Sequoia Capital
- 9. Jim Breyer: Breyer Capital
- 10. Chris Dixon: Andreessen Horowitz
- 11. John Doerr: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- 12. Peter Fenton: Benchmark
- 13. Jim Goetz: Sequoia Capital
- 14. Paul Graham: Y Combinator
- 15. Kirsten Green: Forerunner Ventures
- 16. Bill Gurley: Benchmark
- 17. Reid Hoffman: Greylock Partners
- 18. Ben Horowitz: Andreessen Horowitz
- 19. Vinod Khosla: Khosla Ventures
- 20. Josh Kopelman: First Round Capital
- 21. Jenny Lee: GGV Capital
- 22. Doug Leone: Sequoia Capital
- 23. Dan Levitan: Maveron
- 24. Jessica Livingston: Y Combinator
- 25. Mary Meeker: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- 26. Michael Moritz: Sequoia Capital
- 27. Chamath Palihapitiya: Social Capital
- 28. Keith Rabois: Khosla Ventures
- 29. Andy Rachleff: Wealthfront
- 30. Naval Ravikant: AngelList
- 31. Heidi Roizen: Draper Fisher Jurvetson
- 32. Mark Suster: Upfront Ventures
- 33. Peter Thiel: Founders Fund
- 34. Fred Wilson: Union Square Ventures
- 35. Ann Winblad: Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
- Conclusion
- Glossary
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