The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

by Guy Kawasaki Narrated by Paul Boehmer

Overview

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 maven of Apple Computer, provides the answers.



The Art of the Start will give you the essential steps to launch great products, services, and companies-whether you are dreaming of starting the next Microsoft or a not-for-profit that's going to change the world. It also shows managers how to unleash entrepreneurial thinking at established companies, helping them foster the pluck and creativity that their businesses need to stay ahead of the pack. Kawasaki provides readers with GIST-Great Ideas for Starting Things-including his field-tested insider's techniques for bootstrapping, branding, networking, recruiting, pitching, rainmaking, and, most important in this fickle consumer climate, building buzz.



At Apple, Kawasaki helped turn ordinary customers into fanatics. As founder and CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, he has tested his iconoclastic ideas on real-world start-ups. And as an irrepressible columnist for Forbes, he has honed his best thinking about The Art of the Start.

Editorial Reviews

Forbes columnist Guy Kawasaki developed this book from a "Boot-Camp for Start-Ups" that he conducted. The Art of the Start covers all aspects of the start-up: the goals of the venture, the positioning in the marketplace; the business plan; cash management; recruiting; raising capital partnering; branding; and more. This book was written with the realities of the post-1999 stagnant economy specifically in mind. Kawasaki, who is known as the "Father of Evangelism Marketing," has a well-earned reputation for motivating entrepreneurs.

Publishers Weekly

Kawasaki (Rules for Revolutionaries) draws upon his dual background as an evangelist for Apple's Macintosh computer and as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist in this how-to for launching any type of business project. Each chapter begins with "GIST" ("great ideas for starting things"), covering a variety of facets to consider, from identifying your customer base and writing a business plan to establishing partnerships and building brand identity. Minichapters zero in on particular jobs that will need doing, while FAQ sections address the questions readers are most likely to have: Kawasaki covers the basics in an effectively casual tone. Much of the advice, however, consists of generic banalities-start your company's name with a letter that comes early in the alphabet, use big type in presentation slides for older businessmen with declining eyesight, and avoid writing e-mails in all capital letters-that can be found in any mediocre guide. Fortunately, Kawasaki does rise to the occasion here and there. He goes into great detail when it comes to raising capital and offers effective methods for sorting through the nonsense associated with interviewing prospective employees. (Sept. 9) Forecast: Drawn in part from readers of the Forbes column from which the book takes its title, Kawasaki's fan base will seek this one out (and overlook the weaker sections to get to the usable nuggets). Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Kawasaki has been a Silicon Valley fixture since he helped put Apple Computer Company on the map. Since then, he has started a successful venture capital company and written seven books (e.g., Rules for Revolutionaries). His newest work addresses entrepreneurs who want to grow beyond being a company of one as well as innovators who work for large companies. Kawasaki writes in a conversational style that references his own life experience and sources as divergent as Peter Drucker and Seth Godin. The result is a handbook that has lots of useful information, though it will cause most would-be start-up artists to think twice about ever approaching a venture capitalist. It will also inspire people with great ideas to think hard about building a solid business with real cash flow. Unfortunately, the book seems to be written around the needs of technology start-ups and is not quite as useful for traditional businesses. Therefore, only public libraries with a vast business collection should add, but business school libraries should consider.-Stephen Turner, Turner & Assocs., San Francisco Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Entrepreneur is not a job title: It's the state of mind of people who want to alter the future. Doing, not learning to do, is the essence of entrepreneurship. Guy Kawasaki writes that his goal is to help you use your knowledge, love and determination to create something great without getting bogged down in theory and unnecessary details. In The Art of the Start, he presumes that your goal is to change the world — not study it.

At Apple in the 1980s, Kawasaki was a powerful leader who turned ordinary consumers into evangelists. As founder and CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, he has field-tested his ideas with dozens of newly hatched companies.

In The Art of the Start, Kawasaki takes you through every phase of creating a business, from the very basics of raising money and designing a business model through the many stages that will eventually lead your company to doing the right thing and giving back to society.

A Better Place
To alter the future, an entrepreneur must:

1. Make meaning. Create something that makes the world a better place.
2. Make mantra. This is a powerful, emotional statement of what the company is all about.
3. Get going. Get your product or service to market, even though it's not perfect.
4. Define your business model. Do the following:
   • Target your customer specifically.
   • Keep it simple. Describe your business model in 10 words or less with little or no business jargon.
   • Copy somebody. Relate your business model to one that's already successful and understood.
5. Weave a MAT — Milestones, Assumptions and Tasks. Compile these three lists:
   • Milestones you must meet: e.g., complete design specifications, raise capital.
   • Assumptions about your business: e.g, market size, gross margins.
   • Tasks necessary to design, manufacture, sell, ship and support your product or service.

Make business cards and letterheads immediately. You also need a Web site and a domain name.

The Art of Positioning
Positioning is a clear statement of why the founders started the organization, why customers should patronize it and why good people should work at it. Good positioning is:

• Customer-centric. It's all about what you do for your customers.
• Empowering. It shows your employees they're making the world better.
• Practical. It's easily understood and believed by customers, vendors, employees, journalists and partners. It uses plain English, not industry jargon. And it is founded on the core competencies of your organization.

Clearly differentiate yourself from the competition. Instead of near-universal terms likes high quality or easy-to-use, offer concrete proof points that convey your unique qualities.

Pick a company name that will make your positioning easier. Use a first initial that's early in the alphabet and avoid words that begin with X or Z.

The availability of a domain name should be a factor in naming the organization. You need a domain name that people can easily remember and use.

Everyone in the company, including your directors and advisers, should understand the positioning. Put it into a short document and discuss it in an all-hands meeting.

The Art of Pitching
In the first minute of your pitch, don't lead off with a heartfelt autobiographical tale. Explain what your company does. Then your audience can listen to everything else with a more focused perspective. If they remember that alone, your pitch will be better than 90 percent of the competition.

You want to communicate enough to get to the next step. If it's funding, then you want a meeting with more partners in the firm. If it's a sale, then you want a test installation or a small purchase. If it's a partnership, then it's meeting more people within the organization.

Your audience doesn't necessarily understand the importance of what you're saying, so every time you make a statement, consider following it with an answer to the question So what? Know your audience. A great pitch starts with the research you do before the meeting. Visit the organization's Web site, use Google searches, read reports and talk to your industry contacts. Ask the person who invited you: What are the most important things you'd like to learn about us? What attracted you to our idea? Are there any special issues or questions I should be prepared for?

Keep the pitch down to 10 slides and 20 minutes to allow for discussion. The CEO should do 80 percent of the talking. The rest of the team (no more than two others) can present the one or two slides pertaining to their expertise. Copyright © 2005 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

—Soundview Summary

From the Publisher

"Paul Boehmer's urgent reading has exactly the right pacing and energy for the author's call-to-action tone." ---AudioFile

SEPTEMBER 2009 - AudioFile

A serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist offers credible, rapid-fire advice on every possible aspect of creating an enterprise. He covers familiar tasks such as writing business plans, pitching, raising capital, and branding—all explained with the unembellished certainty that his impressive credentials justify. Though choppy writing makes the broader ideas hard to comprehend and savor at first, important themes gradually emerge to make the core of this presentation memorable and heartfelt. Paul Boehmer's urgent reading has exactly the right pacing and energy for the author's call-to-action tone. Boehmer’s delivery of Kawasaki's lists and bullet points helps the author’s thinking and quirky energy motivate those who hear this essential business program. T.W. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170492886
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	01/19/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Read Me First
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny...."
-Isaac Asimov
There are many ways to describe the ebb and flow, yin and yang, bubble-blowing and bubble-bursting phases of business cycles. Here's another one: microscopes and telescopes. In the microscope phase, there's a cry for level-headed thinking, a return to fundamentals, and going "back to basics." Experts magnify every detail, line item, and expenditure, and then demand full-blown forecasts, protracted market research, and all-encompassing competitive analysis.

In the telescope phase, entrepreneurs bring the future closer. They dream up "the next big thing," change the world, and make late-adopters eat their dust. Lots of money is wasted, but some crazy ideas do stick, and the world moves forward.

When telescopes work, everyone is an astronomer, and the world is full of stars. When they don't, everyone whips out their microscopes, and the world is full of flaws. The reality is that you need both microscopes and telescopes to achieve success.

The problem is that this means gathering information that is spread among hundreds of books, magazines, and conferences. It also means talking to dozens of experts and professionals-if you can get, and afford, an audience. You could spend all your time learning and not doing. And doing, not learning to do, is the essence of entrepreneurship.

The Art of the Start alleviates this pain. My goal is to help you use your knowledge, love, and determination to create something great without getting bogged down in theory andunnecessary details. My presumption is that your goal is to change the world-not study it. If your attitude is "Cut the crap and just tell me what I need to do," you've come to the right place.

You might be wondering, Who, exactly, is "you"? The reality is that "entrepreneur" is not a job title. It is the state of mind of people who want to alter the future. (It certainly isn't limited to Silicon Valley types seeking venture capital.) Hence, this book is for people in a wide range of startup endeavors:

•guys and gals in garages creating the next great company

•brave souls in established companies bringing new products and services to market

•saints starting schools, churches, and not-for-profits

Great companies. Great divisions. Great schools. Great churches. Great not-for-profits. When it comes to the fundamentals of starting up, they are more alike than they are different. The key to their success is to survive the microscope tasks while bringing the future closer. Let's get started.
Guy Kawasaki
Palo Alto, California
[e-mail]
CHAPTER 1
The Art of Starting
Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.
-Hasidic saying
GIST (GREAT IDEAS FOR STARTING THINGS)
I use a top-ten list format for all my speeches, and I would love to begin this book with a top-ten list of the most important things an entrepreneur must accomplish. However, there aren't ten-there are only five:

1.MAKE MEANING (inspired by John Doerr). The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning-to create a product or service that makes the world a better place. So your first task is to decide how you can make meaning.
2.MAKE MANTRA. Forget mission statements; they're long, boring, and irrelevant. No one can ever remember them-much less implement them. Instead, take your meaning and make a mantra out of it. This will set your entire team on the right course.
3.GET GOING. Start creating and delivering your product or service. Think soldering irons, compilers, hammers, saws, and AutoCAD-whatever tools you use to build products and services. Don't focus on pitching, writing, and planning.
4.DEFINE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL. No matter what kind of organization you're starting, you have to figure out a way to make money. The greatest idea, technology, product, or service is short-lived without a sustainable business model.
5.WEAVE A MAT (MILESTONES, ASSUMPTIONS, AND TASKS). The final step is to compile three lists: (a) major milestones you need to meet; (b) assumptions that are built into your business model; and (c) tasks you need to accomplish to create an organization. This will enforce discipline and keep your organization on track when all hell breaks loose-and all hell will break loose.
MAKE MEANING
I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.
-Ludwig van Beethoven
Many books about entrepreneurship begin with a rigorous process of self-examination, asking you to determine if you are truly up to the task of starting an organization. Some typical examples are

•Can you work long hours at low wages?

•Can you deal with rejection after rejection?

•Can you handle the responsibility of dozens of employees?

The truth is, it is impossible to answer questions like this in advance, and they ultimately serve no purpose. On the one hand, talk and bravado are cheap. Saying you're willing to do something doesn't mean that you will do it.

On the other hand, realizing that you have doubt and trepidation doesn't mean you won't build a great organization. How you answer these questions now has little predictive power regarding what you'll actually do when you get caught up in a great idea.

The truth is that no one really knows if he* is an entrepreneur until he becomes one-and sometimes not even then. There really is only one question you should ask yourself before starting any new venture:
Do I want to make meaning?

Meaning is not about money, power, or prestige. It's not even about creating a fun place to work. Among the meanings of "meaning" are to

•Make the world a better place.

•Increase the quality of life.

•Right a terrible wrong.

•Prevent the end of something good.

Goals such as these are a tremendous advantage as you travel down the difficult path ahead. If you answer this question in the negative, you may still be successful, but it will be harder to become so because making meaning is the most powerful motivator there is.

It's taken me twenty years to come to this understanding.

In 1983, when I started in the Macintosh Division of Apple Computer, beating IBM was our reason for existence. We wanted to send IBM back to the typewriter business holding its Selectric typewriter balls.

In 1987, our reason for existence became beating Windows and Microsoft. We wanted to crush Microsoft and force Bill Gates to get a job flipping fish at the Pike Place Market.

In 2004, I am a managing director in an early-stage venture capital firm called Garage Technology Ventures. I want to enable people to create great products, build great companies, and change the world.

The causation of great organizations is the desire to make meaning. Having that desire doesn't guarantee that you'll succeed, but it does mean that if you fail, at least you failed doing something worthwhile.
MAKE MANTRA
Close your eyes and think about how you will serve your customers. What kind of meaning do you see your organization making? Most people refer to this as the "Why" or mission statement of an organization.

Crafting a mission statement is usually one of the first steps entrepreneurs undertake. Unfortunately, this process is usually a painful and frustrating experience that results in exceptional mediocrity. This is almost inevitable when a large number of people are commissioned to craft something designed to make an even larger number of people (employees, shareholders, customers, and partners) happy.

The fundamental shortcoming of most mission statements is that everyone expects them to be highfalutin and all-encompassing. The result is a long, boring, commonplace, and pointless joke.* In The Mission Statement Book, Jeffrey Abrams provides 301 examples of mission statements that demonstrate that companies are all writing the same mediocre stuff. To wit, this is a partial list of the frequency with which mission statements in Abrams's sample contained the same words:

•Best-94

•Communities-97

•Customers-211

•Excellence-77

•Leader-106

•Quality-169*

Fortune (or Forbes, in my case) favors the bold, so I'll give you some advice that will make life easy for you: Postpone writing your mission statement. You can come up with it later when you're successful and have lots of time and money to waste. (If you're not successful, it won't matter that you didn't develop one.)

Instead of a mission statement and all the baggage that comes with it, craft a mantra for your organization. The definition of mantra is
A sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation, or incantation, such as an invocation of a god, a magic spell, or a syllable or portion of scripture containing mystical potentialities.†

What a great thing a mantra is! How many mission statements evoke such power and emotion?

The beauty of a mantra is that everyone expects it to be short and sweet. (Arguably, the world's shortest mantra is the single Hindi word Om.) You may never have to write your mantra down, publish it in your annual report, or print it on posters. Indeed, if you do have to "enforce" your mantra in these ways, it's not the right mantra.

Following are five examples that illustrate the power of a good mantra:

•Authentic athletic performance (Nike).c

•Fun family entertainment (Disney).?

•Rewarding everyday moments (Starbucks).

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