How I built this : the unexpected paths to success from the world's most inspiring entrepreneurs

Title:

Author:

Summary:

Based on the highly acclaimed NPR podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz, this book offers priceless insights and inspiration from the world’s top entrepreneurs on how to start, launch, and build a successful venture. Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips). Award-winning journalist and NPR host Guy Raz has interviewed more than 200 highly successful entrepreneurs to uncover amazing true stories like these. In How I Built This, he shares tips for every entrepreneur’s journey: from the early days of formulating your idea, to raising money and recruiting employees, to fending off competitors, to finally paying yourself a real salary. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting their own business or wondered how trailblazing entrepreneurs made their own dreams a reality. -- Publisher.

Contents:

Introduction -- The call. Be open to ideas ; Is it dangerous or just scary? ; Leave your safety zone... but do it safely ; Do your research ; Find your co-founder ; Bund the business, part 1: Bootstrapping ; Get your story straight ; Fund your business, part 2: Other people's money ; Interate, iterate, iterate -- The test(s). Go in through the side door ; It's all about location ; Get attention, part 1: Building buzz ; Get attention, part 2: Engineering word of mouth ; Survive the crucible ; Fund the business, part 3: Professional money ; Protect what you've built ; When catastrophe strikes ; The art of the pivot -- The destination. It can't be all about the money ; Build a culture, not a cult ; Think small to get big ; Manage partnership tensions ; Know thyself ; When to sell and when to stay ; Be kind! ; What you do with your luck -- Afterword.

Physical Description:

xvi, 302 pages ; 24 cm

Subject Term:

New business enterprises.

Author(s):

Publisher:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,

Publication Date:

2020

ISBN:

9780358216766

9780358424239

Publication Information:

Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.

Call Number:

658.11 RAZ

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003477844	Adult Nonfiction	658.11 RAZ	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

WALL STREET JOURNAL #1 Bestselling Business Book

Based on the highly acclaimed NPR podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz, this book offers priceless insights and inspiration from the world's top entrepreneurs on how to start, launch, and build a successful venture.

Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy's Pita Chips).

Award-winning interviewer and podcast creator Guy Raz has interviewed more than 350 highly successful entrepreneurs to uncover amazing true stories like these. In How I Built This, he shares tips for every entrepreneur's journey: from the early days of formulating your idea, to raising money and recruiting employees, to fending off competitors, to finally paying yourself a real salary. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting their own business or wondered how trailblazing entrepreneurs made their own dreams a reality.

Author Notes

GUY RAZ is the creator and host of the popular podcasts How I Built This , Wisdom from the Top and The Rewind on Spotify. He's also the co-creator of the acclaimed podcasts TED Radio Hour and the children's program Wow in the World . He's received the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize, the National Headliner Award, and the NABJ Award, among many others and was a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard. He lives in the Bay Area.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

NPR host Raz bundles insights from over 200 entrepreneurs into a breezy if not fully convincing compendium of advice. Drawing on interviews with successful businesspeople conducted for his podcast (from which this book gets its name), Raz distills lessons for aspiring founders, including tips on how to nurture an idea and win funding, and dispels some myths. For instance, despite the widespread fascination with lone-wolf geniuses, Raz finds that partnerships are the rule, not the exception, as demonstrated by such success stories as luggage company Away, the beauty product company Carol's Daughter, or Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Unfortunately, apparent contradictions abound. Among them, Raz finds that Shopify's founder defied advice by resisting Silicon Valley's allure and instead building his e-commerce platform from offices in Ottawa; however, Stitch Fix's founder did the opposite, moving from Boston to California to be near the engineers that could help her improve the company's technology. Perhaps acknowledging the futility of understanding what precisely separates a successful business from the vast majority of failure, Raz titles the final chapter "What You Do with Your Luck." Those with an entrepreneurial bent will be entertained by the shoptalk, but those hoping for concrete advice may have to look elsewhere. Agent: Byrd Leavell, United Talent. (Sept.)