All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line

Praise for all in startup I dare you to find a business book for entrepreneurs thats as useful as All In Startup , and I double–dare you to find one thats as much fun to read. Diana Kander captures what its like to launch something new. The result is a book that helps set readers on the path to finding startup success. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com and author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Delivering Happiness This is a must read for anyone interested in launching a new product or business. All In Startup makes lean concepts more accessible through a simple but powerful allegory to which readers will easily relate. Diana Kander helps readers understand the value of the lean approach by tying it to a memorable story. Steve Blank, Lecturer, U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University, Columbia University and UCSF Not often enough is a business book so chock–full of intelligent advice and such a fun read. John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing and Duct Tape Selling There is seldom a read that when you start it, you cant put it down. Diana Kander has crafted such an experience that fuses an engaging story of choices, dilemmas, tradeoffs, and problems with the real–world experience of the entrepreneur. In a narrative that captures the culture and the spirit of an entrepreneur in a worthy tale of swagger, hustle and intuition, the reader will learn the lessons of the all in entrepreneur and build a framework to approach their own entrepreneurial pathway. Before you know it, the lessons framed in the book become your own, to the extent that you will convince yourself you have always known them. Ive concluded that anyone who thinks they may want to take a crack at founding a business should read All In Startup first. Ted Zoller, Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill If more books were like All In Startup , the business world would be much better off, and significantly more entertaining. This is a delightfully fresh take on what it requires to follow your passioneven against the odds. Highly recommended! Jay Baer, New York Times bestselling author of Youtility

Foreword by Steve Blank ix A Letter from Thom Ruhe, VP of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation xi Introduction xiii Chapter 1: First Appearances Can Be Deceiving 1 Chapter 2: You’re Not Fooling Anyone 7 Chapter 3: You Can’t Sell Anything by Doing All of the Talking 13 Chapter 4: It’s How Well You Lose, Not How Well You Win, That Determines Whether You Get to Keep Playing 19 Chapter 5: The Real Pros Don’t Play Every Hand 25 Chapter 6: Vanity Metrics Can Hide the Real Numbers That Matter to Your Business 29 Chapter 7: You Won’t Find a Mentor if You Don’t Ask 35 Chapter 8: Put Your Customers and Their Needs before Your Vision for a Solution 39 Chapter 9: Don’t Gamble—Use Small Bets to Find Opportunities 47 Chapter 10: Even Experts Need to Prepare for New Terrain 51 Chapter 11: People Don’t Buy Visionary Products; They Buy Solutions to Their Problems 55 Chapter 12: Only Customers Can Tell You if You’ve Found a Problem Worth Solving 63 Chapter 13: Hoping and Praying for Luck Is Not a Strategy 75 Chapter 14: It’s Never Too Late to Test Your Assumptions 81 Chapter 15: The Secret to Customer Interviews Is Nonleading, Open–Ended Questions 87 Chapter 16: The Only Way to Get Good at Customer Interviews Is to Practice 95 Chapter 17: Finding Out Your Assumptions Were Wrong Is Just as Valuable as Proving Them Right 99 Chapter 18: Don’t Pivot to a New Idea without Testing Your New Assumptions 109 Chapter 19: Save Your Chips for When You’ll Need the Least Amount of Luck to Win 117 Chapter 20: Successful Entrepreneurs Recognize Failure, Fold, and Live to Fight Another Day 123 Chapter 21: Test Your Assumptions before Committing Any Resources to an Idea 133 Chapter 22: Luck Can Be Engineered if You Take Emotion Out of the Equation 143 Chapter 23: Every Successful Entrepreneur Has More Failures than Successes 149 Chapter 24: The Harder You Work, the Luckier You’ll Get 153 Chapter 25: Opportunities to Find Prospective Customers Are Everywhere—You Just Have to Look 157 Chapter 26: The Best Feedback from Potential Customers Comes from Meticulous Interviews 161 Chapter 27: Recognize the Vanity Metrics to Avoid Big Losses 169 Chapter 28: Keep Interviewing Customers until You Find a Migraine Problem Worth Solving 173 Chapter 29: People Can’t Help Themselves from Sharing When You Bring Up a Migraine Problem 181 Chapter 30: Stay Objective in Your Interviews Whether You Are Getting Good or Bad News 187 Chapter 31: Nothing Else Matters until You Can Prove That Customers Want Your Product 191 Chapter 32: Luck Makers Seek Out New Experiences and Find Opportunities Wherever They Go 195 Chapter 33: Luck Is Not a Good Strategy for Poker or Business—It’s the Outcome of a Good Strategy 201 Chapter 34: To Prove Demand, Find the Shortest Path to the Ultimate Customer Action 209 Chapter 35: Prepare for Bad Luck by Building Up Reserves 219 Chapter 36: Fear and Inaction Are the Two Greatest Threats to Your Business Idea 225 Chapter 37: Understand Your Tendencies On Tilt So That You Can Compensate for Them 229 Chapter 38: There Is No Mistaking It When You Uncover Migraine Problems Worth Solving 235 Chapter 39: Get Comfortable with Being Wrong 241 Chapter 40: Don’t Go All–In without Confirming Your Assumptions through Smaller Bets 249 Chapter 41: Second Chances Are Rare—Make Sure You Get It Right the First Time Around 253 Chapter 42: Even When You Find a Migraine Problem, Crafting a Solution Requires Vigilance and Readjustment 255 Chapter 43: Don’t Commit All–In until You Prove That Customers Want Your Product and There’s a Business Model to Support It 265 Chapter 44: The Strength of Your Initial Idea, or Starting Hand, Is Always Relative 269 Sam’s Journal 271 Acknowledgments 279 About the Author 283

DIANA KANDER is a successful entrepreneur, having founded and sold a number of ventures, and is a Senior Fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest non–profit in the world dedicated to entrepreneurship and education. A Georgetown–educated attorney who left a successful practice to launch her first company, Diana draws on her experience as a founder, investor, and academic to design and implement curriculum in educational institutions and the private sector. A sought–after public speaker, consultant, and writer, Diana has advised startup founders and Fortune 500 executives on her methodology for launching customer–focused products and services and developing an entrepreneurial mindset throughout an organization.