Reading :: The Startup Owner's Manual

The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company
By Steve Blank and Bob Dorf

I just reviewed Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany. Blank's coauthor on this book, Bob Dorf, "critiqued the early versions of Steve's Four Steps to the Epiphany mercilessly," according to his bio in the back of The Startup Owner's Manual. They now run a consultancy together.

In this book, they pool their deep expertise to put together a book that should be read in pieces, as entrepreneurs get to different stages in their startups. Drawing on the Business Model Canvas, they walk entrepreneurs through the process of developing a model, including a value proposition, and iterating it properly so that it can speak to the intended customers. They provide steps and heuristics along the way, attending to things as diverse as structuring your organization, assessing your market, developing your business model, articulating your value proposition, deciding when to pivot, and assembling your sales force.

I'm not an entrepreneur, so I'm making this a short review. But the book itself is quite large, and it's full of step by step advice. Again, like Four Steps, this book should be on your desk if you're planning a startup.