Hungry Start-Up Strategy: Creating New Ventures with Limited Resources and Unlimited Vision (BK Business)

After years of working with startups Peter Cohan discovered that, contrary to the conventional wisdom entrepreneurs start companies to feed their hunger to create the world they want to live in--not to maximize shareholder value or create a fortune for financiers. Based on first-hand work and research with hundreds of start-ups, Peter Cohan has created a strategy handbook to allow entrepreneurs to start small and finish big. He emphasizes that strategy for start-ups is always short-term strategy--often with a six-month window or less. By keeping focus on the short-term, entrepreneurs can keep their visions--and their companies--under their own control. The game is to postpone any need for outside finance for as long as possible.

Most existing strategy guides are geared to larger companies and are of limited use to small startups. Cohan's strategic model focuses on six decision points where the strategy for small companies is radically different than that for large compenies: 1. Setting Goals, 2. Picking Markets, 3. Raising Capital, 4. Building Teams, 5. Gaining Market Share, and 6, Adapting to Change.

Entrepreneurs are hungry. But it’s not just because they’re living on ramen and adrenaline. Peter Cohan has found they’re driven by a hunger to create a working world in which they want to live—something they have to do without money or staff. No business strategy guide has addressed this unique combination of aspirations and challenges—until now.

Cohan focuses on six key start-up choices—setting goals, picking markets, raising capital, building teams, gaining market share, and adapting to change—explaining how and why start-ups must make very different choices than established companies. For each area, he provides a decision-making approach and lively case studies of what actual entrepreneurs have done to cook up a thriving business from scratch.

Peter Cohan is principal of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. Cohan teaches strategy to undergraduate and MBA students. Since May 2002, Cohan has served as an executive-in-residence at Babson, advising MBA teams in their consulting work with companies through the Babson Consulting Alliance Program (BCAP) and Management Consulting Field Experience (MCFE) programs. He has previously taught at Stanford University’s Industry Thought Leaders program, Columbia University’s Senior Executive Program, MIT, the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore, and other universities in Europe and Asia. He has also conducted management development programs in the US and Asia sponsored by leading corporations, such as IBM, Intel, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Fidelity Investments, and Procter & Gamble.

Cohan is a frequent commentator on developments in economics, technology, and finance. He has been a guest on ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s Evening News and Early Show, CNN, CNBC, PBS’s Wall $treet Week, and New England Cable News (NECN). He has been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Barron’s, Red Herring, Time, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and Newsweek International. His own monthly investment newsletter is The Cohan Letter.

Introduction

Ch. 1. Setting Goals

Ch. 2. Picking Markets

Ch. 3. Raising Capital

Ch. 4. Building Teams

Ch. 5. Gaining Share

Ch. 7. Adapting to Change

Ch. 8. Implications for Start-up CEOs

Ch. 9. Implications for Established Companies

Ch. 10. Implications for Start-up Investors

Appendix--Analysis of the Interviews