Product Description

The economy may not be great, but there are still plenty of entrepreneurs around with great ideas for high-tech start-ups. If you are one of them, this book will help you succeed. It gives you all the basic information you need to make your great idea a business reality.

Updated for today's business and economic climate, the new, fully revised edition of Engineering Your Start-Up is the complete guide to launching and growing a successful high-tech company. The authors, both successful veterans of many start-ups, focus you squarely on the fundamentals of making a new business work.

They demystify the start-up process with frank advice, insider's tips, and in-depth analysis. On-point case studies show you what to do--and what to avoid. An expanded list of resources steers you to help when you need it. You'll learn what it takes for you to create and manage a start-up, and the personal characteristics required for success in your new venture.

Engineering Your Start-Up offers a dose of reality for all aspects of the start-up world. Among the topics covered: securing funding (or surviving until you do), dealing with venture capitalists, writing a business plan, creating a management team, market positioning, stock ownership and grant practices, protecting intellectual property, and many other topics.

Engineering Your Start-Up is a distillation of the key lessons of the high-tech start-up world. As a new entrepreneur, you'll find it a book you go back to again and again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85743 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
"A feast of ideas." -- San Jose Mercury News, 9/93 issue

"An essential guide through the pitfalls and hazards of the business world." -- Byte Magazine, 12/93 issue

From the Publisher
What's New in the Second Edition

Three New Chapters:

The Term Sheet: A Practical Overview demystifies the structure and terms of venture financing, an all-important event in the life of most successful start-ups that is familiar ground to professional investors but unfamiliar and threatening to many entrepreneurs

Protecting Your Intellectual Property covers the major types of intellectual property protection (copyrights, patents, trade secrets, and trademarks)

The Legal Form of Your Start-Up discusses the various choices for your start-up (corporation, partnership, limited liability corporation, and so forth) and how to decide which is best for you

Updated Business Plan Information:
The latest advice on researching and writing your business plan
Reasons why many entrepreneurs have difficulty writing their business plans--and practical tips to avoid the problem

Expanded Section on Finding Money:
Much more on where and how to find money, including advice on corporate investors and strategic partners
Tips from investors on how to raise money
Recent trends in venture funding

Plus:
Tips on creating a compelling "elevator pitch"
The latest views on company valuation and exit strategies
Updates on legal and accounting matters, including stock options and other forms of compensation
A greatly expanded Resources section and lots of links to useful information

About the Author
Co-authors James Swanson and Michael Baird are founders of the Los Altos Incubator (firstonline.com), where aspiring entrepreneurs can seek expert advice. Swanson has more than 25 years of Silicon Valley business experience. He holds an SB degree from MIT and MBA and JD degrees from Stanford University. Baird has spent 30 years in high-tech executive engineering and marketing management. He earned an MBA and a PhD in information and computer science from Georgia Tech.

Customer Reviews

a must read in combination with others
More substantive and more "specific" then any other such book I have read. Much more useful then "High Tech Startup" by Nesheim. Very enjoyable read without constantly reminding you that you might lose your house . One negative: very much written as a guide for engineers with an idea and no business knowledge; this means it lacks some depth when it comes to marketing issues.

Best among all
This is the best book among the six I've read recently on the subject. It contains numerous practical tips which I couldn't find anywhere else. The book has helped me tremendously in finding answers I want and in broadening my perspective on the subject. It is also written in a way that it is so easy to read and understand, unlike many others which I think are meant to be read by attorneys only. I am really pleased with the book. It's so good that I feel compelled to thank and compliment the author for a job well done.

eysu.org contained the entire contents of this book online
In a bold marketing experiment, Professional Publications, Inc., once made available online at eysu.org the entire contents of this all-new 2003 2nd Edition of "Engineering Your Start-up." Every page was searchable in PDF files.
Michael Baird (co-author)