Product Description

The phenomenal success of the initial public offerings (IPOs) of many new internet companies obscures the fact that fewer than six out of 1 million business plans submitted to venture capital firms will ever reach the IPO stage. Many fail, according to start-up expert John Nesheim, because the entrepreneurs did not have access to the invaluable lessons that come from studying the real-world venture experiences of successful companies. Now they do.

This revised and updated edition of Nesheim's underground Silicon Valley bestseller incorporates twenty-three case studies of successful start-ups, including tables of wealth showing how much money founders and investors realized from each venture. Acclaimed by entrepreneurs the world over, this practical handbook is filled with hard-to-find information and guidance covering every key phase of a start-up, from idea to IPO: how to create a winning business plan, how to value the firm, how venture capitalists work, how they make their money, where to find alternative sources of funding, how to select a good lawyer, and how to protect intellectual property. Nesheim aims to improve the odds of success for first-time high-tech entrepreneurs, and offers an insider's perspective from firsthand experience on one of the toughest challenges they face -- convincing venture capitalists or investment banks to provide financing.

This complete, classic reference tool is essential reading for first-time high-tech entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs already involved in a start-up who want to increase their chances of success to rise to the top.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142125 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 342 pages

Amazon.com Review
You've got a hot idea for a new dot-com, and you're itching to join the folks who regularly show up on CNBC and at the Lexus dealerships in Silicon Valley. But you also know your odds of big-time success are about as long as Bill Gates's position in MSFT. What do you do? John Nesheim, an adjunct professor at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, who has personally structured over $300 million in new-venture deals, lays out the step-by-step skinny in High Tech Startup. Incorporating some two dozen case studies spanning the technology spectrum, he presents info specific to this industry that will help you get from concept to IPO. It begins with a 14-phase schedule itemizing time requirements, necessary assistance, typical participants, major costs, main risks, and desired results for each step. It then details all the critical stages (i.e., forming the company, preparing the business plan, assembling the team, dealing with venture capitalists and other funding sources). Nesheim focuses on practical strategies that should certainly improve your chances, but don't start prepping for that on-air interview with Mark Haines just yet: Only six out of 1 million high-tech ideas, he notes, ever become successful companies that go public. --Howard Rothman

Review
Mario Rosati Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Great book for high-tech entrepreneurs. -- Review

Review
Chih-Chao Lam

founder, Acknowledge and ShoppingList.com

This is the book I wish I'd taken to heart in my first start-up. ShoppingList.com is all the more well-grounded for my having read High Tech Start UP.

Ken Tidwell

Vice President, Engineering, Clip2.com

Next best thing after the founders to have at the kitchen table.

Thomas M. Uhlman

President, New Ventures Group, Lucent Technologies

Required reading for the next generation of corporate venture capitalists.

Donald T. Valentine

General Partner, Sequoia Capital

A must-read for all Internet era entrepreneurs.

Mario Rosati

Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Great book for high-tech entrepreneurs.

George Gilder

Gilder Group, author of Telecosm

Super book by the start-up guru of Silicon Valley.

John C. Dean

Chairman and CEO, Silicon Valley Bank

From idea to IPO, Nesheim provides a virtual road map to start-up success.

David Ben Daniel

Professor of Entrepreneurship, Cornell University

An invaluable, practical guide for high-tech entrepreneurs.

Chong Huai Seng

Publisher, Asian Entrepreneur

A must-read for entrepreneurs, angels, and venture firms seeking the best practices.

Customer Reviews

Wealth of Information- Ignore it at your own peril!
It's true that this book is dated. It was written in 1992, and covers NOTHING after 1991, except for thinly disguised attempts to make the book appear more recent- the copyright is 1997, and there are new pages added with info on Yahoo and Netscape.

That said, even if there was another good book on this subject out there, published in 1999, I would still recommend this book. The reason is simple. The information it contains is too important to miss. The book is very well-researched and well-written. If the authors did come out with a second edition that covered the 90s companies- in particular the dotcoms- I would still recommend buying this book, unless the second edition includes (or a meaningful comparison with) the information contained in this book, to put things in perspective. While looking at the valuations of dotcoms would be very interesting and useful, I believe you'll get a skewed picture unless you also have the pre-dotcom era data, to give you a realistic expectation of the potential of your own company.

A big disappointment
If the title was "Managing and Financing Your Startup", I would not have been disappointed. It seems that Nesheim's central message is to find an experienced CEO, and push constantly to get financing.

Nesheim is so insistent on this point that he basically ignores the critical, fundamental question of market assessment: how to determine whether the product is desirable and whether the company has a true "unfair advantage". It seems that Nesheim is more focused on a successful IPO and exit for the funders than on developing a viable business.

As I read the book, I thought of companies like Webvan. Webvan would be successful in Nesheim's view: experienced management, seasoned directors, and well financed. But history showed that they had a product that was too expensive for the marketplace, and they are gone. While Nesheim does not cite Webvan, he does offer other success stories that have fallen far from their initial valuations: DoubleClick, Netscape, and SGI.

Given that, I have a hard time trusting this book. The prettiest forecasts are meaningless unless they are based on a solid product and a solid competitive advantage. And here, Nesheim offers virtually no guidance.

A case study in and of itself
Nesheim's book is Nesheim's business. He has written a primer on entrepreneurship, from the VC perspective, and is providing basic information that can be garnered for free from the Internet or any small business development center or university incubator in the country. Among other texts, this one may prove useful in the classroom for the purpose of critical analysis, but it can be misleading to entrepreneurs who need to have a fuller picture. Unimpressive are such entries as: ". . .a famous university study showed that sixty-nine disk drive start-up companies got rolling during the heyday of the personal computer, around 1983. . .(p. 45). Nesheim also takes a VC stance against non-disclosure agreements between VC's and their prospective clients. There are plenty of us in the technology start up business who vehemently disagree. The NDA is a useful tool, not necessarily to protect from infringement as much as to signify good faith. They can be, and have been enforceable as well. Nesheim's book also neglects any discussion of incubators as viable locations in which to begin a business--in spite of his acknowledgement that start up costs and overhead can be tough on new businesses. Again, his lack of understanding of incubation seems to stem from his VC perspective. VC's are more familiar with the more recent 'accelerator' phenomenon of the dot coms--VC portfolios in a building if you will--which lasted all of about 12 months this last year and came crashing with the NASDAQ. Mr. Nesheim has taught one or two online classes via the Internet as a visiting lecturer to Cornell University. He spends most of his time travelling throughout Europe and Asia selling his text and talking to would be entrepreneurs. His text is his product and his Silicon Valley address is what he would call "his unfair advantage", particularly to unsuspecting listeners in foreign lands.