The Art of the start

After reading the sample chapter of this book in January, in the month of April, I got to read this book entirely. I needed to wait so long because a copy was not available in India. We imported it from USA, which took fairly long time. But it was worthwhile to wait!

While Guy Kawasaki has covered the essence of the book in its first chapter, he has provided more details in subsequent chapters. Some of my takeaways are as follows:

• Positioning boils down to the answer for a simple question, "what do you do?".
• 10/20/30 rule for pitch: 10 slides, 20 minutes and 30-point font.
• Sales prospect pitch should contain following ten slides: title, problem, solution, sales model, technology, demo, competitive analysis, management team and next steps.
• A bootstrappable business model is characterized by low up-front capital requirements, short (<>
• Start as a service business.
• Hire "infected" people.
• A chart showing what you and your competition can and cannot do is useful to show how you are superior to the competition.
• Define deliverables and objectives for partnerships. Put an "out" clause in the deal.
• Top five lead generation methods include: conducting small-scale seminars, giving speeches, getting published, networking in a proactive way and participating in industry organizations.