Sukshma

Going from zero to startup. What I have read and found useful is all enlisted on this page. My own transition was helped by books, friends and mentors.

This page and is far from complete, your welcome to get in touch with me and help me finish it.

Think Big!

• The pmarca guide to startups Part 1 and Part 2.
• What is your Primary Motivator?
• Failing Cheaper - Redeye VC.

1st Month: Bullet-proof your idea.

• What’s in a name? - Found + Read
• Naming your startup.
• Evaluate a Product Idea - Evan William (Blogger, Twitter Founder).
• Clarify your Story (Internet Businesses).

2nd Month: Raise Money, or scrape some together.

• How to fund a Startup - Paul Graham.
• The art of Bootstrapping (an excellent article) - “Bootstrapping by Definition”, Vijay Anand.
• The art of Bootstrapping - Guy Kawasaki.
• 101 Unconventional Ways to Raise Money.

3rd Month: Define your value proposition.

• Marketing Myopia - Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business Review Classics. (pdf)
• The Fundamentals of Customer Value.
• Getting customers to pay - The Penny Gap, Redeye VC.
• Pmarca Guide to startups - The only thing that matters (is the market).
• You need a strategy map.
• The Consumer Technology 3 Act Play (Distribution, Product, Branding).
• Positioning Products and Services Accurately - Edward M. Gurowitz Ph.D.

4th Month: Iterative Innovation.

• (Customer) Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue (find the slides here).
• The application of Social Media to Web Strategy.
• The cluetrain manifesto.

5th Month: Advertising.

• Public Relations Secrets (TechCrunch).

9th Month: Profit for sustainability.

• The Ugly Adolescent Stage (when you consume more than you produce).
• More on Cash at this stage.
• The Margin Manifesto, part 1 and part 2.
• Media Business Models - Chris Anderson (The Long Tail).

Raising serious money from Professional Investors/Venture Capitalists.

• Build your own Cap Table.
• Term Sheet Hacks - Get a Great Deal.
• What does a Series A term sheet look like?
• Should I use debt or equity?
• How much equity can I give away (Paul Graham)?
• What does a convertible note look like?
• How much funding is too much (or too little)? - pmarca.
• When the VC’s say no - pmarca.
• But I don’t know any VC’s - pmarca.
• What value do VC’s add (or take away) - StartupBoy?
• What is liquidation preference? (get a spreadsheet on computing scenarios here).
• More on VC Term Sheets and Liquidation Preference.
• Term Sheet Glossary - GigaOm.
• Strategic Corporate Investments.
• Are convertible notes valid in India?
• Is Google’s YouTube worth $4.9B? - A nice analysis justifying the current YouTube Valuation.
• Financial Models for Startups. Where projections meet reality.

Master your disruptive contribution.

• The Innovator’s Dilemma.

Managing up and down.

• The best business books of all time.
• The Effective Executive - Peter Drucker.
• Effective Leaders Follow these Eight Practices - Peter Drucker.

Other books worth reading.

• The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story.
• Founders at work: Stories of startup’s Early Days.
• Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap …and others don’t.
• What the CEO wants you to know - Ram Charan.
• Innovator’s Dilemma - Clayton M. Christensen.

The Economics of Media and E-Commerce businesses.

• 3 ways to build an E-Commerce business with $500M in revenue - Jeremy Liew of LightSpeed Ventures.
• 3 ways to build an online Media business to $50M in revenue - Jeremy Liew of LightSpeed Ventures.
• More on building an online Media business - Jeremy Liew of LightSpeed Ventures.
• USA! USA! USA! We’re number one (in online advertising markets) - Jeremy Liew.

Startup Resources from around the web.

• Purdue Entrepreneurship Certificate Program Wiki.
• The Startup Kit - I; Proto.in blog.
• Free Advice for Software Startups - Dharmesh Shah.
• Technology and Business Discussions.