The Startup Playbook: Secrets of the Fastest-Growing Startups from Their Founding Entrepreneurs
"Bravo! David Kidder's latest book is a gift to aspiring entrepreneurs. His interviews with our era's most successful startup players reveal what we need to know about turning dreams into businesses that last. Readers will benefit from thePlaybook's practical advice and the inspiration in every story." - Wenda Harris Millard, president and COO, MediaLink; former co-CEO, Martha Stewart Living; former chief marketing officer, Yahoo"By shedding light on the insights of top entrepreneurial minds, David Kidder breaks down the secrets to startup success in simple and actionable terms. The diverse mix of entrepreneurs and the thoughtfully posed questions make for an engaging and inspiring read." - Jennifer Fleiss, cofounder, Rent the Runway"David Kidder has curated, aggregated, and synthesized an opus for the entrepreneur-whether current or aspiring. The openness with which these great entrepreneurs shared their experiences and insights is an invaluable asset conveniently packaged by Kidder.The Startup Playbookis not some trendy tech book that captures the zeitgeist of the moment, but rather a timeless, actionable reference tool to be read and re-read and kept within reach." - Terence Kawaja, founder and CEO, LUMA Partners"The world needs more entrepreneurs. By taking the hard part of building a business so seriously, this book should help more people get to the fun part-success. David Kidder brings both a writer's mind and a startup veteran's urgency to an entertaining and useful trip inside the minds of today's most successful creators of organizations-both for profit and for purpose."  - David Kirkpatrick, founder, host, and CEO, Techonomy Media; author ofThe Facebook Effect"Kidder, a serial entrepreneur and bestselling author of the Intellectual Devotional series, has assembled what can best be described as the perfect coffee-table book of collective entrepreneurial wisdom. He set out to collect key ideas that have inspired the world's greatest entrepreneurs and asked a number of wunderkinds to explain "key practices, behaviors, and ideas" that allowed them to succeed. Aggregated, the critical ideas expressed are know thyself; keep the focus on your big ideas; build a painkiller, not a vitamin; be 10 times better than the competition; and be a monopolist. The participants-including such luminaries as Steve Case of AOL, Robin Chase of Zipcar, Scott Harrison of Charity: Water, Jay Walker of Priceline, Sara Blakely of Spanx, and many others-provide their advice in the form of a playbook and offer pearls of wisdom such as running lean, firing people when they lose faith in your ideas, and staying ahead of the game. The sheer range of projects and ideas makes this an inspiring look at the process behind the successful startup plan." - Publishers Weekly"Is entrepreneurship in your blood? If yes, then this is your family album." - Peter Thum, founder and CEO, Fonderie 47; founder, Ethos Water"From technological entrepreneurs to social entrepreneurs,The Startup Playbookfeatures important tips from top American innovators that will change the way you think about your job, your business, and maybe even your industry." - Alexis Maybank, cofounder and chief strategy officer, Gilt Groupe"David Kidder writes from experience and passion about what it means to succeed from startup to successful enterprise. Whether old company or new, big or small, Kidder reminds us of the entrepreneurial spirit that can propel many great companies and nations." - Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, GE"David Kidder is a master at getting people to reveal themselves. These are all entrepreneurs I have heard from before, but David somehow got them to expose things about themselves-and to distill lessons from their experiences-which no one else has been able to do." - Laurel Touby, founder, www.mediabistro.com