The Founder's Dilemmas Book Summary

Book Summary

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Brief Summary

Starting your own company is a big deal, and it's important to make sure it's done right. In The Founder’s Dilemmas, Noah Wasserman has answers to all of the most common questions people have about creating successful startups, and he did his research. His book is comprised of information gathered from roughly ten years of data collecting and 10,000 interviews with business founders. Inside, he chronicles how you can face the problems only an entrepreneur understands. He offers insight from those who have experience not only solving these problems but solving them successfully. Read on to learn why motivation is what separates entrepreneurs from other professionals, whether hiring your best friend will help or hinder your company’s growth, and what singular quality to look for in a new hire.

About the Author

Noam Wasserman is currently the Dean of the Yeshiva University Sy Syns School of Business. He previously worked as the Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California and the director of USC’s Founder’s Central Initiative. He also previously worked as the Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He has written many works about the challenges faced by founders of startup companies. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, with a bachelor of science degree in computer science and engineer and a bachelor of science in economics from Wharton. He received an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1999. He also received a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2001 and a PHD in Organizational Behavior from the Harvard Business School in 2002.

Topics

Entrepreneurship Management & Leadership

The Founder's Dilemmas Book Summary Preview

Let what motivates you to determine your path

Some people enjoy routine work, with a guaranteed paycheck at the end of the day. Others find the consistency draining, dull, and exhausting. If you fall into the second group, it's likely you’d farewell as an entrepreneur, and you’re not alone. When Genevieve Thiers was working at IBM, she felt stifled, like a cog in a machine. She ended up founding Sittercity, her own company, later. Feeling stifled or bored at your job can be an indicator of what motivates you. In men, those who enjoyed normal jobs were driven by security, prestige, financial gain, and affiliation. All of these motivations can be met outside of entrepreneurship. Men who become founders were motivated by financial gain and control, two needs that aren’t readily met by your average working environment. Women were motivated a bit differently. Those who preferred entrepreneurial careers were driven by autonomy, power, influence, managing people, and altruism. Those who preferred nonentrepreneurial careers were motivated by recognition, affiliation, security, and lifestyle: needs that a normal office job can usually meet. If you can’t relate to the motivations of those who enjoy regular office jobs, you’re in the right place.

Find Human Capital

Now that you’re sure you’ve got the right motivation to have a career as an entrepreneur, does that mean you’re ready to start your own business? Absolutely not. You’ll need a few things first. One of them is known as human capital. This concept refers to an understanding of the field that you’re going into, and it's essential to developing a successful business. Just ask baseball star, Curt Schilling. He knew what it took to be a skilled athlete, and had a background in leadership. However, he didn’t have any experience running a business. When he launched a massive gaming startup, he was ill-prepared to manage people in a workplace environment. He couldn’t understand why his employees didn’t want to work weekends, for instance: and this lack of awareness caused problems in his startup. Conversely, Barry Nalls, the founder of Masergy, had worked roughly 25 years at a telecommunications company before launching his startup. This meant he had the experience and knowledge to run a company in a field he understood.

People who lack...