The inventive process is the most important driver of economic growth. Venture capital (VC) funds have contributed a small, but critical, part to the inventive process. VC funds boost the inventive process by selecting a small number of radical ideas out a large flow of ideas and invest in their testing, development and commercialization. They bring together capital from general savings, management capabilities and business experience. When successful, VC-backed companies can contribute substantially to the welfare of society. In this book, VC funds are discussed in the context of macroeconomics, industrial organization, financial intermediation and financial economics. The authors adopt a comprehensive overview to provide clearer insight into the role of VC funds in the capital market and the way they operate.
If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.
Creative ideas fuel corporate grow. But what we really know about creativity? Which are the drivers? What are the boundaries of creative processes? How to evaluate creative ideas in startups? The age of the lone heroic inventor is over and now business creativity is process-based, often outsourced, it involves organizational resources and management practices, while creative expressions are increasingly protected as key intangible asset. In this book a diverse team of contributors from academia, intellectual property law and venture capital, offer an interdisciplinary, cross functional view about corporate creativity. How creativity is defined, the nature of the theories underpinning it, the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurship will be explored as well as how boundary spanning activities help in selecting and mobilizing creative talent in industries such as fashion. Finally the book shows how creative entrepreneurs embracing the tension between creative disruption and operational efficiency created innovative business models of extraordinary success.
An analysis of the venture capital process, from fund-raising through investing to exiting investments; a new edition with major revisions and six new chapters that reflect the latest research.
Innovation is of critical value in the modern global economy, as it performs several important economic functions. The first is related to supporting the sustainability of socio-economic systems, preventing the emergence of crises and, if they do occur, providing solutions to overcome their consequences. Secondly, innovation allows for the activation of economic growth and social progress through the rationalization of economic activities. Thirdly, innovation supports the global competitiveness of economic systems, allowing for the specialization of production and sales of unique goods that are in high demand in both domestic and global markets. At the same time, innovational development in economic systems is required to mitigate the high levels of risk and requires both effective management and a reliable normative and legal foundation. This book studies the economic and legal foundations of managing the innovational development of economic systems from an interdisciplinary perspective, bringing together the thoughts of international scholars in management, economics and law.
"Wu focuses on how urban policies and the clustering of creative industries has influenced urban outcomes. The set of creative industries include those with output protectable under some form of intellectual property law. More specifically, this subsector encompasses software, multimedia, video games, industrial design, fashion, publishing, and research and development. The cities that form the basis for the empirical investigations are those where policy-induced transitions have been most evident, including Boston; San Francisco; San Diego; Seattle; Austin; Washington, D.C.; Dublin (Ireland); Hong Kong (China); and Bangalore (India). The key research questions are: What types of cities are creative? What locational factors are essential? What are the common urban policy initiatives used by creative cities? The author explores the importance of the external environment for innovation and places it in the larger context of national innovation systems. Based on a study of development in Boston and San Diego, he isolates the factors and policies that have contributed to the local clustering of particular creative industries. In both cities, universities have played a major role in catalyzing the local economy by generating cutting-edge research findings, proactively collaborating with industries, and supplying the needed human capital. In addition, these two cities benefited from the existence of anchor firms and active industry associations that promoted fruitful university-industry links. Many cities in East Asia are aspiring to become the creative hubs of the region. But their investments tend to be heavily biased toward infrastructure provision. Although this is necessary, the heavy emphasis on hardware can lead to underinvestment in developing the talents and skills needed for the emergence of creative industries in these cities. This paper--a product of the Development Research Group--was prepared for the East Asia Prospect Study"--World Bank web site.
Venture capital demystified, for both investors and entrepreneurs Building Wealth Through Venture Capital is a practical how-to guide for both sides of the table—investors and the entrepreneurs they fund. This expert author duo combines renowned venture capital experience along with the perspective of a traditional corporate executive and investor sold on this asset class more recently to flesh out wealth-building opportunities for both investors and entrepreneurs. Very simply, this book will guide investors in learning how to succeed at making money in venture capital investment, and it will help entrepreneurs increase their odds of success at attracting venture capital funds and then employing those funds toward a lucrative conclusion. The authors explain why venture capital will remain the asset class best-positioned to capitalize on technological innovation in the coming years. They go on to demystify the market for those seeking guidance on reaping its rich returns. Learn what it takes to succeed as an investor or entrepreneur, and gain the wisdom of experience as the authors explain key factors that determine outcomes. Through a relaxed, down-to-earth narrative, the authors share their own experiences as well as those of their nationally-recognized colleagues. Illustrative anecdotes and personal interviews expand upon important points, and case studies demonstrate the practical effect of critical concepts and actions. World-class professional expertise and personal experience come together to help you: Understand the nature of both venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs Develop wealth-building capabilities in investing in or attracting venture capital Learn how entrepreneurs and investors can work together toward a lucrative conclusion Examine the ways in which recent financial regulatory developments and technological advances already in place are democratizing access to venture capital, enabling unprecedented expansion of venture capital opportunities As the field expands through these regulatory and technological developments, savvy participants will have unprecedented opportunity to benefit. Building Wealth Through Venture Capital explains what you need to know, and shows you how to navigate this arcane but lucrative asset class.
