Engineering Your Start-Up: A Guide for the High-Tech Entrepreneur

Rating:
Summary: From the trenches
Review: This is a book you should never loan to a friend because you will never get it back. I went through four copies of the 1992 edition before learning that lesson. Now, a copy of this book is my favorite gift to each young and restless client. really shows how to gain the important balance between technology, customers, investors, fun and sanity.

Rating:
Summary: Best among all
Review: This is the best book among the six I've read recently on the subject. It contains numerous practical tips which I couldn't find anywhere else. The book has helped me tremendously in finding answers I want and in broadening my perspective on the subject. It is also written in a way that it is so easy to read and understand, unlike many others which I think are meant to be read by attorneys only. I am really pleased with the book. It's so good that I feel compelled to thank and compliment the author for a job well done.

Rating:
Summary: Great real world guide
Review: This is the first business start-up book I've found that discusses the practical realities of valuation/funding of an early stage company rather than the simple math and mechanics. Their description of the term sheet and the implications to the entrepreneur (Chapter 12) is great.

Rating:
Summary: A lot of good information, not a 5 though
Review: well, I may've expected a bit too much given the prior overly-generous reviews. This book isn't a five-star. It contains a lot of useful information at a 30,000 foot level. A lot of statistics are from the late 80s and early 90s when capital was more limited. My biggest gripe is the lack of chronology of a start-up. For instance, the book correctly emphasizes the need for a good management team to acquire funding, but then talks about establishing a management team during start-up phase (after seeding phase). Huh? I got almost no sense about what happens when from this book, other than 2 charts. The rest of the info is lumped together. I couldn't tell, for instance, exactly when to write the business plan and what potential round of investment this would be targeted at. I'm looking for a book which lays out the phases of start-up more precisely. Other than that, I'll say it is a good read with a lot of good information, and I finished it in one night.