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Rating: 
Summary: True hands-on guide for entrepreneurs
Review: =This is one heck of an instruction guide for entrepreneurs. I own the first edition of this book by Rob Ryan; it's on our bookshelf at work. My friends have it. Our PR firm has it. They recommend it at MIT. Now, I'm a biased reviewer, and am proud of it: the author is a mentor and Chairman of my company. I've known Rob since 1997, and earnestly believe that he is uniquely qualified to give hands-on advice to entrepreneurs, through his experience at Ascend (which he founded & took public, and was sold to Lucent in a deal valued at $24 billion) - and through leading and/or mentoring Silicon Spice (which was acquired by Broadcom for $1+ billion), Mimio/Virtual Ink, PatientKeeper, and Actuality Systems. Rob is the principal of what could best be termed an entrepreneurial bootcamp in southwestern Montana. Typical bootcampers arrive as bewildered techies, like I was, and leave with real direction on: + Validating markets for their products
+ How (at the mundane operational level) to contact sales prospects
+ How to structure a clear, logical VC/angel presentation
+ How to build an IP fortress And, once they've raised funding, + How to build a board of directors and run useful meetings
+ How to sell product
+ How to build their companies by identifying additional "petals" on the sunflower (in the book, too.) _Smartups_ distills Rob's legendary bootcamp advice into a practical manual for success. It is full of real-life examples culled from his own startups, short quizzes, actual PowerPoint slides of his IPO presentation, and real Board of Directors Meeting minutes. Any reviewer willing to publicly state his name is going out on a limb. Please take it from me that Smartups is a clear, no-bull, field manual for entrepreneurial operations. I completely recommend it without reservation.
Rating: 
Summary: Boy isn¿t Rob Ryan a really smart guy.
Review: I was ultimately disappointed by this book. It spent too much time emphasizing how incredibly smart a guy Rob Ryan is. It seemed very repetitious. Yes, it is written in a lighthearted style, but overall seemed like it only had enough content for a magazine article. He's been mentioned in Inc. magazine several times, which is what prompted me to buy it, but I didn't really learn that much from the book. One of the least useful of my many books on entrepreneurship. It does have a nice cover.
Rating:
Summary: Ascend founder and evangelist - who better to ask?
Review: Joining Ascend in 1991 was a risky move for me. Who the heck were they, anyway?
Then I met Rob.
The rest is history.
I've always enjoyed telling that story (usually a much longer and funnier version) to anyone interested in the Ascend tale. The book that we are reviewing here is in typical Rob style. I can not imagine anyone else writing it this way. It's just him. "Do the Dogs like the Dog Food" - if you ever spent any time chatting with Rob, you'd easily guess that this was one of his quips.
Even if I had not read this book (which I have done a few times now), I'd probably still recommend it. Rob was, and still is, an entrepreneurs entrepreneur. I only wish I could find him again in a new guise here in Silicon Valley - and relive those Ascend days.
Rating:
Summary: The bible for anyone interested in starting a company
Review: Rob has managed to create a book which at the same time provides essential advice on how to create a company and is also highly entertaining. He has done a very creative job of producing entertaining metaphors ("keys to the goldmine", "monkeys spinning in the treetops") to elucidate the guidance he provides. Creating a real company requires executing quickly to solve critical problems of fund raising, finding customers, and creating positive cash flow. Rob crisply lays out what needs to be done and points to places where people commonly get lost in trying to build a sucessful business. I wish I had this book when I started my company. The book is extremely engaging and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing New - This is a renamed version of 2001 Version
Review: This is nothing more than a renamed paperback version of Rob's 2001 "Entrepreneur America: Lessons from Inside Rob Ryan's High-Tech Start-Up Boot Camp". The origional book gets a 5 star rating from me. (...)this was promoted as a new book, not a new printing with a different name. If you already have the earlier edition, don't waste your money on this one. If you don't, buy it and learn from Rob. My criticism is the lack of disclosure that this is a reprint and the false expectations that were built from the advertising that this actually offered new content from an author I greatly respect and will automatically purchase any of his new books.
Rating: 
Summary: In-your-face Entrepreneur Brainstorming
Review: This is the newly released paperback version of Rob Ryan's earlier Entrepreneur America book. Great basic advice from a guy born in the Bronx and nurtured in the Valley who wnet on to found Ascend. Ryan pulls no punches in leading the reader (and his select entrepreneurs) on asking the hard questions about their ideas, companies and products to determine a core value propostion (and if there is one!). Definitely a must-read for anyone wanting to start a new business regardless of whether you've done it once or ten times! (So where's my autographed edition, Rob?)
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