Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup

Focused, practical, and thoroughly useful.You can buy this book, and immediately apply the concepts to either build or improve your business. Full stop. I can’t think of any other business book that could be described by those words. (and my business library is comprehensive)TLDR;Are you considering starting a business from scratch? This is the book to buy.Already built a going concern? Buy this book and identify your gaps. They’re going to be huge.In the building process? Get this book now, and start shoring up your flawed efforts to ensure the best possible outcomes.DETAILSFirst, brief credentials. I’ve spent 20+ years failing forward as an entrepreneur, and have witnessed firsthand the evolution of entrepreneurship (innovation driven business creation) as a distinct discipline and skill-set, as well as the support and frameworks to aid and assist in creating more successful ventures.The problem:15-20 years ago, the only widely available resources were the Small Business Association (SBA), which focused on geographically focused businesses with well defined business models and low levels of innovation and uncertainty, and the Seasoned Core Of Retired Executives (SCORE) which paired execs from established businesses with business owners. There was a huge disconnect however, because neither of these organizations distinguished between owner/operators of well known enterprises, and entrepreneurs/founders of businesses with innovation as a core aspect of their DNA. It was a mess.Part of that mess was identified and discussed as methodologies and tools like agile development, lean startup, design thinking, etc emerged to articulate the specific differences between new businesses that operated with innovation as a fundamental and essential differentiator (with the accompanying uncertainty and attempts to mitigate/reduce it), and the well known models of established businesses---as well as why and how the processes and methods that work in established businesses--didn’t work. Or, even worse, flat out will smother and kill ventures at that stage.But despite it’s popularity, Lean Startup hasn’t delivered on the promise of less waste, more successful businesses. At least, not yet. Not any that can be easily witnesses or seen. I’ve had first hand involvement with TechStars and Y Combinator companies that have progressed from idea to full blown scalable, profitable, sustainable ventures, and each of these teams struggled with attempting to bridge the gap of theory to the daily grind of starting a business.Key issues they all faced;--Lean Startup exhorts identifying key assumptions and running fast experiments. OK, that might work for customer development, but does nothing to help ID customers and market segments (doesn't even meaningfully mention them). It does nothing to advance understanding customers, or ID'ing beachheads, determining financials (like market sizing), determining pricing, evaluating overall economics of the business . . .--Identifying and understanding discrete elements of a successful business.--Prioritization. (many/most had a sense of dependencies, but didn't know where to start in understanding what the elements were, or how they were related)--Application. (even if they had an idea of what they needed done, they wouldn’t know *how* to do it)--Assessment/Diagnosis: Trying to understand how to interpret what was happening in their business. Struggling to zero in on what was causing the issue, discovering the ever elusive “why?”This is the single most useful book with that regard. It’s practical. It calls out the discrete elements in a very clear manner. And while there’s a reduction of something immensely complex, that simplicity isn’t due to omission. It’s just base mastery of the subject matter.Several reviewers have suggested that this is a guide to help aspiring or new entrepreneurs. Maybe.I’d suggest that this is actually much more useful to a sophisticated entrepreneur. Most of us have succeeded for reasons we can’t articulate. We have hunches, and we kinda sorta know what we do, but we couldn’t always explain it effectively. What this book does is provide a taxonomy for efficiently organizing and categorizing the “what” of building a business. I, and many others whom I have shared this book with, had the experience of reading this book and recognizing things we have always done, organized into a precise framework. It instantly improved our thinking, and brought order to thinking and working that was otherwise disordered and sometimes flat out chaotic.Also, this framework does a damn good job of recognizing ACTUAL dependencies that rule the physics of all businesses, not the perceived physics (that favor the perceptions and skills of the founders). This lays out the must haves, in an order that is always true. Deviation from that sequential development is almost always going to cost you time and money.This framework isn’t perfect. It’s going to continue to evolve. That said, it’s my opinion that this is the single best example of the state of the art in Innovation Driven Entrepreneurship.Everybody can improve their business, tangibly, and in the very short term, through applying this framework and the processes laid out.Recommended without reservation.Buy it now.

Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. He has learned as a teacher that students interested in entrepreneurship needed a unified body of information that would provide a roadmap through the messy and confusing process of starting and building a company.While there are many good books on the market for entrepreneurs (some of the author's favorites include Blue Ocean Strategy, Inbound Marketing, Crossing the Chasm and more), most are too narrowly focused and do not provide the totality of what is needed. Aulet feels that "Disciplined Entrepreneurship" fills the void. He has included material he developed and refined over many years for MIT courses and workshops. Examples culled from over 15,000 student teams who took New Enterprise course at MIT are included."Disciplined Entrepreneurship" challenges several of the prevailing myths about entrepreneurship. Aulet knows entrepreneurship can be taught and provides a proven, disciplined step by step approach to creating a new venture. He also states that entrepreneurship is not a heroic figure but a team - a team of effective communicators, recruiters, and sales people. Contrary to the opinion of many, there is no entrepreneurship gene but, rather, a culture that inspires ambition and collaboration, such as the one that exists at MIT.The book's twenty-four chapters were built on six themes:1. Who is your customer2. What can you do for your customer3. How does your customer acquire your product.4. How do you make money off your product5. How do you design and build your product6. How do you scale your businessThey include:1. Market segmentation2. Select a beachhead3. Build an end-user profile4. Calculate total addressable market size for beachhead.5. Profile persona of beachhead market6. Full life cycle use case7. High level product specification8. Quantify the value proposition.9. Identify your next 10 customers10. Define your core11. Chart you competitive position12. Determine the Customer's Decision-Making unit13. Map the Process to Acquire the Paying Customer14. Calculate the Total Addressable Market Size for Follow-on markets15. Design a business model16. Set your pricing framework17. Calculate the Lifetime Value of an acquired customer18. Map the sales process to acquire a customer19. Calculate the cost of customer acquisition20. Identify key assumptions21. Test key assumptions22. Define minimum viable business product23. Show that the dogs will eat the dog food.24. Develop a product plan."Disciplined Entrepreneurship" is an excellent addition to the entrepreneur's toolbox but still, despite Autlet's efforts, does not provide the complete roadmap for success. Notable additions to Aulet's effort should include "Innovator's Dilemma," "The Entrepreneur's Manifesto," and the "Lean Launch Pad."

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