Hungry Start-up Strategy

Entrepreneurs are hungry. But it’s not just because they’re living on ramen and adrenaline. Peter Cohan has found they’re driven by a hunger to create a working world in which they want to live—something they have to do without money or staff. No business strategy guide has addressed this unique combination of aspirations and challenges—until now.

Cohan focuses on six key start-up choices—setting goals, picking markets, raising capital, building teams, gaining market share, and adapting to change—explaining how and why start-ups must make very different choices than established companies. For each area, he provides a decision-making approach and lively case studies of what actual entrepreneurs have done to cook up a thriving business from scratch.Preface
Introduction

Part I. Six Start-up Choices
1. Setting Goals: What Makes You Hungry?
2. Picking Markets: Feed Your Customers and They’ll Feed You
3. Raising Capital: Maintain Your Fighting Weight
4. Building the Team: Whom Do You Invite to the Table?
5. Gaining Share: Satisfy Your Customers’ Cravings
6. Adapting to Change: Don’t Let Others Eat Your Lunch

Part II. Implications for Stakeholders and Others
7. Straight Talk from Start-up Capital Providers
8. Can Big Companies Train Entrepreneurs
Resources
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Author Biography“Peter Cohan has created a logic of competitive strategy that speaks to the real challenges of entrepreneurs trying to create new organizations that are more likely to succeed.”
—Leonard A. Schlesinger, President, Babson College 

“I can say unequivocally that the Hungry Start-up Strategy tips work! Thank you, Peter, for guiding us to a business model that supports our social mission.”
—Carol Barash, PhD, founder and CEO, Story to College

“A guide that will help the entrepreneur sort the urgent from the important and navigate the choppy waters of an early-stage venture.”
—Howard Stevenson, Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, Harvard Business School

“Cohan distills his expertise into a stunningly helpful and immensely practical book filled with a variety of tools that any entrepreneur will find instantly illuminating and useful.”
—John Harthorne, founder and CEO, MassChallenge, Inc.
Peter S. Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm that has conducted 150 consulting projects and invested in six private companies, three of which were sold for $2 billion. He blogs on start-ups for Forbes and Entrepreneur magazines and teaches strategy at Babson College.