Straight Talk for Startups: Table of Contents of 100 Rules

The Straight Talk for Startups is a book that veterans can appreciate.  It is so full of wisdom from years of operations.  Unfortunately beginners who are most vulnerable may not appreciate the contribution.  Here is the Table of contents for Straight Talk for Startups.

Cover of Straight Talk for Startups

Straight talk for startups
By Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman

1. Starting a venture has never be easier exceeding has never been harder
2. Try to act normal
3. Aim for an order of magnitude improvement
4. Start small but be ambitious
5. Most failures result from poor execution not unsuccessful innovation
6. The best idea originates from founders who are users
7. Don't scale your technology until it works
8. Manage with maniacal focus
9. Target fast growing dynamic markets
10. Never hire the second-best
11. Conduct your hiring interviews as see if you're an airline pilot
12. A part-time game changer is preferable to a full time seat filler
13. Manager team like a jazz band
14. Instead of a free lunch, provide meaningful work
15. Team of professionals with a common mission makes the most attractive investment
16. Use your financials to tell your story
17. Create to business plans, an execution plan and a aspiration plan
18. Know your financial members and their interdependence by heart
19. Net income is an opinion but cash flow is a fact
20. Unity economics tell you whether you have a business
21. Manage working capital as if it were your only source of funds
22. excellent exercise district its financial discipline
23. Always be frugal
24. To get where you are going you need to know where you are going
25. Measurement comes with pitfalls
26. Operational setbacks require swift and deep cutbacks
27. Safe surprises for birthdays not for your stakeholders
28. Strategic pivots offer silver linings
29. Don't accept money from strangers
30. Incubators are good for finding investors but not for developing business
31. Avoid venture capital unless you absolutely need it
32. If you choose venture capital pick the right type of the investor
33. Conduct detailed due diligence on your investors
34. Personal wealth is not good investing
35. Choose investors who think like operators
36. Deal directly with the decision makers
37. Find stable investors
38. Select investors who can help future financings
39. Investors syndicates needs to be managed
40. Capital intensive ventures required deep financial pockets
41. Strategic investors pose unique challenges
42. Raise capital in stages as you remove risks
43. Minimizing dilutions is not your fund raising objective
44. Don't let a temporary fix become a permanent mistake
45. Pursue the lowest cost capital in light of your circumstances
46. Escape the traps of venture debt
47. Choose one of four approaches to determine how much money to raise
48. Always have your aspirational plans ready
49. More ventures fail from indigestion since from starvation
50. Never stop fundraising
51. Venture capital moves in cycles
52. Fund raising takes more time than you think
53. The pitch must answer the fundamental questions about your venture
54. Make it personal
55. When pitching carefully read the room
56. Use white papers for deep dive follow-ups
57. Prepare your financing document ahead of time
58. Obsessively drive the close
59. Consistent communication is important in convincing investors
60. Milestones can solve irreconcilable valuation differences
61. Liquidation preference will change your outcome safe
62. Do not take rejections personally
63. Boards are deliberation bodies not collection of individuals
64. Conflicts of interest and conflicting interest are elephants in room
65. Your board should be operational rather than administrative
66. Small boards are better than big ones next one
67. Lead investors ask for board seats quantify them first
68. You need a lead director
69. Add independent board members for expertise and objectivity
70. True board diversity is a competitive advantage
71. Each director must commit to spending meaningful time
72. Review director performance regularly
73. Your chief financial officer has a special relationship with your board
74. The founder should choose the best CEO available
75. Find a coach
76. It is the CEOs job to run efficient productive meetings
77. Don't oversell your board
78. Board agenda should look like this
79. Prepare thoroughly for board meetings
80. Use your daily management materials for board meetings
81. Too many unanimous board decisions is a sign of trouble
82. Use a working sessions and committees to reinforce your priorities
83. Your bored should spend time with your team
84. Building companies to last, providing liquidity along the way
85. Who liquidity is not limited to initial public offerings and acquisitions
86. If you go public don't slip and fall
87. Investors and management's interest in liquidity often conflicts
88. Individual needed liquidity too
89. Your evaluation will have a local maximum
90. Ventures aren't just bought they can also be sold
91. Choose an acquisitor, don’t wait to be chosen
92. If you want to sell your business you need to know the decision-makers
93. Determine whether you are a good fit for acquisition before contacting them
94. Know your acquisitor’s acquisition history in detail
95. Make yourself visible
96. Build a relationship with potential acquisitions don't cold call
97. Be ready when they are
98. Success is not linear
99. Prepare for your lucky break
100.  Learn the rules by heart so you know when to break them

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