The Six Steps to Entrepreneurial Success
After founding or co-founding more than 15 start-ups and investing in another 50 as an angel investor, I came to understand that a startup unfolds in a predictable pattern. The more aware entrepreneurs are of this pattern, the better able they will be to capitalize on it. I call this pattern the J Curve.
I’ve been lucky to collaborate with Howard as an investor, advisor and co-founder – he’s made me a better entrepreneur, and by reading this book, he’ll make you one too.
…This, quite simply, is the most impressive, actionable, and valuable business book I have read in a very long time. It’s extraordinary. I read it in a single sitting. I’m ordering copies for my partners and executives….This is a incredibly valuable resource and an invaluable read. Wow.
Howard Love is a deeply experienced entrepreneur and early stage investor. This book is a culmination of many years of seeing successes and failures, what works and what doesn’t. I highly recommend this book to entrepreneurs who want to make their own unique mistakes, rather than repeating the mistakes of others.
The J Curve is a must-read for any entrepreneur, whether first-time or seasoned! Howard’s genius is that he understands and empathizes with the entrepreneurial experience—and how humbling it can be – while also giving insight into and support as to why the challenges are of crucial benefit to the process of building a truly successful company. Entrepreneurs can use Howard’s practical insights to better understand the realistic stages to expect in starting a company in a way that is demystifying and empowering, and quite honestly, provides an appreciated element of sanity to the often crazed entrepreneurial experience. Highly recommend!
The Start-Up J Curve will train you how to get through your early business challenges, and get to the fun terrain that is sustained business growth as soon as possible.
As I begin another “pivot” in my own business, I find myself wishing that Howard had written this book years ago…when I began my own entrepreneurial journey. It would have been a tremendous roadmap and guide for the many twists and turns I faced. The J Curve is a must-read for any aspiring entrepreneur, yet I am confident that start-up vets like myself will also find many new insights as well. Howard presents a fresh and spot-on approach to understanding the growth stages, and do’s / don’t’s for each stage, of the entrepreneurial process, all based on his own vast experience starting and backing multiple companies.
Howard gives you an invaluable framework for understanding where you are with your startup and how to progress to success.
Howard’s book is engaging, thought provoking, insightful and easy to read. Founders will relate to the tangible stories and examples. This book is fuel to accelerate up the curve to success.
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Interview: Howard Love & “The Start-Up Curve”
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As an angel investor who has invested in over 50 startup over the past 20 years, I’ve been pitched many hundreds of times. Almost all of those pitches had very real flaws that were quickly obvious during the pitch and would be obvious to any trained investor. As a result of the flaws, we would end up wasting precious time that could have been better spent getting to know the founder and their business better. So I decided to do something about it and created, with the help of other prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists, a simple template that founders could use to create the perfect pitch deck. I can’t guarantee you’ll get funded with this, but I can guarantee that your odds will go way up and that the investors you are pitching will respect and appreciate your thoughtfulness and professionalism. Download it for free here and good luck with your pitch!
A life-long entrepreneur who has founded, co-founded, funded and managed startups for over 30 years.
Howard Love is a life-long entrepreneur who has founded, co-founded, funded and managed startups for over 30 years. He is the Founder & CEO of LoveToKnow, one of the largest US digital media companies, whose web properties include lovetoknow.com, yourdictionary.com, trails.com, and golflink.com.
Love founded his first company, Inmark Development, while an undergraduate at Colgate University. Inmark Development was eventually sold as Rogue Wave and subsequently went public. Since then, Love has founded or co-founded over 15 businesses and invested in over 50 startups including:
Love speaks frequently on entrepreneurship for conferences, summits & events in North America and overseas, including Techtoberfest, Start-Up Grind, Start-Up Week, Tech Stars, Plug & Play, Capital Factory – as well as Slush Helsinki & the Government of Spain.
Love recently published his first book, the Amazon bestseller The Start-Up J Curve (Greenleaf Book Group 2016). He resides in Silicon Valley, CA.
Things I’ve learned from very expensive lessons.
Western thought is heavily based on reason and one of the key underpinnings of reason is scientific proof. We therefore all are somewhat slaves to that which is “proven” and this reliance produces a critical weakness in that much of what we considered “proven” is often subsequently proven wrong and much of what we intuitively […]
Knowing your Why doesn’t seem very important when everything is going wonderfully. When life is grand we are usually not asking the deep inconvenient questions, such as: What am I doing with my life and WHY am I doing it? Frankly who cares? Life is awesome, pass the champagne! However, when things get rough in […]
It’s not unusual for entrepreneurs to get ahead of themselves. Entrepreneurs are aggressive and opportunistic, their pace accelerated by their hopes and dreams. Doing things in the wrong order, however, is one of the surest ways of sabotaging your start-up; and doing them in the right J Curve order (Create > Release > Morph > […]
Feedback about the book: connect@howardlove.com
Speaking inquiries: connect@howardlove.com
“Howard presented at our Techtoberfest conference on how to properly scale startup organizations. The room was full of entrepreneurs and investors interested in hearing Howard share his experiences about how high potential startups can successfully scale using The Start-Up J-Curve. He had many great examples & was able to tie those into specific lessons for the people in the room… Howard knew his material & was gracious with his time as he stayed afterwards to interact with the audience, sign copies of his book & answer questions.”
– Craig Haney, Director of Corporate Innovation, CommuniTech
“Howard was fantastic. Audience was burying him with questions & he was still there when I left an hour after I thought it would end.”
– Warren Whitlock, Start-Up Grind Las Vegas
Wake Forest University Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship Council.
“Howard’s session was awesome and the books were a huge hit!”
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