How to F--k Up Your Startup
The Science Behind Why 90% of Companies Fail - and How You Can Avoid It
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Narrated by:
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L.J. Ganser
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By:
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Kim Hvidkjaer
About this listen
Kim Hvidkjaer was twenty-nine years old when he became a millionaire. Two years later, after a cluster of disasters, he found himself basically broke. Now, having rebuilt his fortune as the founder of several successful enterprises and studied thousands of failed startups, Hvidkjaer has become an expert in failure: what it means, what it looks like, and the strategies that business owners can use to prevent it.
In How to F--k Up Your Startup, he takes us on an entertaining and enlightening journey through the complex patterns of failure in the life cycle of a business, covering: attitude mistakes; business model missteps; market research snafus; funding and financial blunders; product development errors; organization oversights; sales slip-ups; and growing pains. Most importantly, he tackles what to do when your business has gone wrong.
Hvidkjaer fleshes out a tangible, usable blueprint for entrepreneurs looking to learn (the easy way) from the mistakes of businesses gone before. Chock-full of easy-to-follow business lessons that will keep you from f--king up your startup, this down-to-earth guide offers crucial, actionable advice for seasoned business owners and startup founders alike. A masterclass in failure, How to F*ck Up Your Startup is required listening for reaching success.
©2022 Kim Hvidkjaer (P)2022 Ascent AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Waste of time!
- By Anonymous User on 05-30-20
By: John Sviokla, and others
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Inbound Selling
- How to Change the Way You Sell to Match How People Buy
- By: Brian Signorelli
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past decade, Inbound Marketing has changed the way companies earn buyers’ trust and build their brands - through meaningful, helpful content. But with that change comes unprecedented access to information in a few quick keystrokes. Enter the age of the empowered buyer, one who no longer has to rely on a sales rep to research their challenges or learn more about how a company’s offering might fit their needs. Now, with more than 60 percent of purchasing decisions made in the absence of a sales rep, the role of the rep itself has been called into question.
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Should be titled sales and sales management 101
- By James on 12-11-23
By: Brian Signorelli
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Mastering the VC Game
- A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-Up to IPO on Your Terms
- By: Jeffrey Bussgang
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Finding the right venture capitalist to back your start-up is a challenge. Even if you manage to get backing, you want your VC to be a partner, not some dictator who will undermine your vision and take control of your life's work. Jeffrey Bussgang is one of a very few people who have played on both sides of this high-stakes game. Now he draws on his unique perspective to offer high-level insights, colorful stories, and practical advice. He reveals how to get noticed, perfect a pitch, and negotiate a partnership that works for everyone.
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slow in beginning but gets really good
- By Diana on 04-11-19
By: Jeffrey Bussgang
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Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain
- How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur
- By: Ryan Blair, Don Yaeger
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Ryan Blair knows about building a business from the ground up. Like many entrepreneurs he had no formal business education. But he had great survival instincts, tenacity, and, above all, a "nothing to lose" mindset.Blair's middle-class childhood came to an abrupt end when his abusive father succumbed to drug addiction and abandoned the family. Blair and his mother moved to a bad neighborhood, and soon he was in and out of juvenile detention, joining a gang just to survive. Then his mother fell in love with a successful entrepreneur who took Ryan under his wing.
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I wouldn't read it again
- By Blahhhhhh on 01-07-13
By: Ryan Blair, and others
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Snap Selling
- Speed Up Sales and Win More Business with Today's Frazzled Customers
- By: Jill Konrath
- Narrated by: Jill Konrath
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Selling is tougher than ever before. Potential customers are under extreme pressure to do more with less money, less time, and fewer resources, and they're wary of anyone who tries to get them to buy or change anything. Under such extreme conditions, yesterday's sales strategies no longer work. Sales strategist Jill Konrath tells you how to overcome obstacles, get more appointments, speed up decisions, and win sales with today's short-fused, frazzled customers.
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OK sales book with some good take aways
- By Glenn on 05-22-11
By: Jill Konrath
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The Strategist
- Be the Leader Your Business Needs
- By: Cynthia Montgomery
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on an acclaimed professor's legendary strategy course at Harvard Business School, The Strategist offers a radically new perspective on a leader's most vital role. "Are you a strategist?" That's the first question Cynthia Montgomery asks the business owners and senior executives from all over the world who participate in her highly regarded executive education course. It's not a question they anticipate, but by the time the program ends, they cannot imagine leading their companies to success without being - and living the role of - a strategist.
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Slow going with an odd narrative tone
- By Benson Bumpkin on 08-06-12
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The Reinventors
- How Extraordinary Companies Pursue Radical Continuous Change
- By: Jason Jennings
- Narrated by: Jason Jennings
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Eventually every job and every business will become irrelevant. According to Jason Jennings, the past few decades have seen unprecedented shifts: former third-world nations have transformed themselves into high-tech manufacturing powerhouses; technology has democratized business and increased competition in ways never before seen; and customers, used to getting exactly what they want when they want it, are no longer beholden to the corporate giants.
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Good advice
- By Myers on 07-28-18
By: Jason Jennings
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The Star Principle
- How It Can Make You Rich
- By: Richard Koch
- Narrated by: Richard Aspel
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Richard Koch has made a career out of spotting "Star businesses" - and has made millions from them. Star businesses are ventures operating in a high-growth sector - and are the leaders of their niche in the market. Stars are rare. But with the help of this book and a little patience, you can find one - or create one yourself.This is a vital book for any budding entrepreneur or investor (of grand or modest means).
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Makes perfect sense
- By Lorcan McNeela on 10-28-14
By: Richard Koch
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The Science of Growth
- How Facebook Beat Friendster - and How Nine Other Startups Left the Rest in the Dust
- By: Sean Ammirati, Richard Florida - foreword
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The lean entrepreneurship movement has captivated Silicon Valley and entrepreneurs across the country. It provided an agile framework to develop the right product solution for a given target market and is now used by almost every fledgling company to do just that. The next challenge is growth - to achieve the financial returns and, more importantly, the impact they dreamed of when starting off on their adventure.
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Awesome book
- By Josh on 04-29-16
By: Sean Ammirati, and others
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Overdeliver
- Build a Business for a Lifetime Playing the Long Game in Direct Response Marketing
- By: Brian Kurtz
- Narrated by: Brian Kurtz
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Whether you’re new to marketing or a seasoned pro, this book gives you a crystal-clear road map to grow your business, make more money, maximize your impact in your market, and love what you’re doing while you’re doing it. Author Brian Kurtz takes you inside the craft to help you use all the tools at your disposal - from the intricate relationship between lists, offers, and copy, to continuity and creating lifetime value, to the critical importance of multichannel marketing and more - so you can succeed wildly, exceed all your expectations, and overdeliver every time.
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1 of the best books on marketing - highly recommended
- By Patrick J. Stiles on 12-13-19
By: Brian Kurtz
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The Method Method
- Seven Obsessions That Helped Our Scrappy Start-up Turn an Industry Upside Down
- By: Eric Ryan, Adam Lowry, Lucas Conley
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt, Eric Ryan, Adam Lowry
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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An inspiring case study for the next generation of start-ups by the unconventional founders of Method. Founded ten years ago by childhood pals Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry, Method has been making headlines and profits with a revolutionary blend of culture and commerce, style and substance. Today, Method's ecofriendly soaps, detergents, and cleaners are ubiquitous in stores, capturing valuable shelf space long dominated by the tired old products of giants P&G and Unilever.
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Wow!!!!!
- By SPICELY ORGANIC SPICES on 03-19-17
By: Eric Ryan, and others
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What listeners say about How to F--k Up Your Startup
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Joseph S.
- 09-05-22
Perfect for newbies and vets alike
This book is jam packed full of insights and first hand accounts that serve as guides and reminders for both the new and seasoned. Highly recommend!
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- Michelle Y Talbert
- 06-29-22
Exactly what I needed when I needed it
With 2 years (global pandemic years) as a new coworking space owner I absolutely needed this parade of f ups to bolster my own confidence for this journey. Kim serves as a great sherpa/guide through this crazy world of having an idea, making something and then shipping it. I highly recommend.
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- Seth Stafford
- 08-18-23
Very Good Information for Start-Up Businesses
Genuinely one of the best business books I've read. Absolutely necessary to new founders. Uncomfortable to think about what you might be doing wrong, but it is very important to not just focus on the positive, but also the negative.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-17-22
The perfect book I needed to push me with my own startup
I’ll be going back to this book as a reference from time to time to help keep me in check. I like listening to this while driving. It provides real world use case information and the author even welcomes his readers to reach out to him by email. I may do this
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- Babumoshai
- 09-14-24
Inspiring and needed
Well written, inspiring and timely, if a touch repetitive. Well performed, this is a worthwhile listen for current and aspiring entrepreneurs alike.
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- MK
- 05-10-22
Excellent Pragmatic Advice
This book is a very comprehensive review of things to consider when building a company. It helped me brainstorm and develop strategies to avoid common pitfalls and unforced errors. And having been building a business for 4 years, I’ve experienced and seen many of the F—k ups mentioned in the book - so I know the points are spot on!
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- MICHAEL A RAMIREZ
- 02-26-24
Great for first time founder
Great practical tips and advice. Spot on of what I needed to hear as a first time founder.
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- Jon B Woo
- 11-16-23
Exactly the same as every other business book
These types of books are all the same. There is no valuable actionable advice. Just obvious bullet points, anecdotes, and cliche stories of startups.
Do the right thing, don't do the wrong thing. Do legal things not illegal things. Hire good people, not bad people. If something is bad make it good. Don't do bad things, do good things. blah blah blah.
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