One of the great things about being a retired entrepreneur is that I get togive back to the community that helped me. I assembled this collection of free and almost free tools, class syllabi, presentations, books, lectures, videos in the hope that it can make your path as an entrepreneur or educator easier.
Free:
Startup tools
If youre building a startup,theStartup Tools tabon the top of this page has curated links to hundreds of startup resources. Specific links are:Updates and suggestions for tools Ive missed are welcomed on the Startup Tools comments page.
The Lean LaunchPad course online
I teach potential founders a hands-on, experiential class calledtheLean LaunchPadat Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia and Caltech. The class teaches the three basic skills all entrepreneurs need to know:business model design
customer development
agile engineering
For my Innovation Corpsclass for the National Science Foundation it made sense torecord the lectures and put them on-line. In my regular classes I now flip the classroom and have my students watch these online lectures as homework and we use the class time for discussion.
Thefreeon-line class, hosted at Udacity ishere.
Class Syllabi, my lecture slides and student presentations
TheSlides/Videotabon the top of this page has all theopen source course materialfor my classes. Specific links are:The entreprenuers checklist
The good folks at Udemy have taken a few of my lectures at Stanford and put them together in a series online.
The free on-line lectures, hosted at Udemy arehere.
Online guide to how to build a startup: The Lean LaunchPad
Startupplays.com, publisher of online entrepreneurs processes guides, drew from my Udacity course and The Startup Owners Manual to create afreestep-by-step guide to understanding your customers and creating your value proposition. Called How to Build a Startup: The Lean LaunchPad, it walks you through the Business Model Canvas and an overview of the customer development process.Find ithere.
Videos
TheSlides/Videotabon the top of this page has a number of my talks on entrepreneurship, customer development and startup, some short, some long, and a few interesting.Find themhere.
Recommended reading
TheBooks for startupstab on the top of this page is my recommended reading list. These books have influenced my thinking. Theres a short synopsis of why I like each book.Updates and suggestions for books that Ive missed are welcomed on the books comment page.
Visitors guide to Silicon Valley
TheGuidetab on the top of this page? I got tired watching dignitaries fly into Silicon Valley, visit Google, Facebook, Apple, and Stanford and then say they understand startups and entrepreneurship.So for the rest of us I put together thisVisitors Guide to Silicon Valley.
Updates and suggestions for places to see that Ive missed are welcomed on the Guide comments page.
Secret history of Silicon Valley
What began as a hobby of mine research in the intersection of my military, intelligence and Silicon Valley careers combined with my interest in the history of Silicon Valley and technology entrepreneurship ended up inthis video and PowerPoint presentation. I first gave theSecret History of Silicon Valleypresentation as an invited talk atGoogle, then at theComputer History Museum.When I gave the talk to audience of CIA staffers they asked how I came up with the talk, so I wrotea series of posts as the back-storythat can be foundhere.
I still love giving this talk to people who lived it and people curious about it.
Almost free:
Startup WeekendNext
Startup WeekendNextis a three-week version of the Lean LaunchPad classwithhands-on instructors and mentors offered in hundreds of cities around the world.They dont ask for equity and charge just enough to cover the costs of pizza and the room rental.
Sign uphere.
The Lean LaunchPad Educators Course
Hosted byNCIIA,Stanford UniversityandU.C. Berkeley, Jerry Engel and I teach a course for educators interested in learning how to update and revise their entrepreneurship curriculum for the 21st century as well as learning how to teach the Lean LaunchPad class.
The Lean LaunchPad Educators Training Guidehereis part of this course.
Next class is Jan 30th. Clickherefor more information.
The Startup Owners Manual
TheStartup Owners Manualwritten with Bob Dorf, has become the step-by-step reference manual for anyone even thinking about a startup. Each section offers detailed guidance and how-tos, helping you make your way through the Customer Development process using MVPs and Pivots as you search for a Business Model.Last month we added aKindle version, reorganized to make it easier to follow on a tablet and incorporating hundreds of links to websites, blog posts, and presentations.
TheFounders Workbook
Zoomstra, the publisher of online workbooks offersThe Founders Workbookto help you track and monitor your progress through every step of the Customer Development process. It takes the static 57 checklists fromThe Startup Owners Manualand makes them dynamic and accessible by putting them online as an interactive checklist. Use it to keep your team on track and ensure you have completed each critical task as you search for a scalable business model.Clickherefor more information.
The four steps to the epiphany
The Four Steps to the Epiphanyhas been described as the book that launched the Lean Startup movement. The book is still relevant today as when it was written. The last two chapters deal with scale and management of growing startups.Now get out of the building and make something happen!