The Venture Café

Secrets, Strategies and Stories from America's High-Tech Entrepreneurs

by Teresa Esser

Warner Books, 2002

ISBN: 9780446527835
Pages: 288

Category: Small Business

In this summary you will learn

• The basics of starting a company
• How to protect your company’s most important asset: its intellectual property
• How to research and connect with venture capital (VC) firms to secure funding for a start-up

Why you should read The Venture Café

Teresa Esser provides an insightful collection of anecdotes, horror stories, case studies and advice from seasoned veterans of the dot-com boom. Though she admits she’s not the entrepreneurial type, her marriage to a successful entrepreneur gives her a unique vantage point on the joys and frustrations of starting a high-tech company with little more than a dream. This fun, quick read contains valuable tips on hiring a good lawyer, pitching ideas to VCs and surviving both failure and success. Much of the advice is still practical, even though the Internet bubble has burst. However, some of the interviews retain a bit of the breathless hype of the days when anyone with a domain name could land first-round VC funding. getAbstract.com recommends this book to would-be entrepreneurs, especially corporate types who are thinking of launching their own companies, and to those who want a level-headed view of the mysterious workings of high-tech startups and their funding.

About the Author

Teresa Esser holds a bachelor’s degree from MIT in both brain and cognitive science and creative writing. She is married to Pehr Anderson, co-founder of NBX Corporation.

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