Will Dean
It Takes a Tribe
Building the Tough Mudder Movement
Portfolio, 2017
What's inside?
The founder of the Tough Mudder endurance race says running a firm is like navigating an obstacle course.
Recommendation
When Will Dean was at the Harvard Business School, his professors assured him that no one would pay for the opportunity to crawl through mud, race through a gauntlet of live electrical wires or dive into an ice bath. Dean says that, in true entrepreneurial fashion, his only reaction to their advice was a strong desire to prove them wrong. The result was Tough Mudder, a multimillion-dollar business that hosts obstacle races on five continents. In this entertaining memoir, Dean describes the struggle to make Tough Mudder a reality. He analyzes the challenges of continual innovation and of remaining true to a growing company’s founding principles. His observations on turning a customer base into a fanatical “tribe” offer illuminating advice to any entrepreneur. getAbstract recommends his casually told, insightful memoir to business students, investors, sports fans and anyone running start-ups or fast-growing young companies.
Summary
About the Author
Will Dean is founder and CEO of Tough Mudder, Inc. He received the national EY Entrepreneur of the Year Emerging Award in 2013. Crain’s named Dean to its 40 Under 40 list and Fortune cited him as one of its 40 Under 40: Ones to Watch.
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