App Startups

This week we discuss diversity in startups. Send us your questions to: @motionmobs on twitter, using the hashtag #MMonApps.  Subscribe to listen weekly. App Strategy with MotionMobs helps you see the big picture surrounding your app idea. Whether your app idea is part of a bigger business or if it is the start of a brand new business, they all require thorough planning. It takes more than just a good idea to have a popular app, and MotionMobs wants to help prepare you for the journey ahead. Listen in each week for a quick exploration into a step of the planning process of apps.

Ep. 8 - Diversity in Startups

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. &ldquo;Whether you&rsquo;re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment,&#160;Why Startups Fail&#160;is essential reading.&rdquo;&mdash;Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and&#160;New York Times&#160;bestselling author of&#160;The Lean Startup&#160;and&#160;The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught&#160;Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn&rsquo;t answer&#160;it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. &bull;&#160;Bad Bedfellows.&#160;Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder&rsquo;s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. &bull;&#160;False Starts.&#160;In following the oft-cited advice to &ldquo;fail fast&rdquo; and to &ldquo;launch before you&rsquo;re ready,&rdquo; founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. &bull;&#160;False Promises.&#160;Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. &bull;&#160;Speed Traps.&#160;Despite the pressure to &ldquo;get big fast,&rdquo; hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. &bull;&#160;Help Wanted.&#160;Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. &bull;&#160;Cascading Miracles.&#160;Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise&mdash;from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles&mdash;Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Why Startups Fail by Tom Eisenmann, read by Robert Fass

Penguin Random House Audio is the market leader for adult and children's audiobook publishing. Follow us on Twitter @PRHAudio.

Why Startups Fail by Tom Eisenmann, read by Robert Fass

PRH Audio