Book Review - Engineering Your Start-up

Book: Engineering Your Start-Up: A Guide for the High-Tech Entrepreneur

Author: James A. Swanson, Michael L. Baird

Rating: Recommended

Review: This book is focused on financing a high-tech startup. Although I recommend the self-funded approach, it's important to know the ins and outs of financing so that when you want to grow your self-funded company, you haven't made any major mistakes that will make that more difficult than it already is.

This book is a bit dry and technically challenging (at least for non-finance people). However, the authors do a decent job of defining the jargon used in the industry.

A few of the gold nuggets in the book...

• Ch 6, Startup Financing Terminology and Stages - This includes some of the most basic terminology that a entrepreneur should know to keep from looking too foolish :).
• Ch 8, Evaluate Markets and Target Customers - Reinforces the arguments for a small (but potentially profitable), niche market and discusses ways to analyze the market to make sure that you can succeed (at least increase your chances).
• Ch 20, The Legal Form of Your Startup - Definitions for all of the basic types of organizations (Class C, Class S, Partnerships, etc).
• Ch 21, Making the Startup Decision - Things you need to consider when starting a business, especially while still working for another company.