The Venture Cafe: The Entrepreneurial Mind

Esser writes that her goal when writing this book was to “find out what works, and what does not work, from the people who know: venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, chief executive officers, technologists and spouses of the above.” She set out to examine the relationships between these people and discover how they decide who to trust and how successful relationships are built.

Many of Esser’s colorful examples of the entrepreneurial spirit involve the taking of risks, and the differentiation between those who are willing to take life-changing risks, and those who have trouble sacrificing the security and comfort of the well-travelled path for the uncertainty of chucking it all in search of independence and dreams. What results is a collection of vibrant stories and characters that confirm the power of risk taking, and the vital lessons that can be learned when people take charge of their own fate and challenge themselves to solve the most difficult problems.

Her words of experience and encouragement create an informative guide from which newcomers can gather valuable instruction without having to suffer the pains that arrive when the unexpected problems of a new venture expose themselves. Once a person has determined that he or she has an “entrepreneurial mind,” it is time to gather faith in oneself and make the decision to “Go for it.” This will take securing a financial safety net, and venture capitalists are usually required to create one that will support an entrepreneur while he or she gets established. Esser’s examples demonstrate that intensive legwork during the early stages of a company is crucial to its success, and this preparation, whether it is technical training or the time spent with other entrepreneurial-minded people, can help to create a core team of people who can make an idea fly.

Esser explores the image stage of business development with colourful anecdotes involving horribly failed business meetings and bad software decisions. She then describes how different entrepreneurs have gone about protecting their intellectual property, and offers several tips about how to save money on patent lawyers and protect new technology. She also describes how entrepreneurs can attract dynamic people, hire the best, check their references, and keep them around by keeping burnout at bay.

The Venture Caf? is filled with valid tips and suggestions for making a high-tech start-up work, and offers valuable advice for anyone entering the field. Her writing flows with an inviting style, and the characters she examines reveal a wealth of knowledge that comes from years of struggle, stress, stamina and sometimes staggering success. By weaving these tales from the trenches into a guide of numerous survival tactics for budding entrepreneurs, she has shed welcome light into the shadows of this often foreboding yet sometimes incredibly lucrative pursuit.