Brad Feld

What if the real key to building a lasting startup community isn’t capital or connections—but mentorship without strings attached? Renowned entrepreneur and investor Brad Feld shares his decades of experience and expertise in developing and refining the art of mentorship through the philosophy of Give First.

The Give First philosophy encourages individuals to give their time, resources, and expertise to others without expectation of immediate return. It goes beyond the "Pay it Forward"… Show more

What if the real key to building a lasting startup community isn’t capital or connections—but mentorship without strings attached? Renowned entrepreneur and investor Brad Feld shares his decades of experience and expertise in developing and refining the art of mentorship through the philosophy of Give First.

The Give First philosophy encourages individuals to give their time, resources, and expertise to others without expectation of immediate return. It goes beyond the "Pay it Forward" mentality, showing you how to adopt a continuous, optimistic, and empathetic mindset in your professional life. It reinforces positive feedback loops that impact not only individuals but also entire communities. In this book you'll discover how Give First can help you create a vibrant startup community by breaking free from a transactional mindset and becoming an extraordinary mentor.

Whether you are just starting your professional journey or well into it, Give First is a must-read for anyone looking to develop their mentorship skills and build meaningful connections. With practical tips, real-life examples, and insightful reflections, this book will guide you through the journey of becoming an extraordinary mentor who can inspire, challenge, and empower. Get ready to transform yourself and those around you. Show less

What if the real key to building a lasting startup community isn’t capital or connections—but mentorship without strings attached? Renowned entrepreneur and investor Brad Feld shares his decades of experience and expertise in developing and refining the art of mentorship through the philosophy of Give First.

The Give First philosophy encourages individuals to give their time, resources, and expertise to others without expectation of immediate return. It goes beyond the "Pay it Forward"… Show more

What if the real key to building a lasting startup community isn’t capital or connections—but mentorship without strings attached? Renowned entrepreneur and investor Brad Feld shares his decades of experience and expertise in developing and refining the art of mentorship through the philosophy of Give First.

The Give First philosophy encourages individuals to give their time, resources, and expertise to others without expectation of immediate return. It goes beyond the "Pay it Forward" mentality, showing you how to adopt a continuous, optimistic, and empathetic mindset in your professional life. It reinforces positive feedback loops that impact not only individuals but also entire communities. In this book you'll discover how Give First can help you create a vibrant startup community by breaking free from a transactional mindset and becoming an extraordinary mentor.

Whether you are just starting your professional journey or well into it, Give First is a must-read for anyone looking to develop their mentorship skills and build meaningful connections. With practical tips, real-life examples, and insightful reflections, this book will guide you through the journey of becoming an extraordinary mentor who can inspire, challenge, and empower. Get ready to transform yourself and those around you. Show less

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE—PATRON PHILOSOPHER OF TODAY’S DISRUPTIVE ENTREPRENEURS

His favorite personality was a “free spirit”: an obsessed individual with a vision of the future and the will to make it so, a rebel who creates the future with childlike enthusiasm.

Now, serial entrepreneur Dave Jilk and venture capitalist Brad Feld extract from Nietzsche a modern Art of War, connecting the dots to our high-tech business environment.

Each quick, digestible chapter expands on a quote… Show more

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE—PATRON PHILOSOPHER OF TODAY’S DISRUPTIVE ENTREPRENEURS

His favorite personality was a “free spirit”: an obsessed individual with a vision of the future and the will to make it so, a rebel who creates the future with childlike enthusiasm.

Now, serial entrepreneur Dave Jilk and venture capitalist Brad Feld extract from Nietzsche a modern Art of War, connecting the dots to our high-tech business environment.

Each quick, digestible chapter expands on a quote from Nietzsche to stimulate your thinking about a vital aspect of entrepreneurship, and stories from entrepreneurs help make the ideas concrete.

Understand why hitting bottom might be the best thing that can happen, how your firm’s “artistic style” can align your organization, and the role obsession plays in your success—and your definition of it.

Glean insight and inspiration from every page of this surprising, approachable gem. Show less

First published in 2012, Startup Communities became a blueprint for what it takes to build a supportive entrepreneurial community. Now regarded as a classic, the "Boulder Thesis" created and popularized by Feld within the book generated enormous media attention nearly a decade ago.

At that time, Boulder was an emerging startup laboratory―a hub of innovation building new tech businesses. It quickly accelerated into a world class ecosystem for entrepreneurs. Boulder's entrepreneurial… Show more

First published in 2012, Startup Communities became a blueprint for what it takes to build a supportive entrepreneurial community. Now regarded as a classic, the "Boulder Thesis" created and popularized by Feld within the book generated enormous media attention nearly a decade ago.

At that time, Boulder was an emerging startup laboratory―a hub of innovation building new tech businesses. It quickly accelerated into a world class ecosystem for entrepreneurs. Boulder's entrepreneurial density, combined with the geographic concentration of entrepreneurial activity around the Boulder downtown core, made it a hotbed of startup activity. Feld was and is still there, as a keen observer and one of its leaders. As he notes simply in the new edition, humans are wired to start things.

In a sense, that short Feld-ism accurately describes the startup revolution still taking hold throughout the world. Boulder is proof that innovation can happen anywhere, in any city. Thanks in part to the book, what happens in Boulder now leaves Boulder. Rapidly growing startup communities in Atlanta, Detroit, Denver, Kansas City, Nashville, and Indianapolis are just a few examples. Over the last decade, Feld has dispelled the myth that startups can only thrive in Silicon Valley.

Startup communities continue to pop up across the U.S. and around the world, prompting fresh new revelations and stories from Feld about what's happened over the last decade. Startup Communities 2e describes what makes a startup community ecosystem first click, then hum, and in time, excel. From Boulder to Beijing and beyond, entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation. Startup Communities 2e discusses and the necessary dynamics and pre-conditions of building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off each other's talent, creativity, and support. Show less

The Startup Community Way is an explanatory guide for startup communities. Rooted in the theory of complex systems, this book establishes the systemic properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and explains why their complex nature leads people to make predictable mistakes. As complex systems, value creation occurs in startup communities primarily through the interaction of the "parts" - the people, organizations, resources, and conditions involved - not the parts themselves. This continual… Show more

The Startup Community Way is an explanatory guide for startup communities. Rooted in the theory of complex systems, this book establishes the systemic properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and explains why their complex nature leads people to make predictable mistakes. As complex systems, value creation occurs in startup communities primarily through the interaction of the "parts" - the people, organizations, resources, and conditions involved - not the parts themselves. This continual process of bottom-up interactions unfolds naturally, producing value in novel and unexpected ways. Through these complex, emergent processes, the whole becomes greater and substantially different than what the parts alone could produce.

Because of this, participants must take a fundamentally different approach than is common in much of our civic and professional lives. Participants must take a whole-system view, rather than simply trying to optimize their individual part. They must prioritize experimentation and learning over planning and execution. Complex systems are uncertain and unpredictable. They cannot be controlled, only guided and influenced. Each startup community is unique. Replication is enticing but impossible. The race to become "The Next Silicon Valley" is futile - even Silicon Valley couldn't recreate itself.

This book:

Offers practical advice for entrepreneurs, community builders, government officials, and other stakeholders who want to harness the power of entrepreneurship in their city
Describes the core components of startup communities and entrepreneurial ecosystems, as well as an explanation of the differences between these two related, but distinct concepts
Advances a new framework for effective startup community building based on the theory of complex systems and insights from systems thinking
Includes contributions from leading entrepreneurial voices Show less

How do venture capital deals come together? This is one of the most frequent questions asked by each generation of new entrepreneurs. Surprisingly, there is little reliable information on the subject. No one understands this better than Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson. The founders and driving force behind the Foundry Group―a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage information technology companies―Brad and Jason have been involved in hundreds of venture capital financings. Their… Show more

How do venture capital deals come together? This is one of the most frequent questions asked by each generation of new entrepreneurs. Surprisingly, there is little reliable information on the subject. No one understands this better than Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson. The founders and driving force behind the Foundry Group―a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage information technology companies―Brad and Jason have been involved in hundreds of venture capital financings. Their investments range from small startups to large Series A venture financing rounds. The new edition of Venture Deals continues to show fledgling entrepreneurs the inner-workings of the VC process, from the venture capital term sheet and effective negotiating strategies to the initial seed and the later stages of development.

Fully updated to reflect the intricacies of startups and entrepreneurship in today's dynamic economic environment, this new edition includes revisions and updates to coverage on negotiating, gender issues, ICO’s, and economic terms. New chapters examine legal and procedural considerations relevant to fundraising, bank debt, equity and convertible debt, how to hire an investment banker to sell a company, and more.

Provides valuable, real-world insights into venture capital structure and strategy
Explains and clarifies the VC term sheet and other misunderstood aspects of capital funding
Helps to build collaborative and supportive relationships between entrepreneurs and investors
Draws from the author’s years of practical experience in the VC arena
Includes extensively revised and updated content throughout to increase readability and currency
Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist is a must-have resource for Any aspiring entrepreneur, venture capitalist, or lawyer involved in VC deals as well as students and instructors in related areas of study. Show less

Refreshed, updated, and expanded. Do More Faster provides time-tested advice, tips, and experiences by founders and mentors of Techstars to help entrepreneurs succeed!

David Cohen and Brad Feld, leading advocates for entrepreneurs and startups, team up to provide first-time entrepreneurs with the tools, insights, and experiences to help them do more faster. The authors share their decades of experience working with thousands of startup founders and have enlisted the advice of dozens of… Show more

Refreshed, updated, and expanded. Do More Faster provides time-tested advice, tips, and experiences by founders and mentors of Techstars to help entrepreneurs succeed!

David Cohen and Brad Feld, leading advocates for entrepreneurs and startups, team up to provide first-time entrepreneurs with the tools, insights, and experiences to help them do more faster. The authors share their decades of experience working with thousands of startup founders and have enlisted the advice of dozens of Techstars startup founders and mentors. Contributors include Tim Ferriss, Eric Ries, Matt Mullenweg (WordPress), Isaac Saldana (SendGrid), and other successful entrepreneurs.

Co-founders of Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, Cohen and Feld recognize the daunting task of creating a sustainable business and have seen first-hand the common mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make over and over. The authors take the complexity and uncertainty of starting a business and distill the critical factors into seven themes: Ideas and Vision, People, Working Effectively, Product, Fundraising, Legal and Structure, and Work and Life Harmony. They share their hard-won successes, failures, and advice for anyone with an idea who wants to create a business.

Throughout the book crucial questions are raised and addressed from multiple perspectives.

Make-or-break decisions like company structure, hiring, and legal consequences are presented in an easy-to-understand style. Do More Faster will elevate your thinking on a range of important topics, help you avoid costly mistakes, and provide you with a resource to consult as you go from idea to successful business.

If you have the drive and desire to start a business, need to create a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in your community, or want to spark greater innovation in your organization—don’t go it alone. Use the advice, tips, and tactics found throughout Do More Faster to give yourself the best chance of succeeding. Show less

Start strong with essential early-stage guidance from the VC perspective
Startup Opportunities is the go-to guide for anyone with a great business idea. Whether it's your first business or your fifth, realistic assessment from the outset can save you a lot of time and money; why pour your heart and soul into a venture that is doomed to fail? Instead, position yourself to win from the very beginning. In this book, accomplished venture capitalists share their insight on startups and… Show more

Start strong with essential early-stage guidance from the VC perspective
Startup Opportunities is the go-to guide for anyone with a great business idea. Whether it's your first business or your fifth, realistic assessment from the outset can save you a lot of time and money; why pour your heart and soul into a venture that is doomed to fail? Instead, position yourself to win from the very beginning. In this book, accomplished venture capitalists share their insight on startups and entrepreneurs: who will fail, who will succeed and why, and what you should do to give your business the very best shot at becoming a global success story. You'll learn how to evaluate your business with a critical eye, and how early customer development can be key in turning a good idea into a great opportunity. If you're serious about building a business that lasts, this book provides invaluable guidance that you really cannot miss.

More than five million people will launch a business this year, and many of them will be great ideas—yet few will be around in five years, and even fewer in ten years. A great idea is not enough to build a successful business. You need to fortify your idea with the proper foundation, and a scaffolding of good planning and early action. This book shows you how.

Assess your business's viability using the 10x Rule
Learn when you can quit your day job—or not
Take the key steps to making your business succeed
Discover the opportunities worth selling everything for
This expert author team has witnessed more than 30,000 pitches over two decades, and have participated in over 500 startup launches. Startup Opportunities gives you the benefit of their experience to help you start strong and stay strong. Show less

In Startup Life, Brad Feld shares his own personal experiences with his wife Amy, offering a series of rich insights into successfully leading a balanced life as an entrepreneur.