Startup Myths And Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School

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I’ve been an entrepreneur for thirty years. I have read most of the more popular and useful books about entrepreneurship, startups, and business models from Four Steps to the Epiphany to the Lean Startup to Business Model Generation and many many more. But this book is different. This book is written with the benefit of in the trenches experience. This book has the benefit of a hard won understanding of the complex set of challenges and opportunities an entrepreneur faces when undertaking the entrepreneur’s journey.Here’s how I know these things: Riz and I first met when I became the CEO of Service Metrics, one of the startups that Riz helped start in the late 90s. Riz and Rajat Bhargava had written a business plan. Raj was looking for a CEO, and I was looking for my next venture. We sold Service Metrics for $280 million in late 1999, less than two years after we started the company. But what most people don’t know is this: the venture returned more than $1 billion to investors. Riz helped make this possible.There’s more. I have known for years that I wanted to write a book that framed the entrepreneurs journey in terms of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Riz beat me to it, and did a terrific job in the process. He helps entrepreneurs begin to think through the myths and misunderstandings that can cause an entrepreneur to fail those nasty “tests” that are part of every hero’s journey. Riz is your guide here. You’ll want to play close attention to what he says.So buy the book. Read it. Use it. You will not be disappointed.

I graded this book by the Entreprising Rubric, and it scored 85%, which is excellent overall—and technically translates to 4.25 stars.The arguments Rizwan Virk makes are compelling, but more important they are nuanced—to levels I just haven't seen in other texts. A beginner is unlikely to encounter this depth of thinking about startups, not just in business school as the subtitle states, but anywhere else other than deep conversation with an experienced founder/investor.Startup Myths and Models is coherent and comprehensive as a "how-to." But it's not a book on how to found a startup—rather it's a book on how to think about a startup.While the book could stand a bit of editing for professional polish, I enjoyed it throughout. And although it makes heavy reference to a supplemental text (which is gated), and also the author's startup accelerator, the text is not overtly selling anything but the author's take on startups.I'm hoping there will be an audio book version of this text soon, as I'd probably listen to it two or three times.I recommend this book to anyone interested or involved in startups.

Startup Myths and Models by Rizwan Virk, provides very useful guidance based on his lessons learned – I found myself placing post-it notes on several pages for future reference. There are genuine insights within its chapters that open the reader’s eyes to the fact that “one size” does not fit all in the world of startups. The author appropriately interjects wisdom that is not only applicable to business, but also life in general. His experiences (both achievements and failures) serve as shoulders for all of us to stand upon. Any entrepreneurial wizard will want to have this book as a manual for conjuring the best of success in their pursuits, ventures and enterprises.

I initially checked Startup Myths and Models out from my library. But, I ended up with so many sticky notes affixed to pages that I decided to just go ahead and purchase a copy that I could highlight the heck out of. Riz describes facets of startups that have confused me in the past, in such easy to understand terms. Moreover, his discussion of valuations, VC capital, stocks, exit scenarios, etc. really helped me better understand how to remain in control of my company. I'm going to recommend this book to all my fellow entrepreneurs.

I wish I had this book at hand when I first started my startup. The advice from Riz are very practical. I had many of the identical misconceptions as a first-time founder, and took many years to realize what the truth is. What you read in tech news and watch on Shark Tank isn't how tech startup scene works in real life. Now you can arm yourself with all the knowledge and experience from a startup veteran by reading this book. I would highly recommend to any startup founders, Silicon Valley and beyond.