Entrepreneurship Resources: Home
Entrepreneur Links
- CB Insights ResearchLatest articles and reports on industries and the startup world.
- Census Business BuilderThe Census Business Builder (CBB) is a suite of services that provide selected demographic and economic data from the Census Bureau tailored to specific types of users in a simple to access and use format.
- CrunchbaseCrunchbase is the leading platform for professionals to discover innovative companies, connect with the people behind them, and pursue new opportunities.
Note: While UB does not subscribe to Crunchbase, select content is freely available. - ThomasNetAs of 2006, Thomas Register is online at ThomasNet.com. Search suppliers by company, product, or available CAD drawing. Great source of information on industrial distributors and manufacturers and related services. This website is free to register, search and export results.
- AutopsyA database of failed startups, searchable by name, location, industry and year. Autopsy gives a variety of information on each startup, including company duration, investment and funding details, founders/team, and reason for failure. All startup entries have an accompanying failure story written by the founder(s).
- Startup GraveyardSimilar to Autopsy but not always as in depth, Startup Graveyard provides names, length, funding details and reason for failure of companies worldwide.
- OwlerOwler crowdsources competitive insights by providing news alerts, company profiles, and polls and allows members to follow, track, and research companies in real time.
Articles
- The 20 Most Common Reasons Startups Fail and How to Avoid ThemFrom Entrepreneur magazine. These do's and don'ts can make or break your startup.
Resource Guides
The Guides listed below were created by Mark Bieraugel from Robert E. Kennedy Library, California Polytechnic State University.
Data on Entrepreneurs
- Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE)From the U.S. Census Bureau
- WorldBank's Doing Business EntrepreneurshipAnnual data was collected directly from 155 company registrars on the number of newly registered firms. Data was also collected on female entrepreneurship over the past five years in order to measure gender gaps between men and women who start or operate a company.
Recommended Reading
The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on "validated learning," rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, "The Lean Startup" offers entrepreneurs - in companies of all sizes - a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it's too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever. "From the Hardcover edition."
Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur's Handbook
The one primer you need to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Whether you're imagining your new business to be the next big thing in Silicon Valley, a pivotal B2B provider, or an anchor in your local community, the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook is your essential resource for getting your company off the ground. Starting an independent new business is rife with both opportunity and risk. And as an entrepreneur, you're the one in charge: your actions can make or break your business. You need to know the tried-and-true fundamentals--from writing a business plan to getting your first loan. You also need to know the latest thinking on how to create an irresistible pitch deck, mitigate risk through experimentation, and develop unique opportunities through business model innovation. The HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook addresses these challenges and more with practical advice and wisdom from Harvard Business Review's archive.
Burn the Business Plan
Burn the Business Plan punctures the myth of the cool, tech-savvy twenty-something entrepreneur with nothing to lose and venture capital to burn. In fact most people who start businesses are juggling careers and mortgages just like you. The average entrepreneur is actually thirty-nine years old, and the success rate of entrepreneurs over forty is five times higher than that of those under age thirty. Entrepreneurs who come out of the corporate world often have discovered a need for a product or service and have valuable contacts to help them get started.
Filled with stories of successful entrepreneurs who drew on real-life experience rather than academic coursework, Burn the Business Plan is the guide to starting and running a business that will actually work for the rest of us.
Start-Up
This guide for aspiring entrepreneurs provides expert advice on every aspect of launching a new business. It is designed to be of particular value for academics wishing to exploit the commercial value of a new technology or business solution. Inspiring and readable, it shows how to evaluate the strength of a business idea, how to protect inventions, reviews legal steps and responsibilities, shows how to position products in the market, how to create a business plan and raise initial capital. Case studies, exercises and tips demystify the process of starting a business, build confidence and greatly increase the chances of success.
Loonshots
What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? What can we learn about human nature and world history from a glass of water? In Loonshots, physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bahcall reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs.
Drawing on the science of phase transitions, Bahcall shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice.
The B Corp Handbook, Second Edition
B Corps are a global movement of more than 2,700 companies in 60 countries--like Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's, Kickstarter, Danone North America, and Eileen Fisher--that are using the power of business as a force for good. B Corps have been certified to have met rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. This book is the authoritative guide to the what, why, and how of B Corp certification.
While this book is framed around the B Corp movement, any company, regardless of size, industry, or location, can use the tools contained here to learn how to build a better business. As the authors vividly demonstrate, using business as a force for good can help you attract and retain the best talent, distinguish your company in a crowded market, and increase trust in your brand.