Book Test
Most startup advice is wrong.
It is built on hindsight, survivor bias, and tidy narratives that leave out the messy reality of building a company from scratch. Run a coin-tossing competition with 1,000 people and someone will win ten in a row. They will happily lecture you on their winning techniques afterwards. A lot of startup advice works the same way.
The Founder’s Map is a practical, no-nonsense guide to the terrain of entrepreneurship, drawn by someone who has actually crossed it: one company closed with two months of runway left, another taken from near collapse to a successful exit, and hundreds of investment rounds seen from both sides of the table.
Volume I, Building the Machine, covers the ground that decides everything else: you, your team, and the systems that let you scale beyond yourself. It focuses on what actually matters:
- how to test whether your idea is worth years of your life
- how to choose co-founders, and what to agree before you commit
- how to share equity and ownership without losing control (or half of it to the taxman)
- how to build a board on your own terms, before investors impose one on theirs
- how to hire, pay, promote, and fire like a human being
- how to make decisions when everyone around you is being nice instead of honest
This is not a book of startup myths or overnight success stories. It is a map: the routes I took, the mistakes I made, and the cliffs I went over, so you can read the ground and choose your own way across.
If you are thinking about starting a company, already in the early stages, or a repeat founder who wants to see what you missed the first time round, this book will give you a clearer view of what lies ahead and a better chance of getting it right.
Business failure is an option. Personal failure isn’t.
Volume II, covering customers, capital, and the way out, follows.