So, this book emerged from some blog posts, sharing pay-it-forward-style "lessons learned" that I'd wanted to write, as I was winding down my activity in a startup in early 2015. The lessons and stories just spilled out of me and, before I knew it, I had a 90-page Ebook (which is available to download as a free PDF from my personal website).
Then, a few weeks later, as I was visiting with the CEO of Weeva - an accelerator company of Austin's Capital Factory - we discussed the idea of publishing an expanded version of the book, seeking contributions from an array of well-known as well as less-visible-but-deeply-experienced entrepreneurs, in Austin and elsewhere.
We dubbed the effort "The Community Edition" since the majority of the writing in it is by those men, women, and young adults...not me! We ended up with more than 70 contributors, with hundreds of lessons learned and inspirational stories.
In the book, you'll read stories from giants of the Austin tech scene, like Jimmy Treybig (founder of Tandem Computers) and Admiral Bobby Inman (CEO of the MCC, the American tech center that drew talent from around the US and spawned a generation of tech innovation in Austin).
We're also grateful for the permission we received to re-print/re-purpose contributions from Guy Kawasaki, Benchmark's Bill Gurley (a UT-Austin grad!), and Silverton's Kip McClanahan. Also contributing were leaders of most Austin accelerators (Capital Factory, Tech Ranch, SKU, Mission Capital, UnLtdUSA, Impact Hub), and many, many more, around the US and the world!
In keeping with the original pay-it-forward spirit of the book, every person's time was donated or, in Weeva's case, provided at/below cost, with the exception being that a small portion of the proceeds from every sale goes to TEDxYouth@Austin, for their 2016 conference event, which will be highlighting the intersection of entrepreneurship with creativity, that is the core of TEDx.
Here are two peeks inside the book:
First: the Director's Cut Edition, which includes longer stories and multiple contributions from some authors, like Hugh Forrest of SXSW Interactive and Shari Wynne of the SKU Incubator - see: https://s3.amazonaws.com/weeva.c...
Second: the Abridged, Original Edition, which includes at least 1 contribution from every author, in a more traditional, bookshelf-friendly length, and is $15 less - see: https://s3.amazonaws.com/weeva.c...
Naturally Caffeinated