Standards make everything easier. When everyone can agree on a standard way to do things, regardless of how it is done, it can reduce confusion and facilitate progress.
You’d think if there was one thing that would be standardized everywhere, it would be the side of the road everyone drives on. I mean, there are only two options.
Yet, there is no global standard for what side to drive on.
Why do many startups fail? Tom Eisenmann, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School realised that even he didn’t really know the answer, despite a lifetime teaching entrepreneurship, and decided to write a book to answer exactly that question. You can hear him go into detail on the NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership Channel interviewed by experienced entrepreneurs Richard Lucas and Kimon Fountoukidis. Whether you want to start a business one day, or just have better conversations with people who are in business, don’t miss this “book of the day” podcast. He draws attention to a critical gap in the Lean Startup methodology which can save both dollars and time if correctly applied. This idea alone makes the podcast worth listening to.
The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal story of our carefully selected guests aiming for the atmosphere of an informal conversation in a bar or over a cup of coffee.
In this episode we do go a little further into Tom’s background that normal, and give an entrepreneurial take on his ideas.
He does a great job of explaining his ideas, and there is much for any entrepreneur to learn.
If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn't answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail: A New Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success (Currency, 2021), Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures.
* Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder's talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly.
* False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to "fail fast" and to "launch before you're ready," founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions.
* False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand.
* Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to "get big fast," hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures.
* Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both.
* Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong.
About our guest
Tom Eisenmann is the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS) and the faculty co-chair of the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. Since joining the HBS faculty in 1997, he’s led The Entrepreneurial Manager, an introductory course taught to all first-year MBAs, and launched fourteen electives on all aspects of entrepreneurship, including one on startup failure. Eisenmann has authored more than one hundred HBS case studies and his writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.
Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR. Both companies were founded in the mid 90s with zero capital and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. Listen to his story here,
Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including investments in Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network. Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre- to business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here,
Several social programs launched during the pandemic are set to expire soon, including an eviction moratorium and enhanced unemployment benefits. Federal student loan payments will be due again starting October 1st, with no movement from the White House yet towards cancellation.
The Supreme Court ruled that immigrants who came to the U.S. for humanitarian reasons can’t apply for a green card if they entered unlawfully. SCOTUS will continue issuing big decisions through the end of the month on issues that include healthcare, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and more.
And in headlines: a deadly train crash in Pakistan, Google pays $270 million for anti-trust violations in France, and the FDA approves a new Alzheimer’s treatment.
Show Notes:
Washington Post: "The eviction moratorium is about to end. Rent relief hasn’t arrived. These renters decided to take action" - https://wapo.st/3iqTK43
We'll tell you about a first-of-its-kind effort to get money back from a cybercriminal group.
Also, why President Biden's Justice Department is now defending former President Trump in court.
Plus, a heatwave affecting a large part of the country, a possible breakthrough in Alzheimer's treatment that comes with some controversy, and another record broken by an American gymnast.
Sen. Ted Cruz joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss his recent trip to Israel to observe the fighting that's been occurring in the region between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. We discuss how Hamas has a headquarters in the basement of a hospital, effectively using innocent people as human shields.
"It's their own terrorists killing their own people, because they wanted to kill Israeli civilians, but they just weren't very good at it, and shot their own people instead," Cruz, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal.
"The press utterly ignores that," Cruz said. "The other civilians that are injured are predominantly the result of a decision that Hamas made to use Palestinians as human shields. So, they deliberately fire their weapons, fire their rockets from heavily populated civilian areas into heavily populated civilian areas.
"It's actually a double war crime. Shooting in a civilian area is a war crime, but shooting from civilian areas is also a war crime," the Texas Republican lawmaker said.
"The Hamas headquarters was in the basement of a hospital in Gaza," Cruz said, adding:
This is a Palestinian hospital. And here's the calculation Hamas is making: It's a win-win. Either the [Israeli Defense Forces] will refrain from attacking their headquarters, in which case, that's great. That's what they want. Or in the alternative, if the IDF does attack the headquarters, it will kill a significant number of Palestinians, and they're literally using Palestinian women and newborn babies.
We also cover these stories:
The Supreme Court rules unanimously Monday thatimmigrants who came into the country illegally and were subsequently allowed to stay under temporary protected status can't get green cards or lawful permanent status.
The Supreme Court declines to hear arguments in a case that could have required women to register for the military draft. As usual, the court did not specify why they chose to punt on the case, but did say they defer to Congress on the issue.
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, and his brother Mark will be traveling to space on the inaugural crewed flight of New Shepard, a rocket system created by Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin.
Nationwide, almost 65% of adults have had at least one vaccine shot, but vaccination rates vary significantly depending on the state. NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey gives us the latest on the country's vaccination progress: which states are on track (and which are not), new research about why it's important teenagers get vaccinated, and what we know about the possibility of booster shots.
Karl is interested in the use of low code tools to extend development work beyond the engineering department. He also believes this approach, when done properly, allows teams to release new iterations more rapidly.
Amanda Holmes reads Mahmoud Darwish’s poem “Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words,” translated especially for this podcast by Carolyn Forché. Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch
A loose and chill hang out ep as we come to you from Atlantic City after our successful appearance at the FRQNCY1 festival. We pitch some of our concepts to revitalize AC and solve America’s Trump problem in one tidy package, lament the purging of some truly wonderful cranks and goofys from twitter, then travel Into The Ray Donoverse.
