#1 Amazon Best Seller in 10 categories
(incl. startups, entrepreneurship, starting a business, e-commerce, ...)
“Dare to Launch is a must read for entrepreneurs of all ages, industries and backgrounds. It provides time-tested, easy-to-implement guidance from one of the leading educators in entrepreneurship today.”
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- Denise Brosseau, CEO, Thought Leadership Lab
About the book
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Can you short-cut a two year MBA program to launch a successful business?
This entrepreneurship guide gives you everything you need to launch: Actionable advice from Silicon-Valley entrepreneurs, strategic frameworks shifting your mindset, and efficient how-to templates.
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“Starting a new business can feel overwhelming—but not if you have the right guide. This essential book shows you how to launch a scalable business based on the latest methodologies in Silicon Valley. You’ll learn from the success (and failure) stories of top founders and investors and save yourself years of frustration.”
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- Dorie Clark, author of Entrepreneurial You and executive education faculty, Duke University Fuqua School of Business
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In a world of outdated entrepreneurship books and expensive MBA programs serial entrepreneur, Anne Cocquyt combines inspirational examples of todays’ entrepreneurs with practical guides you can immediately put into action to get results.
Dare to a launch will help entrepreneurs and innovators:
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Take immediate action to launch and grow your business
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Introduce you to the latest steps proven to create successful businesses
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Be in control of the company you want to create
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Identify with relatable examples of diverse entrepreneurs and learn how you too, can de-risk your business
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Understand the lingo in Silicon Valley
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Decide on your funding options
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Adapt your mindset to be a confident leader and dare to launch
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In Dare To Launch, Author Anne Cocquyt shares her experience as a serial entrepreneur and pioneer in launching unique startup programs for female founders.
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Anne summarizes the latest methodologies by Stanford, University of San Francisco, Berkeley, Y Combinator, IDEO and the GUILD Academy to rapidly test ideas, identify profitable target markets and launch with a winning business model. The book is filled with examples from the author’s own entrepreneurial journey across multiple industries as well as insider stories from entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and beyond.
“Dare to Launch is just what any prospective entrepreneur needs—a smart blend of the inspirational and practical. I met Anne a decade ago in San Francisco, watched her innovate and mentor startups, and always impressed by her rigor and dedication. She writes from down-in-the-trenches expertise, and knows which methods and strategies have a better chance of success. Still on the fence? Anne will get you to launch.”
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- Jonathan Littman, best-selling coauthor with IDEO of The Ten Faces of Innovation
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WHat's in the book
Prepare your entrepreneurial journey
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THE INSPIRATION: Taking calculated risks
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FIRST STEPS: Defining success and quashing perfectionism
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Choose ideas with legs
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YOUR IDEA: Overcoming idea paralysis with the idea decision matrix
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THE PROBLEM: Falling in love with the problem
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THE SOLUTION: Starting small—Solving the problem for ONE user
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TALKING TO USERS: Making user interviews less daunting, more fun
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Make a promise to you, your company, and your customer
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MISSION: Defining your WHY and HOW
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YOUR COMPETITION: Leveraging your competitor's wisdom with the competitive analysis template
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YOUR PRODUCT PROMISE: Creating your Product Promise Landing Page in a weekend
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BRANDING: Giving your company a soul by defining your core values
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Build it and see if it works
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BUILDING YOUR MVP: Mastering the must-have and nice-to-have challenge
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MARKETING: Creating your first marketing campaign without overwhelm
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METRICS: Finding your North Star, departing from planet Vanity
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ORGANIZATION: Startup COO 101—Setting up structure and process for early-stage companies without red tape
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Create value and establish who needs to join you
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BUSINESS MODELS: Testing who will pay and how much with the Business Model Canvas
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THE MARKET: Estimating the market size bottom up and top down
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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Deliberately building your own brand as a founder
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FINANCIALS: Better than accounting—knowing how much money will be in your bank account in a year
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TEAM: Engaging the right co-founder, employees, advisors, and contractors with checklists and contract templates
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Form a company and get it funded
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COMPANY FORMATION: Incorporating with confidence
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FUNDING: Choosing which funding option is right for you
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PITCH: Creating the $500K pitch deck
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DECIDING WHAT’S NEXT: Checking if your business is ready to launch
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YOU Can short-cut a two-year MBA program to launch a successful business.
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Anne shows you in just over 250 pages!
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AUTHOR BIO
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In Dare To Launch, Author Anne Cocquyt shares her experience as a serial entrepreneur and pioneer in launching unique startup education programs for female founders. She summarized the latest methodologies by Stanford, University of San Francisco, Berkeley, Y Combinator, IDEO and her own program the GUILD Academy to rapidly test ideas, identify profitable target markets and launch with a winning business model. The book is filled with examples from the author’s own entrepreneurial journey across multiple industries as well as insider stories from diverse entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and beyond.
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HOST OF THE GUILD SHOW
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In the GUILD Show, Anne Cocquyt interviews the founders and investors in the GUILD about their startup journey and how they launched their businesses.
The interviews are popuar short 20 min segments with topics from co-founder search to equity crowdfunding and finding the right funding option.
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HOST OF THE GUILD ACADEMY
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The GUILD Academy is a best-in-class entrepreneurship program Anne launched in 2019. She took 10 cohorts of entrepreneurs through the program and helped 200 female founders launch their businesses and choose the right funding option.
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The program has generated more than $200M in market value creation and dozens of jobs.
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Anne rallied over 50 experts in entrepreneurship to teach short segments of the course and she hosted over 100 live webinars during the pandemic to help female founders stay connected and learn from the best and most relevant experts.
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The program is now also available as a self-paced program.
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Anne sponsored 75 scholarships for the GUILD Academy.
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All proceeds of her book go towards scholarships for underrepresented founders who also want to DARE TO LAUNCH.
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About the AUTHOR
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