YetanotherHackerNewsdigest.com
HN Theater | HN Academy | HN Books

HN Books @HNBooksMonth

The best books of Hacker News.
Rankings: week · month (mar/apr) · year (2024) · all time
digests · search

Hacker News Comments on
How to be The Startup Hero: A Guide and Textbook for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Tim Draper · 28 HN points · 0 HN comments
HN Books has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention "How to be The Startup Hero: A Guide and Textbook for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs" by Tim Draper.
View on Amazon [↗]
HN Books may receive an affiliate commission when you make purchases on sites after clicking through links on this page.
Amazon Summary
I hope that this book will inspire you to act. To make that move. To fulfill your vision. I want to take you closer to your goal, whether that be starting a billion-dollar unicorn, building a revolution, or just helping you better understand that change of any kind starts with you. You can be the Startup Hero. Startup Heroes are the ones that drive progress, and whether you bring us to another planet or make your neighborhood a nicer, happier place, you can become a Startup Hero. This book is the first step. It helps you take that first step. The step will be different for everyone. It might be to call that customer. It might be to draw up a design concept. It might be to talk to your boss. With this book, I hope to guide people to think big, drive change and go full speed ahead. I am giving them a pledge to do their work for good, and I am giving them some of the tools they need to accomplish their goals. This book is hard. It takes you through a variety of activities, questions, stories and challenges (even puzzles and poems) working both the right and left side of your brain and all the parts in between. The activities I propose are challenging and sometimes even embarrassing. The questions I ask are probing and provoking. The stories I tell are used as examples to guide you toward what I call Startup Heroism. So, why would you read this book? Well, I have worked for 30 years for entrepreneurs. I have supported, funded and coached Startup Heroes all my working life. And I have tested the concepts of this book on the students at Draper University and they have come out to be some of the most interesting, dynamic, and motivated people the world has ever seen. In fact, we have had about 1000 students from over 60 different countries come through the program at this writing, and they have started more than 300 companies! I wrote this book so that some of the thinking that I applied to Draper University could be spread wider, in hopes that these messages would reach other potential Startup Heroes (maybe you) who might make an impact on the world, be proactive about their work, or at the very least, improve their lives. So, I implore you. Read this book, try this book, do this book, play this book, absorb this book, experience this book. It might surprise you. It might thrill you. It might drive you. It might kill you. At the very least, I hope it will give you a perspective on how real progress is made, and at the very best, it might just change your life.
HN Books Rankings

Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.
⬐
Apr 13, 2018 · 28 points, 12 comments · submitted by pilingual
⬐ SrslyJosh
Isn't this the "three Californias" guy? :-/
⬐ primitur
Yes, it is.

But, you know: billions.

⬐ dbcooper
Also the Theranos defender.
⬐ petecooper
Free on the Amazon UK store (as of now, anyway):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Startup-Hero-Textbook-Entrepren...

⬐ dbcooper
Give your money to Theranos! Alternatively, see who your children know from high school.
⬐ ajeet_dhaliwal
Thanks for the tip, downloaded!
⬐ 44Aman
Only on the US store, unfortunately.
⬐ simonhamp
Is this US only? I'm in UK and Kindle app is only offering/requiring Kindle Unlimited
⬐ Yeri
Decline the offer and then click buy. It worked fine without Kindle unlimited.

It's available on .de store as well (0 EUR).

⬐ wj
I had to decline the offer and then click a small link that said "$0.00 to buy" underneath the Kindle icon.
⬐ smoyer
I don't (in the US) get a link to decline the offer.
⬐ PacifyFish
The most well-written review from Amazon is also the sole dissenter. And the one I trust:

“I'm a few chapters in and it's hard to keep going.

The idea that I'm left with is that Tim Draper is absolutely insufferable to be in the same room with. In every story, he is the "hero", an amazing crusader who never makes a bad decision and is prescient about tomorrow. Some of the stories are interesting, but if you took Guy Raz's question on "How I Built This" and asked Draper about how much of his success was luck versus skill, the impression is that he does not believe in luck.

Case in point - the chapter on his bucket list, and how many things he has done on it, comes in at 25 pages. The very next chapter is on treating people well, and it is 4 pages.

Which type of person would you admire?

If you want to read stories of an age gone by, where he is the star of the story for being in the right place and the right time, with lots of privilege (including family money to start a venture fund, and a HBS degree), then this is the book. Also, if you want to read poetry that he has written and included at the end of each chapter, this is also the book you are looking for. I just can't imagine that he didn't know someone who had the courage to take him aside and say, "Tim, this is a dreadful idea. Don't put poetry in your book." But having money means you get to do stupid things and people won't stop you.

The current top positive review mentions behind the scenes stories on a bunch of big named companies that he noticed when he "flipped" through the book. That must have been all that he did, or he would have noticed the stories have as much substance as name dropping at a cocktail party. Tesla, Skype, etc. "I met a guy, who knew another guy, and I wrote a check. I'm totally amazing." If he were to compare the stores of the also-rans, the ones that didn't go alongside them, he would have my respect, but this isn't a book worth the digital paper it's printed on.

I had hoped for so much more. If you read the intro and feel similarly, Ben Horowitz's book is likely the one you are looking for.”

⬐ None
None
HN Books is an independent project and is not operated by Y Combinator or Amazon.com.
~ yaj@
;laksdfhjdhksalkfj more things
yahnd.com ~ Privacy Policy ~
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.