This book provides the rare combination of practical advice and scholarly research. It gets to
the heart of the people issues that can bedevil every and I do mean every startup. Issues
such as founder motivations equity splits and equity control can make or break a company. I
guarantee that the price of this book is approximately one-thousandth of what you'll pay
lawyers to clean up your mess if you don't read it.--Guy Kawasaki author of Enchantment and
former chief evangelist of Apple The Founder's Dilemmas is required reading for entrepreneurs
venture capitalists and the professionals who work with them. Few entrepreneurs appreciate the
far-reaching implications of decisions they need to make at the beginning of a startup venture.
Most founders make these critical decisions based on their gut instincts backed up by data
covering ten thousand founders Noam Wasserman shows that the most common choices made at the
outset of a new venture are often the wrong ones. This book also shines a light on the
difficult conversations that entrepreneurs need to have with their colleagues and with their
investors and makes plainspoken commonsense recommendations that facilitate this
dialogue.--Pascal Levensohn founding partner of Levensohn Venture Partners and member of the
board of directors of the National Venture Capital Association (2007--2011) The Founder's
Dilemmas will change the way we think about the internal dynamics that can make or break
startup companies. Drawing on substantial research and considerable insight into practice
Wasserman uncovers the inner lives of startups exploring the personal and professional
conflicts that founders encounter on their entrepreneurial journeys. His book will appeal to
academics and practitioners alike.--Thomas Hellmann University of British Columbia The
research that Noam Wasserman has assembled here can help entrepreneurial companies who want to
prepare well for their future. The Founder's Dilemmas is a must-read for anyone thinking about
starting a business.--Timothy C. Draper founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Looking at the
real-life founder issues of many accomplished entrepreneurs Noam Wasserman draws insights that
are both universal and timeless. If you're thinking of starting a new venture do your homework
and read this first.--Jeremy Stoppelman CEO and cofounder of Yelp Noam Wasserman takes you
through every major issue in a startup and shows you how to handle it in a prescriptive
logical way. The Founder's Dilemmas is for everyone thinking about starting a serious company
with their eye on a big prize and for the people who invest in those companies.--Paul Maeder
chairman of the National Venture Capital Association founder and general partner of Highland
Capital Partners If you're starting a new company you probably already know that a crazy
variety of land mines await you. What if you had a map that showed exactly where they are and
how to avoid them? Wasserman's recommendations are backed up by rigorous research--a rare thing
in books about entrepreneurship--and his stories and anecdotes serve as accessible
illustrations of situations faced by thousands of companies. Having seen these dilemmas derail
countless startups I wish every entrepreneur and prospective founder would read this
book.--Eric Ries author of The Lean Startup Every entrepreneur faces trade-offs when founding
and growing their company. As we discovered at YouTube those early decisions have far-reaching
impacts and lead to unforeseen pitfalls down the road. Noam Wasserman uses vivid anecdotes and
deep research to expertly outline the key early choices that define a startup making The
Founder's Dilemmas an invaluable alternative to real-world trial and error.--Chad Hurley
founder-CEO of YouTube [A] wonderful book. . . . It's a must read before you have even one more
discussion with anyone about starting a company with them.--Melinda Thomas
Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the City of New York The Founder's Dilemmas fills an important
gap in the entrepreneurship literature by providing an in-depth treatment of the people
problems that confront all new business founders. Wasserman argues that people problems are
responsible for a significant portion of startup failures and that entrepreneurs tend to
underestimate their potentially dangerous long-term effects. In this pathbreaking book he
grounds the analysis of these problems in both richly textured case examples and rigorously
developed concepts and theories.--Ari Ginsberg director of the Berkley Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies at New York University's Stern School of Business This book offers a
rich understanding of the central personal dilemmas that entrepreneurs uniquely face. These
dilemmas are tied to particular choices for entrepreneurs that can have subtle and unexpected
ramifications. I don't know of any other book that comes close to examining these specific and
important issues.--Kathleen M. Eisenhardt S
