Fail Fast or Win Big

The Start-Up Plan for Starting Now

AMACOM, 2015

15 min read

10 take-aways

Audio & text

What's inside?

Bernhard Schroeder, who taught Amazon how to build its business, offers great advice to entrepreneurs and managers.

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Editorial Rating

Qualities

Innovative
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Recommendation

One of four new businesses fails in the first year, so entrepreneurs undertaking a start-up must know what they are doing. Bernhard Schroeder, the acclaimed director of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center at San Diego State University, offers advice and wisdom gained from his entrepreneurial success. Schroeder was a senior partner at the marketing agency CKS | Partners, which sold for more than $300 million. His firm planned the business strategy for Amazon. Though perhaps somewhat optimistic about crowdfunding, his advice is useful and direct. It is accessible and almost always very comprehensible, though he occasionally offers impenetrable statements like, “Customers are not always right, but they are never wrong.” Seasoned salespeople will intuitively understand what he means, though beginners could be a bit baffled at first. getAbstract recommends Schroeder’s solid, wide-ranging and applicable advice to all aspiring entrepreneurs and to those leading entrepreneurial ventures within established firms.

Summary

Sunglasses, Cables and Bracelets

In 2011, as part of San Diego State University’s Entrepreneur Day activities, two students contracted for the offshore manufacture of 300 pairs of sunglasses in the college’s colors. They paid $3 per pair and sold out their stock for $20 each. The students applied their profits toward a campaign at Indiegogo, an Internet crowdfunding site, to raise capital for their own sunglasses firm. Today, the company operates in six countries with sales of more than $750,000.

Adam, an entrepreneur in the “commodity products business,” launched his firm by charging $3,000 on his credit card to buy Chinese-manufactured HDMI cables for resale. Today, he manages a $3-million-a-year online business from his condo. He sells more than 100 different products for an average gross margin of 60%. Adam doesn’t pay for or manage his own website. He piggybacks onto other firms’ online platforms and uses web companies for shipping and operations. He limits his costs by having student interns handle day-to-day tasks.

Two new college graduates took a surfing vacation in Costa Rica where they bought bracelets from a beach vendor. They liked the bracelets and...

About the Author

Bernhard Schroeder, a director at the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center at San Diego State University, was a senior partner at CKS | Partners.

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H. U. 9 years ago

Great read. Very concise and underlined the most crucial aspects of starting a business in this fast changing world
L. O. 9 years ago

Great summary indeed,intellectual at work, very articulated and concise. Am motivated already.
N. I. 10 years ago

A great summary of a great book. Truly, with dynamic and highly changing business world today, time is the most important resource and this is what the punch line of this book. Well written summary deserves high credit.

Bernhard Schroeder