Guy Kawasaki - The Art of the Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.

Ludwig van Beethoven

I f I knew then what I know now. Most experienced entrepreneurs say this at some point. My goal is that you wont have to because you read this book.

Ive started three companies, invested in ten, and advised organizations as small as two people and as large as Google. Ive worked for Apple twice, and Im the chief evangelist of a startup called Canva. Hundreds of entrepreneurs have pitched meuntil my right ear wont stop ringing.

When it comes to startups, Ive been there and done that several times over. Now Im doing what techies call a core dump, or recording whats in my memory. My knowledge comes from my scarsin other words, you will benefit from my hindsight.

My goal is simple and pure: I want to make entrepreneurship easier for you. When I die, I want people to say, Guy empowered me. I want lots of people to say this, so this book is for a broad population:

Guys and gals in garages, dorms, and offices creating the next big thing

Brave souls in established companies bringing new products to market

Social entrepreneurs in nonprofits making the world a better place

Great companies. Great divisions. Great schools. Great churches. Great nonprofits. Great entrepreneurs. Thats the plan. A few details before we start:

• My original intent was to merely update the book. However, I kept adding, altering, and deleting. Thus, this isnt a 1.1 kind of revision. This is a 2.0, whole-integer, real-man revision. When my editor at Penguin told me to turn on Track Changes in Word, so that copyediting would be easy, I LOLed. Version 2.0 is 64 percent longer than version 1.0.
• For brevity, and because entrepreneurs are more similar than different, I use the word startup to refer to any new ventureprofit or not-for-profitand the word product to refer to any new product, service, or idea. You can apply the lessons of this book to start almost anything, so dont get hung up on semantics.
• If youre reading the paper version of this book, youll see text that is underlined and italicized. This text is hyperlinked in the e-book version. You dont need to buy the e-book, but I guarantee that you will gain more than the cost of the e-book in additional knowledge if you did.
• For every recommendation, there is an exception, and I could also be wrong. Learning by anecdote is risky, but waiting for scientific proof is too. Remember, few things are right or wrong in entrepreneurshiptheres only what works and what doesnt work.

I assume that your goal is to change the worldnot study it. Entrepreneurship is about doing, not learning to do. If your attitude is Cut the craplets get going, youre reading the right book by the right author. Onward...

Guy Kawasaki

Silicon Valley, California