Founders at Work Stories of Startups Early Days
Overview:
This assignment asks you to review three chapters from the book “Founders at Work Stories of Startups Early Days” which contains insightful interviews with founders of innovative startups. The aim of the assignment is to compare and contrast the three interviews both with each other and with the course materials to gain new insights about entrepreneurship. Book chapters can be accessed and downloaded in digital form through the VU Library online search portal. Before writing your essay, please read the following three chapters (it is attatched to this assignment as a pdf):
Chapter 01: Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal, Chapter 06: Mitchell Kapor, co-founder of Lotus Development, Chapter 18: Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist
Instructions:
In your essay, please focus on addressing the following two points: During the lectures and tutorials, we discussed several important challenges related to the entrepreneurial process, including identifying and evaluating opportunities, developing a business model, building teams, attracting the resources needed to start up, and managing business growth. We also offered recommendations for addressing these challenges.
In your essay, please discuss how each of the three interviewed entrepreneurs has handled these challenges while launching and growing his/her venture. Using only the information available in the three book chapters, please compare and contrast the three stories both with each other and with the course materials (i.e., textbook, articles, lecture slides) related to addressing these challenges. Identify at least one new insight about entrepreneurship that you gained from reading the three interviews. Explain why this insight is interesting and how you could use it should you start your own business someday. Please follow these general guidelines when writing your essay.
Analysis:
The analysis examines most required issues and supports the discussion with thoughtful analysis. The analysis clearly compares the three stories both with each other and with the course materials (i.e., textbook, articles, lecture slides) and the discussion questions are addressed. Overall, the essay provides clear and logical arguments and is well done.
The analysis includes some decent arguments, yet a few had minor problems. Some relevant models /concepts/ frameworks covered during the course were applied. Most style features (i.e., clarity of expression, precision of arguments) were used convincingly. A document of good quality, thoughtfully written, readable, and carefully edited to high professional standards.
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