Profile
Member Since 2015
Public Member, EIX Editor Emeritus
Kathleen Allen
Professor / Entrepreneurship / University of Southern California
AUTHORED RESOURCES
What Entrepreneurs Should Know About University Technology Licensing
58236 views
Entrepreneurs can build startups around university inventions, but tech transfer deals bring legal, financial and development risks that must be managed carefully. Read More...
How to Identify the Right Customer Problem Before Building a Startup
17118 views
Before launching a potential product, be sure to look deeply at the problem it hopes to solve. Read More...
How Entrepreneurs Know When to Listen to the Market and When to Lead It
4006 views
Successful founders balance customer feedback with conviction, experimentation and the willingness to anticipate needs customers cannot yet articulate. Read More...
Is a Board of Directors Really Necessary?
11082 views
Wise founders see boards as a valuable resource rather than a necessary evil. The key is learning to work with them productively. Read More...
'Becoming da Vinci' Exercise Ignites the Inventor Spirit
120264 views
This exercise helps students delve into the mind of an inventor, and understand how ideas can become entrepreneurial ventures. Read More...
EDITOR'S PICKS
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel, Crown Business, 2014
Peter Thiel, Crown Business, 2014What valuable company is nobody building? That’s just one of many questions posed in this provocative and entertaining book. It certainly is a question that Thiel must have asked himself before co-founding the pioneering online-commerce platform PayPal, making the first investment in Facebook, founding Palantir Technologies, and funding multiple brand-name startups like SpaceX and Airbnb. Thiel challenges entrepreneurs to “risk boldness over triviality,” and avoid equilibrium at all costs, because equilibrium means stasis and stasis means death. The phrase “zero to one” captures the process of creating something new and singular. One of the core concepts of this very readable book is the idea that entrepreneurs must find a way to create a temporary monopoly with the potential to scale to large markets. You’ll definitely take lots of notes as you read and sometimes you’ll raise your eyebrows a bit, but Zero to One is well worth the time.
The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America
https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Warren-Buffett-Lessons-Corporate/dp/1611637589Through a series of engaging essays and letters to shareholders, Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, teaches a masterclass in how to build and operate a financially sound and ethical business. The book is organized by topic so it’s easy for entrepreneurs to find what they need quickly, and the lessons will carry them from startup through IPO and beyond.