Entrepreneur Journeys (Volume One) Now On Amazon
Back Cover:
Entrepreneur Journeys begins with a simple idea: technology start-up success, and the knowledge required to achieve it, is out there to be leveraged by anyone who is willing to listen. Using her own intimate knowledge of the entrepreneurial world, in this book renowned strategist and Forbes columnist Sramana Mitra captures the stories of entrepreneurs that have come before to help those who are looking to learn. Offering readers an inside view of how to navigate an entrepreneurial path, Mitra synthesizes candid conversations with her own incisive analysis, to create a unique set of case studies.
Truly a book that distinguishes itself from the crowded business-book marketplace, Mitra has written a text that is accessible through its story-telling narrative, and at the same time academic in its depth of insight.
You can order the book here.
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Editorial Reviews:
“Sramana Mitra is herself a symbol of everything that is great about America: a geek, an entrepreneur, an immigrant, a leader. In Entrepreneur Journeys she has taken on the task of modeling how entrepreneurs transform economies into resilient, growing systems that provide a future for our children.” - Stewart Alsop, Venture Capitalist
“Entrepreneurship is not a career. It is a way of life. And what better way to learn about it than to listen to people who have done it, successfully, and to learn about their lives in that fast lane? In a carefully structured set of interviews, Sramana Mitra gives the readers an opportunity to discover their paths, their successes, their setbacks sometimes, and the joys of meeting the immense challenges that have been theirs in a dizzying world where technical competence and management skills have allowed them to leave a deep and lasting mark.” - Professor M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell, Chair, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University
“Sramana has gifted us with the first hand stories of industry legends who have succeeded with a combination of fierce resolve, self-reliance, and a willingness to buck conventional wisdom. The next generation of entrepreneurs have an invaluable reference guide on how their predecessors have succeeded.” - Richard Rommel, Senior Vice President, Emerging Business, Best Buy
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Prologue
Entrepreneurship is not a career. It is a way of life.
For me, this journey began as a graduate student at MIT in 1994. The world watched Netscape go public a year later, and the Internet swept over us like a virus. As I wrote my Masters thesis, I also wrote my first business plan. We were, as a generation, shaping the Internet during those early years, and, my degree in hand, I was ready to jump into the unknown – from then on really, I have been jumping into unknowns at every turn.
Fortunately I’ve had great mentors – people who took an interest in my destiny, stopped along the way, and taught me a thing or two.
In turn, I have tried to stop along the way to pass on certain nuggets of my own learning. In the summer of 2006, as the technology industry resurfaced from the nuclear winter that followed the dotcom meltdown, I was invited to speak at a startup workshop. My session was supposed to focus on Positioning. At a Silicon Valley law firm, some sixty entrepreneurs packed a conference room to listen to me. I asked each to pitch his business idea in one minute, following which I gave feedback for another minute or two. My 90-minute rapid-fire session, alas, was not enough to accommodate all the pitches. In the lobby, even as we spilled onto the front steps, I tried to respond to some more, but it was hardly satisfactory. In fact, it has always frustrated me to realize that I did not have enough time in my day to stop for each entrepreneur who asked for guidance. Friends – seasoned entrepreneurs – have expressed the same frustration.
“Entrepreneur Journeys” is my attempt to capture that tribal knowledge accumulated in the private lives of great entrepreneurs – and give it shape, form, color, and a broad reach.
Imagine.
As you curl up in bed with this book of short stories, you are effectively transported across the table from each of the entrepreneurs, listening to their stories. You’ll learn, as I have learned, from their real-time experiences. All those dinners, lunches, coffees, teas, and glasses of wine from which so many stories have flowed – I invite you to experience them with me. Seated in the living room with Sridhar Vembu; lounging at Coupa Café in Palo Alto with Philippe Courtot; on the patio of Woodside Bakery, perhaps, your lunch companion is Russ Fradin.
Listen to their stories. Watch how they formulate ideas, navigate turbulent waters, create strategies, change directions, and make choices.
Listen. Learn. Empathize. Agree. Disagree. Develop your own point of view.
Most of all, I hope you find inspiration in these conversations – enough to help you become great entrepreneurs yourselves. For in entrepreneurship, I believe, lie solutions to many of the problems facing our modern world.
Author Biography
Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. She has founded three companies and writes a business blog, Sramana Mitra on Strategy (www.sramanamitra.com). She has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mitra is also a columnist for Forbes.
Press Contact:
Maureen Kelly
66 Bernards Avenue
Bernardsville, NJ 079224
908-953-0602
mkelly@bizbookpr.com
Press Release
Congratulations for the book! All the best…
Will this book be available in India?
Cheers!
Hi Amit,
Thanks. We will be working on getting the book available in India. But you have to give us some time.
Sramana
Thanks Sramana, just placed my advance order at Amazon
Thanks, Bob. I will need all the help from all of you to make this book a success. And more, spread entrepreneurship as a “weapon of mass reconstruction” …
Hi Ms Mitra,
Congratulations. I would like to understand how I can buy this in India and what are chances of getting signed copies.
Regards,
Arpan
Arpan, For starters, you can ask your local Crosswords or Landmark store to contact us through the site, while we work out something more elaborate and scalable. Signed copies - wait till we meet in person! Sramana
Good news!
If not generally available, please blog (or otherwise inform us) about when and when we can get it - in India.
Thanks,
Vasudev
Congratulations and wish you all the best!
I too am looking forward to finding this book at bookstores in India.
Thanks,
Naren
Congratulations Sramana! All the best!
regards,
Satish
Congratulations !
Keenly awaited in India !
Great news! I just pre-ordered it at amazon. I really enjoy reading your articles and I think this book will be helpful since I’m starting up my company.
Good luck and I’ll be waiting for more reading.
Friends, thank you for your support.
Indian readers, there are a few things we can do in the short term. If you ask your local bookstore to contact me, I can get the publisher to ship them books at wholesale prices.
Alternately, you can get friends/relatives traveling from the US to India to bring you copies.
I don’t have an Indian distribution deal yet. Up to my eye-balls with the Oct 1 launch.
congratulations i am sure you will bring my copy when you visit home in december initiatives on entrepreunership is the remedy for the crisis ridden global civilization.i wish and strongly hope that your book will make abig bang impact in the global village
baba
Congratulations Sramana!! This means so much to us all! Can’t wait to hold it in my hands and read it in one go. All the best!
Congratulations and thank you for taking the time to collect these journeys and sharing them with a wider audience. Getting richer and wiser is part of the journey.
As I’m in Menlo Park, not India, I assume I can enjoy a signed copy. Congratulations!
Congratulations Sramana! I’m excited to read your book! My best wishes.
Congratulations Sramana. I look forward to reading the book.
Steve
Congratulations!! This is fantastic…eagerly awaiting to read the book. I wish you all the success…a very well deserved one. Feeling extremely proud
Sramana — Congratulations on this milestone event. I expect the book will be a big success. Looking forward to reading it.
Bruce
[...] Book [...]
Congratulations! I’m ordering my copy now.
Elle
Congratulations! It sounds like a great book to add to my list. Are you planning on an audio version as well? This is the fastest route to my reading list…
Not yet, Gadi.
[...] before. Volume One of the series is now available on Amazon.com. You can read more on the project here. Take a look, and I will be inviting some of you who are working in India to be part of the series, [...]
[...] last year, but pulled it out again after I came across two books in the same genre today. One is Entrepreneur Journeys by Sramana Mitra, and the other is Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal. I’ve been [...]
Congratulations, Sramana!
It’s a huge accomplishment to finish writing a book. Unlike starting companies where you focus on the first 80% and most people never get to the last 20% :), to publish a book you have to get that last 80% of the work done. Great!
This is awesome, Sramana. Congrats on this huge accomplishment.
On the Amazon site, it’d be nice to have the “Search Inside” feature or at least a description somewhere of the entrepreneurs featured in the book.
Cheers,
Brian Tan - CEO, Zicasso.com
There will soon be, Brian. It’s not up yet, but within a few days, it will be. Same with the Kindle version, which, in case you are looking for, will also be up soon.
Many Congratulations SM !
Needless to say, it will be a success or is already one and we’re all going to spread the word and make sure its an even bigger one
Cheers,
RK.
This is a great accomplishment not everyone. Congratulations and wish you all success. I wish I get some time to buy and read the book in spite of hectic travel.
– Sriram
Congratulations Sramana. Will make sure to order my copy.
Congratulations Sramana.
Look forward to reading Volume One and the countless volumes to follow!
Best wishes - tedd
For anyone looking for this book on the Kindle…it’s available now. In fact, I just had Amazon send the sample to my Kindle so I can start reading it tonight.
Thanks for the update, Joe. Yes, and the Search Inside feature on Amazon is also up.
I’m intrigued. I always enjoy your insight and look forward to reading Entrepreneur Journeys. Congratulations
How is your book different from all the other books and blogs that mete out wisdom on entrepreneurship ? For every ten businesses started, nine fall by the wayside. That’s scary stats. However, for the nine who have not made it - it is unfair to assume they have not ‘got it’, and hence need nuggets of wisdom. This is a very simplistic approach and things are way more complicated than that.
The book just has stories of entrepreneurs who discuss freely their particular journey. It is for the 9 to gauge for themselves what they might do better by learning from the 1 who has made it.
In this book, there are 12 ‘1’s. In subsequent volumes there will be more.
Read the book, and decide for yourself.
This is surely a great news. So first Congratulations Sramana! Will look forward towards reading it. Though I do not consider myself to be on the path as understood by everyone as “Entrepreneurial Journeys”, I consider every architectural effort to design a journey of life is an entrepreneurial journey. What can be more delight than learning from others experiments with it!
Regards,
Subhas
Sramana,
Congratulation for the new book, I am looking for great ahha moments and learning while reading your book
Avinoam
Congrats Sramana…
Hi Sramana,
Congratulations !
Thats fantastic… do you have an eVersion available… ( as your book is not available here )
Ravi
The book is available on Kindle.
I wish you best of luck for the book.
Stories that drive home the fact that entrepreneurship is a choice - with it come other choices to be made eg., to be a strategist instead of manipulative, to be dedicated instead of balanced, to be open and may be even compromised personally instead of secure, to be a deep thinker instead of a hopeful would be interesting to read.
Hi Sramana, Send us a video, and we will promote it on Buzzar, which is an exhibition platform, a first of its kind on the internet. More than 1000 brands have their brandfront’s on buzzar, and we have visitors from all over the world
[...] of their peers, so I was glad to hear about Sramana Mitra’s latest project, a book called Entrepreneur Journeys. Sramana writes a column for Forbes, runs a strategy consultancy and blogs about the intersection [...]
Sramana,
I just finished reading Entrepreneur Journeys, and I absolutely loved it. I am a tech enthusiast so, I found the interviews very “real” as opposed to the overnight success stories that are always in the forefront. The concept and birth of the vastly unique start ups were fascinating. I’m not an entrepreneur, but I love the worlds of business and technology - and you book was a perfect blend of both. I look forward to reading volume 2.