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Bootstrap Visibility in the Press

Business Week article on Bootstrap, Spring 2006

Entrepreneur Magazine e-books:

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Recommended Reading For New Entrepreneurs

Wall Street Journal

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

Looking to learn more about building a new business? We asked Tim Faley, the managing director of the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor, for books and Web sites he'd suggest to would-be entrepreneurs. He's also the managing director of the school's Wolverine Venture Fund, a venture-capital fund run by Ross students and faculty. Dr. Faley also had been director of technology transfer and commercialization at the University of Michigan's College of Engineering. Prior to joining the university, he was an executive at Dow Chemical Co. in technology transfer and new-business development and a chemical-engineering professor.

Here is his list:

• "Crossing the Chasm"

By Geoffery A. Moore "It's a marketing classic for entrepreneurs, especially those first starting out. It's critically important that entrepreneurs know who their initial customers are and move onto bigger markets from there. This book offers both insight and information you can go and apply."

• "e-Boys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work"

By Randall E. Stross "This book follows a group of young venture capitalists during the dot-com era. It gives you a great account from '97 to '99, right as we were ramping up to the peak of the bubble by describing the actions and mindsets of venture capitalists."

• "Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Business Goals"

By Thomas L. Harrison with Mary H. Frakes "It's a fun book and those who have a technical background will especially like it, because even though it's not a science book, the author uses the language of science as a basis for discussion. He writes about how to recognize your weaknesses and how to build a team around you that compensates for them."

• "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century"

By Thomas L. Friedman "It's particularly important for those just starting out to understand the environment they're entering, and this book talks about how the environment has changed competition, making it more global for every company of every size. It says every company is a global company and you need to think about that when starting one."

• "Innovation and Entrepreneurship"

By Peter F. Drucker "Peter was one of the first to talk about the skills and mindset of an entrepreneur versus the traits. He talks about entrepreneurship in terms of learnable skills, which is important because at the end of the day, it's the skills that matter most."

• "The Art of the Start: Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything"

By Guy Kawasaki "This book gets down to the details about pitching a business plan to venture capitalists for the first time. It goes all the way from how long the presentation should be to how large the font size should be on the slide. And the author does it in a very humorous and tongue-in-cheek way."

• StartupNation.com

"StartupNation presents an uncomplicated process to help first-time entrepreneurs get started. It helps people get over the 'but I don't know where to start' hurdle."

• kauffman.org

"The Kauffman site is rich with entrepreneurial advice and research. The Kauffman Foundation has been and continues to be a strong supporter and advocate of entrepreneurship." (Kauffman.org is the online home of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, publisher of eVenturing.org (formerly entreworld.org), a business partner of StartupJournal.com.)

-- Ms. Needleman is associate editor at StartupJournal.com.

Email your comments to sjeditor@dowjones.com.