Okay, this book is straightforward:

• How to build a Silicon Valley seed startup
• How to find co-founders
• How to give stock to team, contractors, advisors, and investors
• How to deal with lawyers and incorporation
• How to develop your idea
• How to get funding and deal with investors, angels, and venture capital
• How to calculate your startup's valuation
• How to sell your startup (acquisition)

This book isn't a theory of startups by a university professor or a VC who has never actually built a startup. No business school blah-blah-blah, overheated Wall Street yadda-yadda, or lots of time on stuff you'll never do.

This is the reality of Silicon Valley startups: what it's like to build a startup and how to deal with problems. The book dismisses many popular ideas about startup strategies because those sound nice, but founders don't really use them. Instead, this book covers what founders have seen to actually work.

Startup is based on interviews with 26 startup founders (men and women) who are doing startups in Silicon Valley, France, Germany, Cote d’Ivoire (West Africa), China, Colombia, Denmark, Hawaii, India, Jakarta, South Korea, Spain, and the US. This is the only book that covers how startups are built in India, South America, Africa, Europe, and China. What works in Silicon Valley often doesn't work in other countries. They have to solve the problems of startups in unique, local ways. The book shows you how it's done in Silicon Valley and other places, so you can get ideas for YOUR startup in YOUR country and city.

The book also includes hundreds of comments and observations from founders. Useful ideas, warnings, and helpful tips. Some of the founders have done three or four startups, and they talk about what they've learned. That's why the book has been translated in French, Korean, Spanish, and Chinese. I want to encourage people everywhere to build startups.

Andreas lives in Palo Alto with his wife and cat.