Overview

Is Your Idea Big Enough to Build a Business That Will Last? Learn from Unlikely Entrepreneurs What does the USA's number one online casket company, a nationally distributed sustainable sausage brand, and the company behind the editing system used by The Matrix have in common? These thriving ventures were founded by unlikely entrepreneurs whose journeys reveal what it takes to succeed in launching and growing a startup. In Unlikely Entrepreneurs: Wins, Losses and Crucial Advice in Building Great Companies, the authors—who hail from Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management—combine expert insights, elements of the case study method, and an engaging story-telling style to take a deep dive into the key challenges that founders face. They set the stage for each profile-—including those of entrepreneurs helming billion dollar companies to mom-and-pop businesses—whose colorful, unlikely stories showcase entrepreneurial best practices that readers can adopt to succeed. Throughout the book, the authors weave in lessons from the classrooms of top-ranked business schools and expert insights from venture capitalists, investors, CEOs, business authors, and Ivy league researchers—on what it takes for startups to scale in a competitive marketplace. Topics include, among others: How to attain crucial second-hand knowledge of your target audiences’ needs Building your Go To Market Playbook Why founders must become their company's 'Chief Salesperson' Fundraising best practices The crucial differences between managing and leading Leveraging AI to build your marketing campaigns Mastering the art of the pivot to ward off failure We live in a time of rapid change, and entrepreneurial innovation is needed more now than ever before. Unlikely Entrepreneurs is a must-read for anyone considering launching a business and for those looking to scale their company and expand their offerings.

Full Product Details

Author:   N. Louis Shipley (Harvard Business School) ,  Patricia Favreau (MIT Sloan School of Management)
Publisher:   John Wiley & Sons Inc
Imprint:   John Wiley & Sons Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.80cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.10cm
Weight:   0.431kg
ISBN:  

9781394345892

ISBN 10:   1394345895
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   20 January 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

About the Authors xiii Introduction xv Chapter 1 The Problem with ""The Problem"" 1 1.1 Living the Problem: Why Firsthand Experience Matters 1 1.2 Bill Warner: Revolutionizing Video and Film Editing 5 1.3 How to Attain Secondhand Knowledge of the Problem 11 Chapter 2 Delegate Sales at Your Own Peril 23 2.1 Overcoming Your Disdain of Sales 23 2.2 Welcome to Harvard Business School's Entrepreneurial Sales Course 24 2.3 Matthew Riley, U.K. Telecoms Market Disruptor 29 2.4 Dream Big and Win: Landing TransPerfect's First Customer 36 2.5 How Katie Couric Media Landed Its First Customer 39 2.6 Building Your Sales Culture 48 2.7 Turning Around the Root Causes of Failure in Sales 49 Chapter 3 Fundraising 55 3.1 You're Going to Need Cash 55 3.2 Mary McLaughlin, Independent Tire 56 3.3 Fundraising Best Practices 59 3.4 What Every Entrepreneur Can Learn from the Challenges of Launching and Growing a Mission-Driven Nonprofit 65 3.5 Marvin Pierre, Founder and Executive Director of Eight Million Stories, Inc.: Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline 69 Chapter 4 Leadership 83 4.1 Avoid Becoming a ""Flailing Founder"" 83 4.2 Lessons on Leadership: Mark Fusco, Olympic Athlete and CEO 85 4.3 Why Distributed Leadership Works 91 4.4 A Test in Leadership: Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) 93 Chapter 5 Marketing and Promotional Campaigns 105 5.1 Start at the Beginning 105 5.2 The Benefits of Earned Media Coverage 106 5.3 Media Training: Make Your Messages Stick 111 5.4 Leverage AI to Build Your Campaign 116 5.5 Errico Porzio's ""Social Pizza"" 119 5.6 Digital Marketing Best Practices 122 5.7 Scott Ginsberg: Titan Casket, Funeral Industry Disrupter: Marketing Mortality by Thinking Outside the Box 125 Chapter 6 Reframing Failure 139 6.1 The Silence of Failure 139 6.2 The Art of the Pivot: Saving Your Company by Killing the Idea You Love 142 6.3 Ricky Ashenfelter and Emily Malina, Spoiler Alert: Saving Excess Inventory from Landfills 143 6.4 The Murder Board: Killing an Idea or Strengthening It 147 6.5 Founder as ""Chief Security Officer"": Creating a Culture of Cybersecurity Resiliency 149 6.6 Recessions: A Surprisingly Good Time to Launch a Start-Up 152 6.7 Cara Nicoletti, Seemore Meats & Veggies: Sausage Industry Disruptor 154 Chapter 7 Endings and Beginnings 163 7.1 Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship 163 7.2 Entrepreneurship as a Second Act: Dave Picarillo, Twin Barns Brewing Company 164 7.3 Charlie Tillinghast: From MSNBC. com President to Founder of Factal 169 7.4 The Challenges of Letting Go 175 7.5 Selling Your Company: Best Practices 176 7.6 Cementing Your Legacy 178 7.7 Why Entrepreneurs Endure 179 Further Readings 181 Disclosures 183 Acknowledgments 185 Notes 189 Index 201

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Author Information

N. LOUIS SHIPLEY is a former three-time software CEO and Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management unit at Harvard Business School. He previously lectured at MIT Sloan School of Management. Shipley serves as a Board Director at Wasabi Technologies, Fairmarkit and CustomerGauge. Lou made the founding gift to the Trinity College Entrepreneurship Center. PATRICIA FAVREAU joined the Media Relations Department at MIT Sloan School of Management in 2005. For 20 years she has dissected complex academic research to make it accessible to business audiences around the globe. She began her career as a news correspondent and holds an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University.

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