Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups
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- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2021-03-09 04:22:29
- Update Date：2025-09-07
- Status：finish
- Author：Ali Tamaseb
- ISBN：B08HLQW66B
- Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle
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Summary
Blending data analysis with compelling stories and exclusive interviews， Super Founders shows us that nearly everything we thought was true about successful， billion dollar companies is false。
Every VC wants to find the next billion dollar company to invest in， and every startup wants to become one。 Ali Tamaseb set out to find patterns in the backgrounds， methods， and trajectories of these companies， gathering and analyzing 40，000 data points about the 200+ billion dollar companies and the people who founded them。 And you'll be surprised by what he discovered:
Half of unicorn founders are over 35;
Most founders don't have any directly relevant work experience in the industry they're disrupting;
There's no disadvantage to being a solo founder;
Sixty percent of billion dollar companies are started by repeat entrepreneurs， many of whom already have at least one $50M+ exit under their belt; and
Over half of these companies were competing with multiple incumbents at the time of their founding。
Super Founders gives readers an unprecedented look at what the data tells us about the world's most successful startups and the people who create them。 A blend of data， analysis， stories based on exclusive interviews， this book is a paradigm-shifting guide for entrepreneurs and the investment community。 You may look more like a Super Founder than you think！
Every VC wants to find the next billion dollar company to invest in， and every startup wants to become one。 Ali Tamaseb set out to find patterns in the backgrounds， methods， and trajectories of these companies， gathering and analyzing 40，000 data points about the 200+ billion dollar companies and the people who founded them。 And you'll be surprised by what he discovered:
Half of unicorn founders are over 35;
Most founders don't have any directly relevant work experience in the industry they're disrupting;
There's no disadvantage to being a solo founder;
Sixty percent of billion dollar companies are started by repeat entrepreneurs， many of whom already have at least one $50M+ exit under their belt; and
Over half of these companies were competing with multiple incumbents at the time of their founding。
Super Founders gives readers an unprecedented look at what the data tells us about the world's most successful startups and the people who create them。 A blend of data， analysis， stories based on exclusive interviews， this book is a paradigm-shifting guide for entrepreneurs and the investment community。 You may look more like a Super Founder than you think！
Reviews
Alan Cohen
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Entrepreneurs constitute the heard of start-ups。 So how do you identify what makes for a great entrepreneur？ Ali Tamaseb has delivered an engaged and thoroughly-research approach to making this determination。 Come for the data， but stay for the great founder stories。 A great and helpful read。
Hoormazd
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Backed by 4 years of extensive research into collecting the largest dataset on unicorns， Ali Tamaseb uses a data-driven approach to reveal insightful-and at times counterintuitive-facts on entrepreneurship。 Recommended！
Alex Bit
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I highly recommend this great book to my peer entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs who want to have a better sense of what to expect on their journey。 This book is unique compared to many other books that I listened to in the sense that it is inspired by data and questions many misbeliefs about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur。 Such misbelieves discourage many of the folks who might otherwise become successful entrepreneurs。 I also really resonated with this new term "Super Found I highly recommend this great book to my peer entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs who want to have a better sense of what to expect on their journey。 This book is unique compared to many other books that I listened to in the sense that it is inspired by data and questions many misbeliefs about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur。 Such misbelieves discourage many of the folks who might otherwise become successful entrepreneurs。 I also really resonated with this new term "Super Founder"， because the underlying characteristics that define this catchy word are very actionable and separate me from common misbelieves about the advantages that successful entrepreneurs have that I don't。 。。。more
Bradley Rothenberg
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This is the best book to come out on what makes startups successful！Ali takes a no BS quantitative approach to looking at the data across a wide array of startups which show there is not just one path to success！ What is so nice about this book is it’s not just pure data， he also delves deep into several specific examples from brex to instacart， paypal， & zoom。I highly recommend this book & it should be required reading to anyone building a company， thinking if starting a company， or anyone who This is the best book to come out on what makes startups successful！Ali takes a no BS quantitative approach to looking at the data across a wide array of startups which show there is not just one path to success！ What is so nice about this book is it’s not just pure data， he also delves deep into several specific examples from brex to instacart， paypal， & zoom。I highly recommend this book & it should be required reading to anyone building a company， thinking if starting a company， or anyone who is investing in companies！ 。。。more
Reza Takapoui
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I really enjoyed reading this book because it has a data-driven approach to answering some interesting and curious questions about unicorns。 As a quantitative-minded reader I don't find it appealing to read studies that examine one or two examples of successful stories - in fact in many instances I feel there's "overfitting" in those approaches。 Alireza has made a lot of efforts to avoid this by rigorous hypothesis testing and supporting his findings with adequate data。 This book provides intuit I really enjoyed reading this book because it has a data-driven approach to answering some interesting and curious questions about unicorns。 As a quantitative-minded reader I don't find it appealing to read studies that examine one or two examples of successful stories - in fact in many instances I feel there's "overfitting" in those approaches。 Alireza has made a lot of efforts to avoid this by rigorous hypothesis testing and supporting his findings with adequate data。 This book provides intuition about what factors are meaningfully different between unicorns and other startups。 I recommend this book to readers who are curious about this topic。 。。。more
Behrad Toghi
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After all the “how to start a startup in 20minutes” books， finally this book takes a data-driven approach to the world of startups and tries to reflect only facts backed by actual data。 Absolutely enlightening！
Kian
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Amazing book from an amazing author。 In Super Founders， Ali Tamaseb translates statistics into actionable business insights complemented with war stories from best-in-class entrepreneurs。 Recommended！
Hoda N
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I was one of the beta readers of this book and received an advance copy。 As a data scientist， I was amazed by the analytics methods this book is using to shy away from gut feelings and anecdotal observations。 What made it a super interesting read though， is that this is not at all a research book。 I would lose track of time when reading the story of Github， I got goosebumps reading the interview with the founder of Guild Education， I was shocked when I found out that Apple had 3 cofounders。。 thi I was one of the beta readers of this book and received an advance copy。 As a data scientist， I was amazed by the analytics methods this book is using to shy away from gut feelings and anecdotal observations。 What made it a super interesting read though， is that this is not at all a research book。 I would lose track of time when reading the story of Github， I got goosebumps reading the interview with the founder of Guild Education， I was shocked when I found out that Apple had 3 cofounders。。 this book takes you on a true journey。 It is so well written that you don't want to put it down， and it educates you and gives you a new lens to look at successful startup founders， a lens that shows you their untold stories， not some myths。 。。。more
Janet
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Date reviewed/posted: January 4， 2021Publication date: May 18， 2021When life for the entire galaxy and planet has turned on its end， you are continuing to #maskup and #lockdown to be in #COVID19 #socialisolation as the #secondwave is upon us， AND the worst sciatica attack in your life means you MIGHT sleep 3 hours a night， superspeed readers like me can read 250+ pages/hour， so yes， I have read the book … and many more today。I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of thi Date reviewed/posted: January 4， 2021Publication date: May 18， 2021When life for the entire galaxy and planet has turned on its end， you are continuing to #maskup and #lockdown to be in #COVID19 #socialisolation as the #secondwave is upon us， AND the worst sciatica attack in your life means you MIGHT sleep 3 hours a night， superspeed readers like me can read 250+ pages/hour， so yes， I have read the book … and many more today。I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley， the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review。 From the publisher， as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews， I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸。Super Founders uses a data-driven approach to understand what really differentiates billion-dollar unicorn startups from the rest。 It turns out nearly everything we thought was true about billion dollar startups is false！Ali Tamaseb spent thousands of hours over 4 years collecting the largest dataset on billion dollar startups: 30，000 data points on every factor: from the number of competitors they had to their market size; from the founder's age to university ranking and education; from the quality of its investors to the timing of fundraising rounds; and much， much more。 And you'll be surprised by what he discovered about billion dollar startups。 Just to mention a few:**Most founders had no industry experience;**There's no disadvantage to being a solo founder or to being a non-technical CEO**Less than 15% went through any accelerator or incubator program; **Over half had strong competitors when starting--being first to market with an idea does not matter。 You will also hear the stories of the early days of billion dollar startups first-hand。 The book includes exclusive interviews with the founders/investors of Zoom， Instacart， PayPal， Nest， Github， Flatiron Health， Kite Pharma， Facebook， Stripe， Airbnb， YouTube， LinkedIn， Lyft， DoorDash， Coinbase， and Square， venture capital investors from firms like Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund， as well as previously untold stories about the early days of ByteDance （TikTok）， WhatsApp， Dropbox， Discord， DiDi， Flipkart， Instagram， Careem， Peloton， and SpaceX。Filled with surprising， counterintuitive insights， Super Founders gives readers an unprecedented look at the world's most successful startups。 It's a paradigm-shifting and actionable guide for entrepreneurs， investors， and anyone interested in startups。This was a intereseting read about the people many of us cannot live without - I mean I cannot go an hour without hopping on my Peleton 。。。。 NOT。 （That's 5 months rent before the mere idea of subscribing to their monthly fee。。。。。） I am a fan of Air BnB， PayPal， Facebook， and Instagram and was entertained reading about these start ups and others。 （But no Amazon？ I just love to read how much money the cheater had to give to his ex-wife Macenzie Scott and how she donated 4。2 BILLION DOLLARS to 384 charities in July of last year alone！）Decidedly a read for people interested in businesses and start ups - it is not a casual read but worth a look at if you think it might entertain you。 As always， I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I simply adore emojis （outside of their incessant use by "🙏-ed Social Influencer Millennials/#BachelorNation survivors/Tik-Tok and YouTube Millionaires/snowflakes / literally-like-overusers etc。 " on Instagram and Twitter。。。 Get a real job， people！） so let's give it 💰💰💰- 。。。more
Patrick Pilz
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