5. The Improvisational Startup

Bartlett, S (October 2002), “Seat of the Pants,” Inc. magazine, at http://​www.​inc.​com/​magazine/​20021015/​24772.​html

Leybourne, S, and Sadler-Smith, E (2006), “The Role of Intuition and Improvisation in Project Management,” International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 24(6), 483–492.

Allred, A T, and Addams, H L (2006), “After Receiving Financing, Do Inc. 500 Companies Continue to Utilize Their Business Plan?,” Journal of Small Business Strategy, Vol. 17(1), 17–26.

Liao, J, and Gartner, W B (Fall 2007/Winter 2008), “The Influence of Pre-venture Planning on New Venture Creation,” Journal of Small Business Strategy.

Moltke, Helmuth, Graf von, Militarische Werke. vol. 2, part 2, 33–40. Found in Hughes, Daniel J (Ed.) (1993) Moltke on the Art of War: Selected Writings, Presidio Press, New York, pp. 45–47 (source: Wikipedia).

Livingston, J (2007), Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days, Apress (Springer Nature), New York, p. 28.

Lidow, D (2016), “How to Find Customers for Your Startup”, Entrepreneur Magazine, February 18, 2016, at https://​www.​entrepreneur.​com/​article/​253573

Magretta, J (May 2002), “Why Business Models Matter,” Harvard Business Review, at https://​hbr.​org/​2002/​05/​why-business-models-matter

Osterwalder, A, and Pringeur, Y (2010), Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers, Wiley.

Blank, S (May 6, 2015), “Why Build, Measure, Learn Isn’t Just Throw Things Against the Wall to See If They Work – the Minimally Viable Product”, blog at www.​steveblank.​com

Leone, L (2010), “A Critical Review of Improvisation in Organizations: Open issues and Future Research Directions.” In Opening up Innovation: Strategy, Organization and Technology. London Business School: Druid paper, 16–18.

Moorman, C, and Miner, A S (October 1998), “Organizational Improvisation and Organizational Memory,” The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 23(4), 698–723.

Which evolved later into Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.

Thomas J. Perkins, “Kleiner Perkins, Venture Capital, and the Chairmanship of Genentech, 1976–1995,” an oral history conducted in 2001 by Glenn E. Bugos for the Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2002, p. 7 (at Calisphere).

Lebret, H (2009), “Bob Swanson & Herbert Boyer: Genentech”, Startup: What We May Still Learn from Silicon Valley, June 11, 2009, at http://​www.​startup-book.​com/​2009/​06/​11/​bob-swanson-herbert-boyer-genentech/​

Note: Although Wharton article states KP invested $250,000 in seed capital, IPO cap table shows only $200K. Accessed at http://​knowledge.​wharton.​upenn.​edu/​article/​venture-capitalist-tom-perkins-if-there-is-no-risk-you-have-already-missed-the-boat/​

Swiss Pharmaceutical Giant Roche Bought 56% of Genentech for $2.1 Billion in 1990 and in 2009 Bought the Remaining Shares for $46.8 Billion. Source: “Anatomy of a Merger”, Knowledge@Wharton, September 1, 2010. Accessed at http://​knowledge.​wharton.​upenn.​edu/​article/​anatomy-of-a-merger-hostile-deals-become-friendly-in-the-end-right/​

Robert A. Swanson, “Co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of Genentech, Inc., 1976–1996,” an oral history conducted in 1996 and 1997 by Sally Smith Hughes, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2001. p. 95 at http://​content.​cdlib.​org/​view?​docId=​kt9c6006s1&​&​doc.​view=​entire_​text

Robert A. Swanson, “Co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of Genentech, Inc., 1976–1996,” an Oral History, p. 62.

Firstly, the command-and-control model typical of large pharmaceutical companies—needed to wring efficiency out of multi-year clinical trials required for regulatory approval and costly marketing to doctors and hospitals—was too slow-moving and cumbersome for a startup engaged in a high risk search for breakthroughs that could be licensed to industrial partners. Secondly, the publish-or-perish, intellectually driven academic model, with its skepticism of commercial applications, would have failed to deliver proprietary intellectual property and a focus on profit-making enterprise. And lastly, the emerging high tech model born in Silicon Valley and typified by pioneers Hewlett-Packard and Fairchild Semiconductor, relied on rapid engineering and release of innovative, sales-generating products.

Powell, W, and Sandholtz, K (January 2010) “Chance, Necessité, et Naïveté: Ingredients to Create a New Organizational Form,” Stanford University Working Paper, 16–17 at http://​web.​mit.​edu/​iandeseminar/​Papers/​Woody%20​Powell%20​-%20​Book%20​Chapter.​pdf

Powell, W, and Sandholtz, K (January 2010), “Chance, Necessité, et Naïveté: Ingredients to Create a New Organizational Form”, p. 29.

First published in French as La Pensée Sauvage, Librairie Plon; and in an English translation as The Savage Mind, University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Duymedjian, R, and Rüling, C-C (2010), “Towards a Foundation of Bricolage in Organization and Management Theory,” Organization Studies.

Senyard, J, Baker, T, and Davidsson, P (2009), “Entrepreneurial Bricolage: Towards Systematic Empirical Testing,” Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Vol. 29(5), Article 5. Available at http://​digitalknowledge​.​babson.​edu/​fer/​vol29/​iss5/​5

Schumpeter, J A (1947). “The Creative Response in Economic History,” The Journal of Economic History, 7, 149–159.

“Work examining the first e-mail system, Henry Ford’s production line, much of Edison’s work, the success of product design company IDEO, the polymerase chain reaction innovations that fueled the biotechnology revolution, and many other examples demonstrate that the processes of recombination of existing elements are fundamental to explaining many successful innovative outcomes.” Source: Senyard, J, Baker, T, Steffens, P, and Davidsson, P (March 2014), “Bricolage as a Path to Innovativeness for Resource-Constrained New Firms”.

Research completed while at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Sarasvathy, S (2001), What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?, Darden Business Publishing, p. 2. Accessible at http://​www.​effectuation.​org/​sites/​default/​files/​documents/​what-makes-entrepreneurs-entrepreneurial-sarasvathy.​pdf

Sarasvathy, S (2001), What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?, Darden Business Publishing, p. 2.

“How Design Thinking Transformed Airbnb from a Failing Startup to a Billion Dollar Business,” First Round Review, published by First Round Capital at http://​firstround.​com/​review/​magazines/​

https://​blog.​ycombinator.​com/​paul-graham-startup-school-radio-interview/​

https://​www.​quora.​com/​For-how-much-was-Reddit-sold-in-the-transaction-with-Conde-Nast

So-called growth hackers are a special breed, combining data analysis, creativity and a curiosity about human behavior to pump up the number of monthly active users of their Internet venture’s websites or mobile apps.

I use the word “materials” loosely to mean any of the building blocks of startup incubation.

National Public Radio (US) interview, “All Things Considered,” March 19, 2011.

Turkle, S (1995), Life on the Screen, Simon & Schuster, p. 57.

Turkle, S, and Papert, S (Autumn 1990), “Epistemological Pluralism: Styles and Voices Within the Computer Culture,” Signs, University of Chicago Press, Vol. 16(1), From Hard Drive to Software: Gender, Computers, and Difference, p. 136.

Defined as “dependence on pre-existing contact networks as the means at hand.” Baker, T, Miner, A, and Eesley, D (2003), “Improvising Firms: Bricolage, Account Giving and Improvisational Competencies in the Founding Process,” Research Policy (Elsevier Science) Vol. 32, p. 270.

Baker, T, Miner, A, and Eesley, D (2003), “Improvising Firms: Bricolage, Account Giving and Improvisational Competencies in the Founding Process”, p. 265.

Livingston, J, Founders at Work, p. 64.

Livingston, J, Founders at Work, p. 153.

“How Entrepreneurs Come Up with Great Ideas,” Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2013, at http://​www.​wsj.​com/​articles/​SB10001424127887​3244459045782837​92526004684

Livingston, J, Founders at Work, p. 154.

Duxbury, T (2014), “Improvising Entrepreneurship,” July 2014, Technology Innovation Management Review, p. 25.

von Clausewitz, C. (originally published in 1832), On War. Ed. and Trans. Howard, M, and Paret, P (1984) Princeton University Press.

Duggan, W (2004), Napoleon’s Glance: The Secret of Strategy, Nation’s Books.

Emerson, R W (1850), “Napoleon; Or, the Man of the World” from Representative Men, public domain, p. 274.

Packwood, A (Winter 2012–13), “A Tale of Two Statesmen,” Finest Hour magazine, issue 157, The International Churchill Society, p. 14.

US Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1, “WarFighting”, 1997, p. 11.

US Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1, “WarFighting”, 1997, p. 18.

He reportedly wrote: “Nobody has conceived anything great in our century: it falls to my lot to give the example.” Andrew Roberts, Napoleon and Wellington, p. 59; Source: Packwood, A (Winter 2012–13), “A tale of two statesmen”, Finest Hour magazine, issue 157, The International Churchill Society, p. 14.

Sabourin, R, and Pratt, R (September 2013), “Attentional and Interpersonal Characteristics of Improvisation Professionals vs. Business Executives,” blog at www.​anderson-sabourin.​com

Duxbury, T (2014), “Improvising Entrepreneurship,” July 2014, Technology Innovation Management Review, p. 25.