Venture Thinking. 9 Principles for Business Growth in Any Conditions

Ilya Strebluaev and Alex Dang formulated 9 thinking principles that will be useful for decision-making in various situations. They provide examples of companies from Silicon Valley that used these principles and achieved prosperity. This book is about thinking differently and getting a hundred times more than you invest.
Not long ago, venture investors — people whose investments go into the boldest projects that are changing the world — stepped out of the shadows. Figures like Ben Horowitz and John Doerr are more well-known than founders of billion-dollar companies. But what's the secret? Why do venture investors show returns year after year?
After hundreds of interviews with Silicon Valley investors and over 10 years of teaching at Stanford, Ilya Strebluaev began to understand: the answer lies in the approach to decision-making. An approach that seems to contradict common sense. For example, the planning horizon should be long-term, and short-term profits are ignored. Mistakes are good. Failures are extremely important. This is fundamentally different from what we are used to.
The book is based on research on "unicorns" — such as OpenAI, Zoom, SpaceX, Canva, DoorDash, and Moderna, conducted since 2015. Their goal is to understand how to come up with and nurture an innovative idea worth billions of dollars in just a couple of years.
This book is not about big business, but about a worldview. Venture thinking will be useful in achieving goals, building a career, and working with a team — in hiring and for oneself, in sports and even in relationships. These principles are for anyone who wants to learn from their mistakes and grow.