Book Review - The $100 Startup

Welcome to the first Book Review on From Idea to Done. We like to talk about big ideas, companies that are winning and those that aren’t, and current events in our crazy world of software startups

Erick Roder 0:00
Today we're actually going to do our first book review. And it's talking about the hundred dollar startup by Chris Bow, bow. Bow, Gilly bear, Chris G.

Erick Roder  0:28  
If you're googling this, I would just do the hundred dollar startup,

Josh Christy  0:32  
it's on Amazon, you'll find it, it's on

Erick Roder  0:33  
Amazon, we didn't win. That's another episode.

Erick Roder  0:37  
But um, I actually I don't read a ton. And I read the books that you tell me too. And that's kind of it. And as I'm the boss, or? No, it's because I learned by talking. And so this is kind of this is how I'm going to learn about all of the books that you read. And so so yeah, what is the problem, the problem that Chris solves with this book.

Josh Christy 1:01  
It's illustrated under, on the inside of the front cover of the book, and there's a napkin drawn on it says start today, deposit money tomorrow, I think there's the the idea that if I start the business, I'm going to start making making money. But there's a disconnect between how that happens,

Erick Roder  1:21  
okay, and so I'm just going to, you know, small business or like, Who is this for, then,

Josh Christy  1:27  
I'd say this is really good for anyone that has an early stage idea, but they don't know what to do next. They like the idea of working for themselves are launching a business or a product, but they don't have all the steps in place. And you should probably make a plan before you're going to take that big leap. You you definitely should make a plan. But you know, in my world, that's spreadsheets and burn down charts and expense tables and all this stuff that normal human beings don't don't talk enough,

Erick Roder  1:56  
I have no idea what you just said. So let's kind of break this down and make it easier. And I think that's what this book does. Can you talk about some of the bigger takeaways as well?

Josh Christy  2:08  
One concept that still is applicable for me is start now. Not later. I think there's this idea that you have to have the perfect thing in place to get something started. Why not just start and figure it out as you go

Erick Roder  2:21  
as we talk into $20 microphones to start our little podcast here and so I like that takeaway.

Josh Christy  2:33  
The next takeaway that I had is that there's no complex financials or a secret sauce to get started. There's a lot of really easy checklist to break down of like, first I need to do X y&z tomorrow, I need to do some more things. So don't try to think about it as this monumental thing that you have to accomplish at once. You know, there's the saying that, you know, how do you eat an elephant?

Erick Roder  2:56  
It's a bite at a time.

Erick Roder  2:57  
I had no idea and I that's on my list, but I check it off. And I do a checklist every day. And that helps just kind of straighten things out and get you give you a compass. And that's an interesting thing. And, and so what's the big last takeaway from this book?

Josh Christy  3:13  
I think everyone thinks that if I just had the money, more money for an office, more money for a team, that it's going to solve all my problems. Chris shows you how you can get a business started quickly without a lot of money. I think the metrics they have in the book is that he talks to 1500 different entrepreneurs that are making over $50,000 a year and usually put in hundreds of dollars to get it started. So this is actionable advice for anybody that's trying to start a company. A