Reviews for The Web Startup Success Guide (Books for Professionals by Professionals)

1. Excellent as a to do list for a online startup.

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, January 12nd, 2010

   I've been taking my time reading this book as I've got so much out of it, I keep pausing to try out the ideas. It is not a typical computer book, it's for people who have plenty of ideas and are looking to put them into practice in starting up a new web based business. Targeted at software developers turned entrepreneur it also works well for anyone servicing customers over the web and trying to create a decent online presence.
   
   The book is very motivating and well written. The author Bob Walsh also publishes a free podcast on the subject of startups (The Startup Success Podcast) so you can see if what he has to say is of interest before shelling out for the book.
   
   I would definitely recommend this book as it is very useful in helping plan your startup and hopefully will save you a bundle of mistakes.

2. Didn't find it very useful

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2009

   If you have read up on the subject online you're not going to find anything new in this book. I found it iterates a lot of the obvious stuff, or stuff you'd already know if you were ever interested in web startups before.
   
   It wasn't gripping, either, but maybe it wasn't meant to be.
   
   Overall, I'd rather I hadn't bought this.

3. For those really starting on the ground floor.

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, August 12st, 2009

   I'll be honest and admit that I didn't finish the book. As someone who already makes heavy use of web tools and has been running a start-up for a while, I'm perhaps not the type of person this book is really aimed at, just as if you're a web developer who already takes in sites like YC News and Techcrunch daily or reads 37Signals' or Joel Spolsky's blog. But for someone for whom the business on internet is quite new and still a bit of a mystery, then this will be of great use. A lot of concepts of "leveraging" the internet are made, from using social networking to using tools such as Github. As well as explaining the various types of businesses and funding possibilities that exist.
   
   One of my main gripes was the amount of interviews in the book. Many of them felt overly long winded and could have done with being more concise. I'm not totally against the interview style of writing (I'm a huge fan of Founders at Work), but in this instance, the chopping and changing between formats made me feel slightly like I could never really sink my teeth into anything.

4. Must-have primer for any geek wanting to set up a product-based software business

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2009

   Bob Walsh's "The Web Startup Success Guide", wisely and following its own advice, is targeted very specifically. If you're a software developer, are thinking about setting up (or have just set up) a product-based start-up, and are prepared to work - damn hard - at something you love doing then this book is for you. Equally importantly, if you're more than a few months into your start-up, or if this is your second start-up, or if you aren't a geek, or if you want to set up a consulting business, or if you want to get rich quick, then this book isn't for you.
   
   On the whole, this book is outstanding. There is a lot of information here, but its fast-paced, colloquial writing style make it digestible. What's more, the book is well thought-out, balanced, well structured and accurate. It's an excellent combination of fact, anecdote, theory, analysis and practical advice. The interviews alone (Joel Spolsky, Dharmesh Shah, Eric Sink, David Allen and Guy Kawasaki are among the fifty in-depth, thought-provoking interviews in the book) make it worth reading.
   
   If there's one thing extra I wish this book had, it's more information on sales and marketing. Finding people who like your product and persuading them to actually buy it is the single biggest issue that startups, bogged down in the technology, forget about.
   
   Overall, this is an excellent, must-have primer for any geek wanting to set up a product-based business. Buy it.