BOOK REVIEWS
THE STARTUP GAME Our alumni reviewers offer their opinions on two recently published business books
The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership Between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs
By William H. Draper III
Published by PalgraveMcMillan ISBN: 978-0-230-10486-0
THE Startup Game is one of the first books of its kind. As one of the first venture capitalists in California’s infamous Silicon Valley, William Draper III has 40 years of insider knowledge on the relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. In this book, he shares the highs and lows, the lessons learnt and the battles won and lost in the risky business that is venture capitalism. Draper traces his career with a personal narrative on how
he got to where he is today, which is at the top of his game as general partner of Draper Richards LP, Draper Investment Company, and Draper International.He begins with how his
‘Draper highlights the top 10 avoidable mistakes of entrepreneurs’
father began the first venture capitalist firm on the West Coast, and how he first got a taste for the business through his father’s firm, leaving his reliable job at Inland Steel to gamble on something more exciting. His gamble paid off and Draper went on to work with suc-
cess stories like Hotmail, Skype, Yahoo! and OpenTable. However, the real value in this book is the honest insight he gives into his experience dealing with entrepreneurs; how he knows what to look for in a new start-up, what kind of per- son it takes to make it happen and what input a venture cap- italist really has once a deal has been agreed upon. Venture capitalism involves a lot more than investing
money in potential and waiting for the most profitable time to exit. Draper highlights the top 10 avoidable mistakes of entrepreneurs, from failing to effectively pitch the product,
to not taking action in a recession.He goes through the char- acteristics of a successful entrepreneur, including education, expertise, passion and having a sense of humour. As well as this, he explains how he saw potential in foreign lands through his work with the United Nations, which led him and his son Tim to take the company further than theUnited States, where new opportunities like Baidu, the Chinese search engine giant, awaited them. One of the great things about this book is that it avoids the
drab business format, and takes a real human approach, with amusing anecdotes, personal stories of friendship, business deals, unexpected investment ups and downs, and life lessons. In reality, this is the story of Draper’s life, with his knowl-
edge of the venture capital business coming through in the people he has met, the places he has travelled and the expe- riences encountered through his long career as a venture capitalist. What comes across is that Draper is a very honest, intelligent man with a huge amount of life experience and advice that he dispenses in this narrative tale of the risky business that is the start-up game.
Nicola Barden (BA 06, HDip 07, MMgt 09) is a paralegal at Clifford Olshaker, attorney at law, New York and a staff writer/blogger at
IrishCentral.com
40 UCD BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
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