Do More Faster

I just finished reading Do More Faster. My friends Brad Feld and David Cohen, who founded Techstars, took all the lessons and mentorship that is provided to the teams in the Techstars program and put it together into a book.

Do More Faster is part entrepreneurship textbook and part startup torah/bible. If you start companies or want to do that in the future, Do More Faster is a book you need to read and own.

Here's the hardback version and here's the kindle version.

Speaking of Techstars, they are coming to NYC this winter. They will run the full Techstars program from early January to early April in a loft space right off Union Square. Here's a link to a description of the Techstars NYC program with a list of mentors, including yours truly. Applications are due for Techstars NYC on or before November 21st.

If you have a startup and are just getting going and could use some mentorship and a little bit of capital, you should seriously consider applying to Techstars NYC. And read Do More Faster too.



#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  1. Julien

    We should not forget that start-ups greatest advantage (and asset?) is their speed of execution.Speaking of Tehcstars : have you ‘invested’ in any of the incubators/startup programs?

    1. fredwilson

      nope, we want to be switzerland

      1. atryon

        I’m glad to hear Switzerland can still be mentors! I’ve been enjoying the book as well, and am loving the energy TechStars is bringing out in the NYC tech scene right now. So much was already happening here – but it feels like the coming of TechStars is bringing many more of these great companies to light, faster. (couldn’t help the pun)

  2. Blog marketing

    I will buy this book……I need little mentorshp and ideas for self motivation….Startup really needs lot of hardwork….

  3. LIAD

    I’m sure many, myself included, will buy it.$25 for the kindle version (perhaps just the international price) seems quite expensive.Surely this isn’t a pure earnings play by Brad and David. I gather their intentions are to spread the wealth of their knowledge and experience far and wide.Would have thought they would price it lower to maximise reach.

    1. fredwilson

      that does seem expensivei’m scratching my head on that one

      1. bfeld

        The Kindle price should be $14.99. Unfortunately we (me and David) have zero control over the price. Our publisher, Wiley (who has been awesome) controls that.

        1. Adrian Bye

          maybe its tied to an international amazon account.i paid $14.99 for the kindle version. so far its been a great read

        2. baba12

          I would imagine you are able to control the royalty you accept from the publisher. So I would guess you could talk to the publishers and negotiate as well. Sure publishers will control the selling price but I am sure they are also capable of listening to the authors as well.I am waiting for the book to be available in the library for now.Based on the excerpts it is a good read…

          1. bfeld

            I only control the royalty in one direction – down! And the royalty on the kindle version is tiny so even if it was $0 the discount that would pass through wouldn’t be much.

          2. baba12

            Well I hear ya but it is not the dollar amount as much as the controls you as author give up. Is there a guideline you were advised to follow when shopping around for the right publisher or this is the way all of them operate.As someone suggested about a ebook pdf doc freely published, Iam not sure you will be able to do that even if you wanted to now.

          3. Jared McKiernan

            man, publishers are lame.

        3. RichardF

          How about an AVC international readers discount code Brad? 😉

          1. bfeld

            I don’t even know where to start on that! Ah – the mysteries of the publishing business.

    2. William Mougayar

      LIAD- Are you sure? I’m seeing $14.99 for Kindle with international wireless it says.http://www.amazon.com/More-

      1. awaldstein

        Thats what I see as well.

      2. Fernando Gutierrez

        Me too. From Spain I see $14.99… It’s not the first time Amazon applies different prices to different people, but I thought they didn’t do it anymore.

        1. RichardF

          Is that with an Amazon.com account Fernando?

          1. Fernando Gutierrez

            Yes. And I just realized that I have two shipping addresses, one inSpain and another one in the US, so maybe I’m not internationalcustomer for them. If I go to amazon.co.uk I get 15.29 pounds.

  4. awaldstein

    Wow…Techstars in NYC!We have much of everything here. This is a welcome addition to New York’s world stage.Congrats on this.

  5. Pete Meehan

    It’s probably a good read, and I will buy it. But let’s not run away with this philosophy as the only mantra.There may be very good reason to produce new & worthy stuff in a deliberated way. A significant stretch. A reach for the stars.Perhaps we could call it “Do Better Slowly”. And I bet it would sell equally well. It’s a formula that has never failed.The trouble is, producing something really significant that bends the lines already in place takes longer than a buzzy idea and a couple of weeks worth of work. Just ask the big guys who produced big things throughout history. Interestingly, there is less and less major stuff going on now. It’s all getting very incremental.

    1. kagilandam

      “It’s all getting very incremental” … loved that phrase… similar to the famous quote “You don’t have 20-years of experience anymore but 20 1-year experiences”.That fits both “do it faster” and “do better slowly” … i am not able to coin the sentence but i think “agile method” fits.

      1. Pete Meehan

        Okay, for a bit of humor…Having worked on all manner of projects and products in the heart of Asia (won’t tell you where) over many years, you build up anticipated lines of defense when somebody wants you to deliver heaven the day after tomorrow…Now is this is NOT the time to let the sales guys promise the world (let alone heaven); so… we would typically say to Dear Customer, you can have any of the following, but pick any 2.- Good- Cheap- FastIf you want Good and Cheap – it won’t be Fast. If you want Cheap and Fast – it won’t be Good. And, if you really want Good and Fast – no way will it be Cheap.I guess nothing much has changed. But it still brings a smile to my face 🙂

        1. kagilandam

          enjoyed yours and totally agree.Just for the argument…Best and Fastest may not be cheap.ButGood and Fast can be made cheap (that is not playing with English … that is my dream!! ).

    2. ea cpe

      I’d buy a book called “Do Better Slowly.” I think that’s a formula that very often gets overlooked in lieu of microwave-fast options. :o)

  6. Steven Kane

    sorry i can’t help myself, i just got to poke – why is this being released as a printed book? isn’t the digerati conventional wisdom that “dead tree media” is not only dead but that those who promulgate it are silly?also, as long as i am up on my soapbox, i may as well fling a little guilt –why charge anything (let alone a fairly steep price)?brad and david, you are two extremely smart successful, pretty wealthy guys. why not publish the text — which i have read and can attest has excellent interesting advice and information for entrepreneurs, typically a starving artists type individual — as a free ebook? or pdf file? or web site?

    1. DaveVoyles

      People still buy books?

    2. ShanaC

      because people like me don’t own a kindle, and enjoy the feel/scent of a book.Paper to me is still a bit magical

    3. Thomas

      The question is not why but why not. They still sell.

  7. Quizotic

    “Do more faster” is a good book, and I have already recommended it, but it could have been Malcolm Gladwell great, and it isn’t. The format, 2-3 page vignettes, give it an out-of-breath quality. There’s not enough story telling and too much summarizing. The book could take Brad’s “Show, Don’t Tell” (one pager) more to heart.Do buy the book. There’s lots of good stuff from concrete lists of free web services to use, to unusual strategic advice on pitching. Lot’s of advice you won’t easily find elsewhere in your travels.But if David and Brad ever do a second volume, I’m hoping they’ll go slower. I’m hoping they’ll seduce and surprise me with their insights.

    1. Mike

      So your takeaway from “Do More Faster” is to “write more slowly?” 🙂

  8. Matt A. Myers

    List of mentors is impressive.Sadly that ecosystem doesn’t work as a path for my projects.Good luck to anyone who applies.Edit: Tried to add my avatar again. There’s a logic error in Discqus. Connected to Twitter, as it told me to do so to import the photo from there, and then I unclicked the checkbox next to Twitter to not share my comments and still didn’t allow me to import photo.

    1. fredwilson

      i will let disqus know

    2. obscurelyfamous

      You need to have Twitter checked in order to use your avatar from Twitter. Disqus doesn’t automatically share your comments, so you don’t need to worry about unchecking anything.The UI may be confusing there — thanks.

      1. Matt A. Myers

        Ah sorry. Putting “Ability to tweet out …” would help but maybe makes it uglier. Could always add an additional checkbox below that shows if setting is currently default to for sharing options; I presume that the Twitter/Facebook toggle buttons in the Disqus boxes are site-specific? Eg: Comments on some blogs I’d want to share, but not on others)

        1. obscurelyfamous

          You have to click those buttons every time you want to share. It’s the behavior we found most people like the most.

  9. lushfun

    Hopefully they get some good videos out, after the program ends. I do enjoy those sometimes.Lately I have been feeling that the exclusivity of combinators x, y, z… has been getting higher and the most likely outcome is distribution of success will get skewed to people independent of them.

  10. Timothy Post

    Speaking of Techstars, one of its leaders is going under-the-knife today to get his shoulder fixed. Those of you who know Tom Keller, drop him a note and wish him a speedy recovery. Let’s hope his surgeons have read Brad and David’s book )))

  11. ShanaC

    Can you really distill that mentorship into a book?

  12. Michael Langer

    it should be do more better

    1. Mike

      Haven’t read the book (yet) but I think the they’d argue that “better” is not your opinion but rather what your target market responds to. This implies a lot of trial and error.

  13. Paul

    I went to the Boulder/Denver NewTech Meetup in Oct. where Brad and a lot of the Techstars talked about the book and answered TONS of questions. The book makes a lot of good points, even for those who think a go slow approach might be best for their project, such as “Hire Slowly, and Fire Quickly”.I was also at last nights Boulder NewTech Meetup and as always was impressed with how vibrant the “startup” community is here.

  14. Erik Bernoth

    There was a time, when your blog posts really helped the readers. The last 3 times I came here, it was a waste of time. Is that what I can expect for the future posts? (btw. nice new layout)

    1. JLM

      How’s charm school treating you?

    2. fredwilson

      past performance is not a predictor of future results

  15. Mike

    I saw this book featured as a staff pick on Any New Books a couple of weeks ago and bought it right away (http://anynewbooks.com/2010…All I can say is wow, Do More Faster really is a must read for startup founders. I couldn’t put it down and I’m happy to see you confirming my impression of the book.

  16. Ryan @Macarons

    Has anyone had the chance to read some from this book? I feel like it is definitely targeted to an audience that I belong in, but would like to hear some feedback before I exactly rush to the store. Thanks in advance!ryan

  17. panterosa,

    I wonder whether Do More Faster comes with a cloning kit, or a space-time expansion module. As a single mother, quitting the day job to focus on a new science education project starting up (which sadly is not in shape yet to get on your donors choose page), cloning would be welcome. I will apply to TechStars, and on the off hand chance I were to get in, I would need my XX clone to either go to the accelerator, or run the rest of my life, let alone to have time to read Do More Faster and avc.com for me.

  18. JobKatch

    Brad and David will be in Raleigh/Durham, NC on Monday Nov., 8th. Triangle entrepreneurs should come out if full force for this event. Here’s the link: http://www.eventbrite.com/e

  19. Doug Kersten

    Can I get this at Borders? There is one right across the street from me.

  20. Vasily Myazin

    Just bought it for Kindle on my iPad. Excited!

  21. William Mougayar

    I am feasting on “Do More Faster”. Can’t put it down. Thanks @bfeld; amazingly well organized and practical.

    1. fredwilson

      that is Bradthe book and the person appear to be similarly put together