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BOOTSTRAPPING: WEAPON OF MASS RECONSTRUCTION

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 10th

In a world battered by economic crisis, Sramana Mitra believes entrepreneurship is the only sustainable path forward to a healthy economic world order. And core to the success of entrepreneurial ventures today is the invigorating art of bootstrapping. She takes aim at this essential route along the roadmap to startup success in Entrepreneur Journeys, Volume 2-Bootstrapping: Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction. Along with her incisive analysis and commentary, she showcases a dozen successful entrepreneurs and their lessons from the bootstrapping trenches. Overflowing with lively entrepreneurial tangents, theories, and behind-closed-doors-experience, the book rises to the level of economic policy discussion while simultaneously offering practical advice from experienced bootstrappers. Important issues like doing more with less, getting started with little or no capital, and validating the market on the cheap are discussed with the likes of Om Malik of GigaOm and Greg Gianforte of RightNow.

“Sramana Mitra’s Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Reconstruction is a book for our time because it’s something real out of Silicon Valley. No more stories about legendary VC fundings of startup-to-IPO in six months. In this, the second volume of Entrepreneur Journeys, her focus is on doing more with less, in tune with the times. This book has some fascinating histories of the different paths people take to entrepreneurship, and the difficulties they face. I would only have wished each of the interviews to be longer and deeper, because every story is worth telling.”
-Fast Company

“The reader will be struck by the vision, inventiveness and sheer determination of these entrepreneurial heroes, who operate businesses that are successful but far below the radar. A highly relevant and timely work on entrepreneurship’s role in economic reconstruction.
-Kirkus Discoveries

“I recommend Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Reconstruction to my MBA students and to anybody planning on, or even just thinking about, starting a business. And also to policymakers. Maybe especially to policymakers. The importance of
entrepreneurs to our economy cannot be overemphasized.”
-Craig Newmark, “Newmark’s Door” blog,
Associate Professor of Economics, North Carolina State University

“Sramana’s work on bootstrapped entrepreneurs is an inspiration in these tough economic times. This book is a good antidote to the depressing mood of these times.”
-Sridhar Vembu,
CEO of AdventNet and Zoho

“What Sramana captures with simple grace are the riveting personal stories of modern day business alchemists, who mix vision, pragmatism and relentless effort to forge creative new and successful ventures.”
-Don Hutchison,
Silicon Valley Angel Investor

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