The Entrepreneurial World

Abstract

Every successful entrepreneurial effort starts with an idea and moves through some series of typical stages—from seed to (hopefully) exit. At each stage, founders must engage a galaxy of different actors, including partners, funders, technical staff, suppliers, and customers. How these negotiations are handled will determine whether a venture succeeds or fails. Indeed, many start-ups make it only through one or two stages before failing, and many more find their journey less predictable and eventually shut down. Throughout the entrepreneurial process, relationships must be forged and maintained in parallel to the founder internally developing their own entrepreneurial self. Negotiation is shown to be a vitally important entrepreneurial skill, one that is required for the many described interactions that most entrepreneurs must be able to handle from founding the company to the many milestones that are involved in raising money, hiring, procurement, licensing, servicing customers, selling, and deciding on strategy. Many entrepreneurial relationships are long-term and involve negotiating many agreements, contracts, and milestones.