When startups start down : how leadership, vision, strategy and design can enable a startup to breakdown the barriers killing the company

High tech startups can be exciting places to work. Unlike many large corporate environments, startups offer new challenges almost every day, innovation is a sine qua non, and the rewards can be colossal both from financial and intellectual perspectives. People in startups can make their own rules, and change them at will. It's not uncommon for startups to change significantly as each new hire is added, since the impact of a single person in a small organization is significant. However, if a startup doesn't pay attention to the elements that do make many large corporations successful, they risk falling into traps that can result in failure. This paper shows the problems facing a particular startup that had grown quickly because of the brilliance of the ideas behind their technology and the founder, and offers suggested remedies.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Kotelly, Christopher Blade (Christopher Alexis Blade)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael Cusumano

• Engineering Systems Division.
• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70830

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/70830