Entrepreneurs in High Technology

In Entrepreneurs in High Technology, Edward Roberts, a Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, offers entrepreneurs a goldmine of information on starting, financing, and expanding a high-tech firm. His book reveals the results of research conducted over twenty-five years on several hundred high-tech firms, and it reflects the insights of the author's own first-hand experience as a company founder, director, and venture capitalist. Focusing on firms in the Greater Boston area--most of which have had financial or research links with MIT--Roberts traces the origins and the evolution of high-technology failures and successes. In a penetrating analysis of highly successful ventures, the author reveals the importance of strategically transforming the company to a market-oriented focus, and he examines the widespread tendency, even among the most successful high-tech firms, to displace the founder before the company achieves "super-success." For anyone planning to start a technology-based enterprise, this book is essential reading--an invaluable preview of the financial, organizational, and marketing issues that confront every new high-tech venture. For business and technology watchers, it is an informative account of the promise and the perils entailed in bringing innovative ideas to the marketplace.