Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Create the Life You Want by Starting Up 1 How Did We Get Here? 3 Why Not Lean In by Starting Up and Move Past the Binary Setup? 4 The Privilege of Being in Charge 7 So Let’s Get in Charge and Lean-in to Entrepreneurship 8 Win or Lose, How Do I Know You Can Do This? 10 Why This Book is for You 11 How to Read This Book 12 Section I: Get Ready to Start Up 15 Chapter 1: So You Want More: Get Off the Fence, Start a Business, and Create the Life You Want 17 The Monthly Mentor Gathering 17 Real-World Experiences and Opportunities 20 Entrepreneurship as the Path Forward 20 What’s Holding You Back? 22 My Journey to Becoming a Startup Entrepreneur 24 What Starting Up as a Stay-at-Home Parent Looked Like 25 A Manifesto for Women to Become Entrepreneurs, and a Playbook to Help 28 Chapter 2: Reasons to Lead: All the Cool Things You Can Do When You’re in Charge 31 A Little More About Sophie… 31 Why a Business Can Give You the Life You Want 33 You Can Change the Rules 33 The History of Gender Equity is Still Recent 36 Legislation Can’t Be the Only Path Forward 36 Chapter 3: Stop Believing Your Own Unconscious Bias: Develop the Mindset and Self-Confidence to Be the One in Charge with Gratitude 43 Hannah at Work 43 Making the Ask 46 A Few Things About This Conversation 46 How We Think and Act is Conditioned 47 How to Consider Unconscious Bias and Self-Advocacy as You Start Up 48 I Didn’t Always Have This Figured Out 51 Why Affirmations Matter (Yes, You Can is a Good Example!) 53 Chapter 4: Your Perceived Weaknesses are Your Hidden Strengths: How to Leverage Your Weaknesses to Start Up 59 When It All Goes Wrong 59 Let’s Role-Play! 62 You Really are Perceived and Treated Differently 63 Goal Setting as a Framework for Success versus Perfectionism 64 Section II: Building for Scale and Avoiding the Traps: Debunking the Myth That Women Don’t Think Big Enough 69 Chapter 5: You Might Have the Next Big Thing: Your Experiences Might Lead to Something Revolutionary 71 We’re All Potential Innovators 71 Seeing What’s Possible 74 Identifying Types of Innovations 74 Why Diversity of Viewpoints in Innovation Leads to More Innovation 77 The Creator of Liquid Paper (White-Out) 78 An Incremental Innovative Sales Strategy That Created a Different Way to Sell: Tupperware 79 An Incremental Product Innovation That Created a Billionaire: SPANX 80 A Disruptive Business Model Innovation: Rent the Runway 81 Turning Reviews into a Viable Business Model 82 A Makeup Artist Takes on an Entire Industry 82 My Own Experience 83 Chapter 6: Write Down Your Future: How to Develop and Use a Business Plan as Your Personal Playbook (and to Combat Imposter Syndrome) 87 Getting Back to Sophie… 87 Standing Up for Your Business and Fighting Imposter Syndrome 90 Making Your Vision Concrete 91 Developing a Business Plan 93 How My Business Plan Helped Me 97 Chapter 7: Tell a Bigger Story: Don’t Apologize for Thinking Bold 101 Is Your Story Big Enough for Investors? 101 Putting the Press Release Strategy to Work 104 A Brief Example 105 Own Your Ideas with Confidence 106 Chapter 8: It Really is Okay to Make Mistakes: How to Plan for Them So You Can Quickly Recover 109 The Others Arrive 109 How to Get Started on the Financial Plan 115 Chapter 9: You Don’t Have to Wait for Revenue to Ask for Funding: Create a Compelling Pitch Deck That Gets Others on Board 119 Six Months Later… 119 When Bootstrapping… 122 Seeking Investors 125 Section III: Lead and Operationalize 133 Chapter 10: Empathy is One of Your Biggest Assets: Use It to Understand Your Customers and Make Your Teams Stronger 135 As Starboard Grew 135 Creating an Environment Where People Want to Work Starts with Knowing People 139 Understanding Your Employees’ Working Styles 140 Little Things Lead to Bigger Success 140 Working Together to Improve Outcomes and Customer Satisfaction 141 Chapter 11: Instill a Growth Mindset in Your Teams: Constant Change and Transitions are Never Easy 145 When You Move Beyond the Startup and People Start to Silo into Positions 145 Building for Organizational Success through Your Company’s Mission 147 Chapter 12: The Same Skills That Make You a Great Mom Make You a Great Manager: Bust Out Your Multitasking Skills as Your Team Grows 151 Sophie’s Day 151 Managing the Small Corporation of Your Family 153 Being a Mom is Being a Manager 155 Dismissing the Guilt of Being a Stay-at-Home Parent 156 How Your Two-Year-Old Honed Your Management Skills Like No Other 157 Chapter 13: You are More Than Your Product or Company: Protecting Egos When Things Change 161 Letting Go to Move Forward 161 Diffusing Fear and Creating Psychological Safety 162 Chapter 14: Balance Life at High Speeds: Make Time for Yourself 165 Running on Fumes 165 My Story (and Cautionary Tale) 167 What Balance Really Means 168 Conclusion: You Really Can Start Up and Scale a Business: You Might Just Change the Rules in the Process 171 Sophie and Jake 171 Hannah and Stan 172 Maria and Jill 172 How Will You Start Up? 173 Overcoming the Scarcity Mindset: There’s Enough for All of Us 174 Valuing Women as Entrepreneurs 175 Find, and Later Become, a Mentor 176 Bibliography 179 Acknowledgments 189 About the Author 191 Index 193

"From Techstars comes the definitive guide to entrepreneurship for anyone who doesn't fit the mold of what a "typical" CEO is. "It's not always enough to lean-in, because that s* doesn't work all the time."--Michelle Obama, Former US First Lady If the system doesn't make it easy to "lean in," why not create a new system? Written for those looking to make a change in work and the world, the 43% of women who step away from the workforce and are looking for a way back in, and the driven mid-career shifters, in Let's Change the Rules the RulesTechstars Managing Director and startup founder Claudia Reuter breaks down how anyone can start their own company, from the ins and outs of angel funding and venture jargon to mediation and business planning. Reuter speaks with authority, also sharing her own story of both re-entering the workforce and beating the odds to raise capital and become CEO of her own company. Each chapter will end with a resource: checklists for different phases of starting your business, discussion questions, guided financial projections activity, mediation tools, etc This is the playbook every entrepreneur can use to start seeing barriers as opportunities. Let's Change the Rules is a digestible, relatable dose of motivation that's full of strategies for women who want to excel and achieve in business and forge their own path, addressing the 43% of women that Sandberg's book, Lean-In, didn't"-- Provided by publisher.

College of Business and Accountancy Bachelor of Science in Business Administration major in Financial Management

In English