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Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup book club questions
Here are 12 book club questions for Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by Brad Feld and David Cohen, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
Do More Faster is a collection of short essays and lessons drawn from the TechStars accelerator program, organized by Brad Feld and David Cohen, the program's co-founders.
Brad Feld and David Cohen · 2010 · 4h 15m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 12 questions
- 1.
The title is 'Do More Faster.' Is there a case where founders move too fast? When does speed become a liability rather than an advantage?
- 2.
The book draws heavily on TechStars' Boulder experience in 2007–2010. How well does the advice translate to the startup environment today?
- 3.
Multiple contributors say the idea is the least important part. If that's true, what is the most important part, and does the book answer that question clearly?
- 4.
The book's essay on co-founder agreements is one of its most practical. Have you seen a co-founder breakup trace back to a missing or misunderstood agreement?
- 5.
Feld and Cohen emphasize the 'give before you get' principle in building relationships. Have you experienced a professional relationship that operated on that principle? What did it look like in practice?
- 6.
Many contributors talk about the difficulty of knowing when to persist with an original idea versus when to pivot. What signals should founders be looking for?
- 7.
The legal and structure section is surprisingly candid about early decisions that founders get wrong. What's the most common early legal mistake, based on what the contributors describe?
- 8.
The book is organized around seven themes but was written by dozens of people. Does the multi-author format strengthen or weaken the advice? What gets lost in consistency?
- 9.
Several essays address the emotional experience of founding — anxiety, isolation, imposter syndrome. How well does startup advice literature in general address the psychological side of building a company?
- 10.
TechStars was designed to compress learning into a few months. What are the tradeoffs of learning under that kind of pressure versus learning more slowly in the market?
- 11.
Which of the seven themes — idea, people, execution, product, fundraising, legal, work/life — do you think is most neglected in startup advice generally?
- 12.
If a first-time founder read only one section of this book, which would you recommend and why?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup?
Here are 12 book club questions for Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by Brad Feld and David Cohen, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on entrepreneurship, startups, mentorship.
How long should a book club discussion of Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup?
Entrepreneurship, Startups, Mentorship, Accelerators, Product development. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup or questions for other book club picks.
