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November 20, 2003
A good read about a rocky ride
Dan Hanlon has written a book that chronicles his adventures as he raised a boat load of money to start up Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles, built a maufacturing facility, but never made it to commercialization.
It is often said that we need to look not only at successes in entrepreneurship, but "failures" as well. For example, the site I linked to from Harvard is a good example of a focus only on the successes. There has been a lot written about the tale of Excelsior-Henderson from the outside (much of it quite critical). This gives you a chance to see it from the entrepreneur's point of view.
I still believe that this is a story, at least in part, about a business that actually was too successful in raising money. I am a firm advocate that too much money early in a business creates too much mischief. Dan's take is different than that, and it is facsinating to look at this story from his perspective.
I would love to know what others think about this story and his book.
Posted November 20, 2003 07:58 PM
at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He consults with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues, and with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations. Dr. Cornwall's current research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. He has authored or co-authored four books.
