ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The list of people to thank for their role in the development of this book is long but it has to start with my long-time board member and friend Brad Feld. Brad and I started our respective blogs, Feld Thoughts (www.feld.com) and Only Once (www.onlyonceblog.com) on the same day—May 10, 2004—sitting next to each other in our shared office space in Superior, Colorado and trying to figure out how to use Typepad templates. Brad has been a great friend and valuable business partner for more than a decade now. When Brad started writing books with John Wiley & Sons as his publisher, we had a conversation about my someday writing a book inspired by the content of my blog. I was one of the many contributors to his first book, Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup; then when he asked me to read a draft of his second book, Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer or Your Venture Capitalist, I returned the manuscript with a markup that became a series of about 40 or 50 sidebars called “The Entrepreneur's Perspective.” Brad got good feedback on those contributions from many of his readers and introduced me to his publishing team at Wiley about this book and the rest is history. Brad offered a number of valuable insights on this book as well as helping me navigate the publishing process along the way.

I would like to acknowledge the rest of our board as well for their contributions to my education as a CEO over the years as well as their specific contributions to this book. Fred Wilson, Greg Sands, Scott Weiss, Scott Petry, and Jeff Epstein all play a role as current directors in my day-to-day life as CEO. Other Return Path board members that I've worked with over the years, including Ben Perez, Bob Knapp, Jonathan Shapiro, Eric Kirby, Phil Summe, Chris Wand, Chris Hoerenz, and James Marciano, played that role in the more formative days of the company. The CEOs of the organizations on whose boards I've sat as a director or chairman, Dick Costolo, Jim Follett, Larry Kimmel, and Linda Woolley have also significantly informed my experience as CEO by giving me a closer-than-average look at how other CEOs operate.

This book would also not exist without my team at Return Path, who challenge, inspire and teach me things every day. When I say team, I mean all of our nearly 400 employees worldwide, I want to specifically acknowledge my long-time executive team of George Bilbrey, Jack Sinclair, Anita Absey, Angela Baldonero, and Andy Sautins; newer executive team members Josh Baer, Dave Wilby and Matt Spielman; long-time team members Andrea Ponchione, Ken Takahashi and Tami Forman; and former senior team members Karl Florida, Mary Lynn McGrath, John Ventura, Tim Dolan, Jennifer Wilson, Dave Paulus, Ninon Brown Traugott, Stephanie Miller, Vince Sabio, Michael Mayor, Marty Donner, Craig Swerdloff, Rob and Jeff Mattes, Chuck Drake, and Rebecca Flavin. Extra thanks to George for lots of specific help on the book, especially on Part One.

This book would also not be possible without a few other people who have helped teach me my job along the way. Marc Maltz from Triad Consulting has been one of my secret weapons as my executive coach. Members of my CEO Forum have been unbelievably helpful: Cella Irvine, Jonathan Shapiro, Adam Slutsky, Alan Masarek, and David Kidder (David's latest book, Startup Playbook, was researched and written as this book got under way—there are lots of synergies between the two, though they're quite different). The other senior leaders I've worked with at prior jobs, Andrew Jarecki, Bill Ford, Neal Pomroy, Eleanor Leger, and Mike Sargent, all helped me get where I am in business and influenced the way I manage and lead Return Path.

I want to thank the team at Wiley, Bill Falloon and Meg Freeborn, for their thoughtful feedback and editorial support. Brad's prior books, his new books, Startup Communities, Startup Life, Startup Boards, Startup Metrics, and this book are all part of the Startup Revolution series (www.startuprev.com). This book would also not be possible without the efforts of Hanny Hindi, who was the book's project manager, the curator of content I'd already written on my blog and my occasional ghost writer and editor. There's no chance I could have cranked out this many words on my own while running a company! Special thanks as well to Clare Tischer from TechStars who volunteered to do a hardcore copy edit for us, just because she liked the topic and wanted to help make the end product great when I didn't think I could possibly edit my own work effectively one more time.

I want to end by thanking my family for their insights and feedback about this book and their patience while I was doing double duty to write it and still do my day job. I owe the ultimate debt of gratitude to my parents, Bob and Joyce, for teaching me most of the life lessons I learned—all of which shape how I manage and lead—and to my dad, a fellow CEO, for a few additional content-specific lessons related to this book's topic. My kids, Casey, Wilson and Elyse, probably had no idea I was doing this work and until the illustrated version comes out or another decade passes, they probably still won't be aware of it. The pitter-patter of their feet running to the front door and cheerfully greeting me after work is something that always brings a smile to my face. Finally, I'm not sure I'd be nearly as successful of a CEO or grounded a person as I have been without Mariquita, the love of my life and my best and most reliable sounding board throughout the life of the business.