Author: Lori Rosenkopf
_Lori Rosenkopf_
Reading time: 19 minutes
Synopsis
Unstoppable Entrepreneurs (2025) shows seven different ways to succeed in business. It uses stories from many successful business owners. The book gives useful steps to start a business. It explains what you need to succeed and shares ideas to get money and deal with problems.
What’s in it for me? Discover your path to entrepreneurial success.
There are seven ways, and one truth: starting a business has no single rule book.
Amy Errett didn’t need special investor money to change the hair color industry. She just needed to see what everyone else thought was normal. Jesse Pujji made a strong digital marketing company. He chose not to get money from venture capitalists, unlike his friends. Katlyn Grasso helped 700,000 young women explore jobs. She created a big program for this. Joan Lau connects great lab science with treatments that save lives. Jarrid Tingle is changing who gets money from venture capitalists. Charbel Zreik bought an existing business, changed it, and earned three times his money. And Jacquie Reses created a $3 billion loan business while still working for her company.
These business owners show that the usual idea of Silicon Valley is wrong. They prove that you can find a way that fits your ideas, your money, and what success means to you. This is true whether you change industries, start with no outside money, or create new things inside a company.
Let’s learn more about them.
Blink 1 – Disrupt
So you want a new look for your hair. What do you do? Do you search store shelves for hair dye that promises great results but often fails? Or do you make an appointment at a salon that will cost $200 and take three hours you don’t have? For many years, people faced this difficult choice. Then, Amy Errett saw something others didn’t.
Errett started Madison Reed after seeing this market problem herself. She created good hair color like salons use, but for home. It was truly affordable. It was not just a little cheaper, but fair for everyone. By doing this, Errett became someone who changed things. She completely changed how people dye their hair at home. She saw a chance the industry had missed.
Why do big companies often miss these chances? It’s because they focus on making their old business models better, instead of asking if they still work. People who change industries, like Errett, change all the rules. Think of Warby Parker, which avoided the usual high prices in eyewear stores. Or Mercado Pago, which offered banking services to people in Latin America who didn’t have them. They see what the market could be, not just what it is.
Madison Reed’s development shows how changing things can grow into a lasting business. They first sold directly to customers. This gathered information and proved people wanted the product. Then, physical stores called “Color Bars” let customers try products and feel more sure. Working with big stores helped the business grow a lot. Each step built on the last one. This changed a small, new company into a strong competitor. This step-by-step plan didn’t make the change weaker; it made it stronger.
But growth makes a company less safe. This is why Warren Buffett’s idea of ‘economic moats’ is very important for anyone who changes an industry. These ‘moats’ are like protections around a business. Madison Reed built many protections to keep its place in the market. These included special technology, good control over how products are made and delivered. Most important, customers stayed loyal because of good quality all the time. These ‘moats’ made sure the change was not just for a short time but lasted long.
Errett’s success shows a basic truth: changing things starts by seeing what everyone else thinks is normal. The choice between drugstore and salon was not meant to be. It was just how things were always done.
Blink 2 – Bootstrap
Most business owners dream of that big check from venture capital investors. This means approval, money, and fast growth. Jesse Pujji had different ideas.
Pujji started Ampush. It was a digital marketing company that became very strong. He did this without getting money from traditional venture capitalists. His choice was not just about money. It was about his beliefs. He grew up watching his father build businesses. Pujji learned a main belief: real business owners control their own future. Besides that, he wanted something venture capitalists rarely allow. He wanted the freedom to use money they earned to grow, and also put money into other businesses at the same time.
Starting a business with your own money (bootstrapping) is not strange. Mailchimp grew to be worth billions without money from outside investors. Spanx was built only with the owner’s money. These companies chose to have ownership, control, and steady profits. This was instead of very fast growth from venture capital money. This was a different way of thinking. It was about using money carefully for slow growth, not quickly for fast growth.
The bootstrapping approach changed everything about how Ampush grew. Without investors pushing for super-fast growth, Pujji and his cofounders could focus on building real value and a business that could last. They made smart choices based on what was good for the business, not what would please a group of directors. This careful way of working became Ampush’s main strength. It let the company change and grow in its own way.
For Pujji, Ampush’s success led directly to Gateway X. This is a special company that helps businesses started with their own money. It does not force business owners into traditional venture capital plans that might change their main ideas. Instead, Gateway X works with them to become profitable and gain popularity. This changes how businesses get money. It proves that starting a business doesn’t mean giving up control to outside money.
Pujji’s journey shows that success in business is not about how much money you get. It’s about how wisely you use what you have.
Blink 3 – Impact
Imagine you are a high school student. You walk into Snapchat’s main office, sit with female leaders, and suddenly see what you could do in the future. This is exactly what happens on a GenHERation Discovery Day.
Katlyn Grasso started GenHERation. It was a network to connect young women with companies. But it grew to do much more good. Since 2014, the group has helped over 700,000 young women by holding 1,500 events. Their award-winning Discovery Days trip is known as the biggest career exploration event for young women in the US. They work with over 300 companies, including big ones like Fortune 500 businesses, large tech companies, and government offices.
This is social business in action. This means a business that tries to do two main things, not just make money. For example, Grameen Bank gives small loans to poor people in the countryside. Or TOMS gives away one item for every item sold, helping social programs. GenHERation shows how businesses can create value in the market and make a real difference. The challenge is always to find a good balance between the two.
Social businesses can have different legal setups, depending on what they want to achieve first. For-profit social businesses work like normal companies. But they also have a clear goal to help people. Nonprofits get most of their money from gifts and grants. Benefit Corporations and B Corps are a mix. They are businesses that make money, but they are also legally required to think about the environment and society, not just money for owners.
Now, social businesses get money from different places. These include investors who want to see good social results and also get money back. They also use fundraising campaigns where many people give small amounts of money, special programs that help new businesses grow fast, and getting money through normal sales. Each way of working answers the same question: how can we keep doing our important work and also keep the business running?
For Grasso and GenHERation, the choice was not just about the legal setup. It was about creating a way to make changes that can grow bigger. Discovery Days do not just inspire students. They also make companies see new talent and change their own ways of working. This is the ‘multiplier effect’ of social business. It means solving one problem creates many other good effects.
GenHERation proves that social business is not just charity pretending to be a business. It’s a new way to think about what a business can do.
Blink 4 – Commercialize
Imagine a great new medical discovery in a university lab. It’s brilliant science with huge potential. But it’s not being used because no one knows how to make it into a real treatment for patients. People like Joan Lau, who commercialize technology, fill this gap.
Joan Lau started Spirovant Sciences. This company works on gene therapy to treat cystic fibrosis and lung diseases that run in families. She used her more than 20 years of experience leading in biotech and pharma, including work at Merck. Her time in big pharma showed a basic problem: making new medicines usually takes 14 years and costs over $2 billion. Technology commercializers work differently. They are faster companies that find good new ideas and quickly get them ready for sale.
This is not a new idea. Steve Jobs famously visited Xerox PARC in 1979. There, he saw the graphical screen and mouse. Apple then used these ideas in its Lisa and Macintosh computers. This changed lab inventions into products for sale, which Xerox itself could not do. Similar stories happen all the time in every industry. They show a lasting truth: making new things and selling them need different skills.
Tech commercializers smartly look for their next big discovery. University labs produce new, advanced research. But university scientists often don’t have the tools to turn it into products. Company research teams create ideas that don’t match their main company’s plans. Patent lists have unused ideas waiting for the right business owner. Each is a chance that is not being used – science without a plan to make money.
Now, money for commercializing technology often comes from a mix of business deals and venture capital. These are investors who know that connecting science to sales needs patient money and special skills. Unlike new startups, tech commercializers often start with science that has already been tested. This lowers some risks. But it brings other risks about when to sell and how to follow rules.
Lau’s work with Spirovant shows how technology commercializers make the impact happen faster. She focuses on promising gene therapies and uses her strong knowledge of the industry. This makes the 14-year time for making medicine shorter. She is creating ways for treatments that might otherwise never reach patients. The science was already there. What was missing was someone who could manage the difficult journey from the lab to patients.
Blink 5 – Fund
Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques worked at a private investment company called ICV Partners. They saw a lot of talented people from minority groups who were not being used. These were smart friends from college who were starting companies but found it hard to get money. The numbers showed a clear problem: in 2022 in the United States, Black business owners got only 1% of all venture capital money. Latino business owners got 1.5%, and women business owners got 1.9%.
Tingle started Harlem Capital. It now manages $174 million. He did this specifically to fix this very clear unfairness. Venture capital is very different from normal bank loans or private investment. Venture capitalists put money into new companies that have high risk and can grow fast. In return, they get a share of the company. They hope that a few very successful companies will make up for the ones that fail. This way of investing needs special plans to work well.
The most important plan is the power law of outliers. This means understanding that one very successful company can make back all the money for a whole fund. So, it’s worth investing in nine companies that fail to find that one winner. Investing in many different companies and industries spreads the risk. This makes sure that one failure does not stop the whole fund. Giving more money to successful companies helps earn the most profit. It means putting more money into winners as they grow.
Harlem Capital uses these successful venture plans. But they also make it wider for who can get money. Tingle’s work shows that even investors are business owners. They build companies that change whole systems.
Blink 6 – Acquire
Not every business owner starts a business from nothing in a garage. Some find their chance by buying existing businesses and changing them. This shows that starting a business is not just about creating something new. It is also about seeing value that others didn’t.
Charbel Zreik bought DCI Design Communications in 2014. This company offered phone and computer services. It was 30 years old, and its yearly income was $18 million. Three and a half years later, its income doubled. He sold the company for over three times what he paid.
Zreik used his management skills from McKinsey and Company and the private investment firm Osage Partners. He used these to lead DCI’s growth. His plan was to grow the company on its own and also by buying other businesses. He notably bought EthoStream in 2017. This made DCI the top company for data and phone services in hotels and restaurants in North America. Instead of slowly building its place in the market from scratch, he made it grow faster by carefully bringing companies together.
This way of starting a business – entrepreneurship through acquisition, or ETA – is a strong alternative to creating a new company. You do not build from zero with all the risks that come with it. Instead, you buy existing businesses that already make money, have customers, and have working systems. Then, you change them with better management and smart plans for the future.
A common way to do ETA is through the search fund model. New business owners get money from investors. They use this money to look for a company to buy and run. They usually look for businesses that make steady money and can grow. Business owners get a share of the company and control how it runs. Investors give money and advice. This partnership makes sure everyone has the same goals and shares the risk.
Ways of buying companies change based on what you want to achieve. Horizontal acquisitions mean buying companies that are competitors or that offer similar services in the same industry. This is what Zreik did with EthoStream. He joined forces to get more of the market and stop competition. Vertical acquisitions, however, are when you buy companies that are part of the process of making or selling your product. For example, a restaurant chain buying the company that delivers its food. Or a furniture maker buying companies that supply wood.
Zreik’s success with DCI shows how ETA mixes the ideas of a business owner with less risk than starting a new company from scratch. He got income, customers, and working systems. Then he used smart thinking to make it grow faster. Buying a company let him skip the riskiest starting part. He could focus on making good, working businesses bigger.
Blink 7 – Innovate
Not all business owners leave their jobs to follow a big idea. Some create big new businesses without leaving their jobs.
Jacquie Reses joined the company Square in October 2015. Square handles payments and offers financial services. Her job was to lead Square Capital, the company’s lending part. Her goal was not to keep things as they were. It was to make Square Capital a leading power in giving loans to small businesses.
She brought more than 20 years of experience in finance and leadership. This included jobs like Chief Development Officer at Yahoo and partner at the private investment firm Apax Partners. She used her skills in growing large companies together with Square’s existing systems. This allowed her to build something that neither could have done alone. Under her lead, Square was lending $1 million a day to business owners. She used sales information to decide if they could pay back loans. Traditional banks could not do this in the same way. Square finally gave out over $3 billion in loans.
This is intrapreneurship. This means being a business owner inside a company. Think of 3M’s Post-it Notes, made by an employee named Art Fry during company time for new ideas. Or Gmail, which came from Google’s ‘20% time’ rule. This rule let engineers work on projects they cared about. Intrapreneurs use company resources to build big new projects. These projects might never succeed as independent startups.
Intrapreneurship has clear benefits compared to traditional business ownership. Having access to existing resources means no struggles to get money. Existing customers give immediate ways to sell products. And company systems like legal help, rules, and technology make development faster. The company acts as a safety net. It lowers personal money risks. At the same time, it keeps the chance for big rewards through company shares and career growth. For the right business owner with the right company, it’s a strong different way to succeed.
Reses’s work at Square shows that you don’t need to leave your job to build something very new. Sometimes the best chance to start a business is right where you are. You just need to see what’s possible and get others to support your idea.
Final summary
In this summary of Unstoppable Entrepreneurs by Lori Rosenkopf, you’ve learned that you can succeed in business. You just need to find the path that fits your strengths, beliefs, and situation. Maybe you like changing things in a big way, or you prefer to buy and improve an existing business. Maybe you need money from investors, or you purposefully do not want it. Maybe you are building something completely new, or you are changing something that is already there. No matter what, there is a place for you in business.
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Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/unstoppable-entrepreneurs-en