Book Review
In their new book, Sail to Scale, authors Mona Sabet, Heather Jerrehian and Maria Fernandez Guajardo acknowledge that most new businesses fail, and yet most failures are avoidable. While some startups may catch favorable winds, most will encounter stormy seas that can capsize their ventures. Understanding how to navigate these choppy waters is crucial. You don't learn to captain a warship by training to sail fast on calm seas.
In Sail to Scale, authors Mona Sabet, Heather Jerrehian, and Maria Fernandez Guajardo identify 18 common mistakes that leaders make across four pivotal waves of a startup's journey. Drawing from their collective experience, they dissect each mistake, help leaders recognize the situations that create them, and offer practical advice to steer clear of them so that their businesses can overcome each wave successfully.
Through both first-hand accounts and interviews with leaders across a variety of businesses, the authors provide insight from people behind successful - and not so successful - companies, the decisions they made, and why they mattered.
This trio of visionaries and operators has navigated the challenges of scaling businesses from nascent startups to global powerhouses. Together, they offer a comprehensive roadmap for entrepreneurial success, drawing on their experiences to help business leaders sidestep pitfalls and harness opportunities in the dynamic tech landscape.
Sail to Scale serves as an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to chart a steady course through critical business junctures and fluctuating market conditions.
Author Quotes
Identify and overcome the most common mistakes that lurk beneath the surface as you navigate each phase of growth: Launch, Pivot, Scale, and Exit.
Sail to Scale is your compass, guiding you toward entrepreneurial success, one wave at a time.
While some startups may catch favorable winds, most will encounter stormy seas that can capsize their ventures. Understanding how to navigate these choppy waters is crucial. You don’t learn to captain a warship by training to sail fast on calm seas.
About the authors
Mona Sabet's career spans over two decades in Silicon Valley at the vanguard of the technology industry. Leveraging her technical, legal and business background, Mona works with B2B technology companies through their early and growth stages, shaping their corporate strategy to help pave their way to successful outcomes, from acquisitions to IPOs.
Heather Jerrehian is an entrepreneurial futurist and investor who has driven innovation and go-to-market strategies for startups and Fortune 500 companies for over two decades. As a serial founder and tech executive, she has led turnarounds at unprecedented speed, scaled 10X growth, and engineered profitable exits.
Maria Fernandez Guajardo is a transformative product executive with extensive experience in tech innovation. She has guided companies, from startups to industry giants like Meta and Google, in bringing cutting-edge consumer and B2B products to market at a global scale.
Why LoA loves it…
Every entrepreneur knows that the journey to build a business can be challenging, and often tumultuous. That’s why being able to tap into the insights and experiences of others who have navigated their businesses to success is key. In Sail to Scale, authors Mona Sabat, Heather Jerrehian, and Maria Fernandez Guajardo, draw on their collective experience to help entrepreneurs recognize the situations that create barriers and hurdles to success, and offer practical advice to steer clear of them. This is a great read for all those entrepreneurs who want to scale successfully. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa