Concept, Design & Production Lead2012 — 2014
Gear Up Ventures
Designing and producing a Stanford-taught business book
Introduction
Gear Up Ventures brought together Stanford professors Tom Kosnik and Lena Ramfelt with entrepreneur Jonas Kjellberg to create Gear Up: Your Best Business Idea Ever. I shaped the publishing concept and led its design and production.
The book was shortlisted for the CMI Management Book of the Year 2014/15 and has since become part of executive education at Stanford University and the Stockholm School of Economics. Translated into 12 languages, it now serves founders around the world as a practical startup toolkit.
Translated into 12 languages
A practical startup toolkit for founders worldwide
Taught at Stanford and SSE
Executive education at Stanford University and the Stockholm School of Economics
Concept
A textbook that reads like a story
The publishing concept had to hold the academic rigor of two Stanford professors and the practical, founder's-eye view of an entrepreneur in the same pages. The goal was a book that never slips into lecture or memoir, but reads as one continuous story people actually want to finish.
Some companies succeed, others fail
Big beats the small or fast beats the slow
Always be closing
Get the right people on the bus
From idea to cash
Who loves you? Who hates you?
Production
Design as much as authorship
Leading design and production meant treating the book as a product in its own right: how it is structured, how it reads, and how it earns a place on a curriculum. From there, the experience kept growing. Together with the authors, I extended Gear Up into workbooks, a website and interactive worksheets, turning it into a complete toolkit for entrepreneurs worldwide. Its adoption in executive programs and translation into 12 languages show that the format did its job.
About
Gear Up Ventures — Concept, Design & Production Lead, 2012 — 2014.
Capabilities
- Publishing Design
- Branding
- Editorial
- Art Direction
- Web Design
- Experience Design
Awards
CMI Management Book of the Year, Shortlist 2014/15
Recognised by the Chartered Management Institute as one of the year's leading business books.
Next case
Gymgrossisten
Launching new verticals through product and customer experience