THE IDEA IS THE EASY PART
BY BRIAN DOVEY
A personal, humorous, story-driven guide to navigating your entrepreneurial journey from the perspective of an experienced entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
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Venture capitalist and former executive Brian Dovey offers readers a personal, humorous, and story-driven compendium of practical and accessible advice for navigating the risky entrepreneurial journey.
Part business manual, part memoir, The Idea Is the Easy Part counters widespread myths of failure and success with lessons learned from Dovey’s decades of hands-on business experience.
Today’s renowned businessmen and entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Peter Thiel, and more can earn celebrity and billionaire status. Our books, movies, and TV shows seem to say that with a big idea and a jazzy elevator pitch, anyone can quickly earn funding for their own startups and achieve massive financial success. In these stories, a brilliant innovation—and the funding you’ll easily acquire—are all you need for success.
The reality, however, is vastly different. Getting funding is incredibly hard, and success depends on many factors, strategies, and decisions.
Between serving as the president of the company that developed the groundbreaking EpiPen, bringing entrepreneurship to a Fortune 500 company as president, working in venture capitalism for several decades, and being involved in the development of nearly three hundred startups, Brian Dovey is well acquainted with entrepreneurship—its reality as well as its mythology. In The Idea Is the Easy Part, Dovey debunks common myths about businesses and lays out an enthusiastic but realistic guidebook for aspiring entrepreneurs guiding them with the right growth mindset to make better decisions at every stage of the entrepreneurial process.
The Idea Is the Easy Part is a reliable guide to navigating the entrepreneurial waters, replacing today’s misleading notions with objective and actionable advice.
“Anyone interested in starting a business or investing in venture capital should read this book . . . Brian Dovey will help you understand the numbers and will inspire you to listen for the music. Ultimately venture capital is a very human enterprise and Brian has honed his humanity and his technical understanding. ”
— Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator and investment banker
“In The Idea is the Easy Part, veteran venture capitalist Brian Dovey confronts myths about entrepreneurs, startups, and Shark Tank as he challenges would-be business owners to look before they leap. Encouraging and thought provoking, this book is a great read.”
— Ken Blanchard, coauthor of Simple Truths of Leadership and Leading at a Higher Level
“Brian’s story-telling approach is so helpful because it is real-world experience filled with context and color. He brings readers into the stories so that we can appreciate the information we would experience under the same circumstances. Further, the myth-busting is entertaining. I laughed more than a few times.”
— Mary Fisher, CEO of Colorescience
"The Idea is the Easy Part is an honest and realistic look at the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship. I highly recommend this book to anyone considering starting a business.”
— Chris Barton, Founder of Shazam, three-time entrepreneur, inventor, and tech investor
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Dovey was a partner at the venture capital firm Domain Associates, which has invested more than $2.8 billion in startups since 1988. He was involved in the development of more than 250 pharmaceutical and life-sciences startups and served on the boards of more than thirty-five companies (and as chairman of six) with a combined value of more than $25 billion.
Before becoming a venture capitalist, he was an early executive and then president of a medical-technology startup, Survival Technology Inc., which developed the groundbreaking EpiPen to treat severe allergic reactions. Survival’s rapid growth during his tenure placed it in the top ten of the prestigious Inc. 100 list.
Dovey was recruited to become president of a division of Rorer Group, then promoted to executive vice president of the entire company and later its president, where he led Rorer’s expansion into a fully integrated Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, doubling sales with a fourfold increase in profits.
Brian Dovey died unexpectedly on August 27, 2023, with his wife of 60 years, Betty, at his side. As he doubtless would have wished, he was hard at work on the tasks of getting his wonderful, personal, and deeply wise book into the world, and had already begun to sign copies for friends and influencers as part of the planned October 3 book launch. Brian’s family wants to do all they can to ensure the book reaches the people who can benefit from his advice.
GET IN TOUCH WITH BRIAN’S TEAM
To speak to Brian’s agent, contact The Margret McBride Literary Agency:
mmla@mcbridelit.com
For book-related media inquiries and bulk buys of The Idea Is the Easy Part, please contact Kerri Stebbins at BenBella Books: Kerri@Benbellabooks.com
For additional media inquiries, contact Betsy DeJesu, Associate Director of Publicity at Cave Henricks Communications: Betsy@cavehenricks.com
To get in touch with Brian’s family and colleagues, who are managing the promotion of the book, please fill out the contact form to the right.