Early Review of Startup Life by Jonathan Fields

Jonathan Fields of the Good Life Project just put up an early review of Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship With An Entrepreneur. This is that second book in the Startup Revolution series, written by me (Brad Feld) and my wife Amy Batchelor with contributions from 20 other entrepreneurial couples.

An excerpt from Jonathan’s post, titled Drive-By Book Review: Godin, Pink and Feld. Oh My!, follows.

“What is it? I was sent an advance copy of this book and absolutely loved it. Brad is a legendary entrepreneur and venture-capitalist and Amy is his super-cool wife. Together, they’ve weathered a lot of storms grown out to the often warring tension between the desire to build a deep personal relationship with a life partner, while also being fully committed to building a powerful business. Not an easy dance and there’s a ton of mythology about it. Amy and Brad shoot straight and offer great insights, strategies and practices and better enable you to run the life-partner + startup gauntlet with more ease.

What makes it different? A few things. One, it’s real. Amy and Brad are unusually transparent and generous in sharing their experiences over many years and how they’ve evolved. Two, they’ve lived it. They’re not therapists or pundits, what they share comes from actually being in the game, stumbling, fumbling and making it through. Three, they bring in the insights and experiences of other couples who’ve built relationships while also building substantial businesses.

Why do you need it? If you’re trying to start any deeply meaningful venture and simultaneously build a committed, loving personal relationship, most people in the startup space will say it can’t be done. One’s gotta go. Amy and Brad are living proof that all the mythology is just that. It takes a lot of effort, but done right, investing seriously in both the relationship and biz magnifies the power of both. Notice – the book is officially published on Jan 22, but you can pre-order it now.”

Jonathan did a 45 minute interview with me during the summer. We had an awesome time together. If you want to get a sense of both my philosophy of life as well as how my maker summer went, enjoy!