Entrepreneurs in the Midst: Stories from Founders, Creators, and Builders

Candid interviews with sixteen entrepreneurs from diverse fields let you into their personal journeys creating and building startups.

How do people decide to start a company or help grow one in its infancy? How do they build those companies? There are plenty of stories about people on the other side of the journey, who have already achieved great success. But what about people in middle of the process, for whom outcomes are still uncertain? That's what entrepreneur Renny McPherson and reporter Joe Flood--the hosts of the Numbers & Narrative podcast--set out to uncover in interviews with entrepreneurs who are building companies.

At once unflinching and unvarnished, open-minded and optimistic, Entrepreneurs in the Midst offers a unique vantage point on entrepreneurship and chasing professional dreams.

Entrepreneurs in the Midst is a collection of interviews with a mix of established young founders and builders, like Alexa Hirschfeld of Paperless Post and Justin McLeod of the dating app Hinge, as well as a number of others who have created exciting companies you'll be hearing about tomorrow. Focusing on entrepreneurs with a variety of backgrounds--McPherson and Flood bring out the surprising paths people take to entrepreneurship. There is a literature major who taught himself to code, a banker-turned-actress who built a product to foster curiosity in kids, and a labor activist-turned-consultant who's using technology to improve service workers' pay. The authors weave these disparate experiences into a coherent and compelling vision of what today's founders and builders are doing in real time.

The stories are inspiring, but tempered with honest talk about the struggles and challenges of entrepreneurship, a path none of these individuals took lightly. Entrepreneurs in the Midst is a fascinating read for anyone planning to pursue entrepreneurship and looking for role models on the journey, or for those curious to know how resilient, hard-working young people are building tomorrow's businesses.