Birth of a Unicorn: Six Basic Steps To Success by Heather Wilde
Publisher: Sunbury Press, Inc (November 11, 2020)
Category: Business: Women & Business, Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance, Self-Help/Motivational, Non-Fiction
Tour dates: April-May, 2021
ISBN: 978-1620063347
Available in Print 158 pages and ebook 184 pages
Description Birth of a Unicorn by Heather Wilde
Birth of a Unicorn: Six Basic Steps to Success is the story of what it takes to found a billion-dollar company — also known as a unicorn. It’s told from the perspective of a founding employee, and shows the years and years of emotional strain, stress and dedication that building a successful company takes — and a framework to follow if you’d like to try it yourself.
In this book, you’ll find the true story behind one of Silicon Valley’s famous companies on its rise to the top. Peek behind the curtain as you see the highs and lows from an insider perspective, on the roller coaster that is the start-up life. What emerges is a lasting friendship, a billion-dollar company, and an understandable framework of success for you to replicate.
Praise Birth of a Unicorn by Heather Wilde
“Among her significant accomplishments is her work at Evernote, a note-taking app that Heather built from a couple of thousand users to in excess of 225 million users, making Evernote the world’s most used note-taking app. It is that journey that this book shares – and from that well-related story the steps toward creating a startup company as well as guidance for ways to make an impact by positive changing life to embrace personal passions and purpose. While those words may seem like PR humbug, reading this superb book will convince every reader of their validity.
Exploring each of Heather’s six needs opens the door to inspirational changes in attitude and vision and success. Proffered in one of the most supportive guides available today, this book is not only a fine guide for us all: it also makes the perfect gift for young people on the verge of discovering life’s possibilities! Highly recommended.”-Grady Harp, Hall of Fame & Top 500 Reviewer-Amazon
“Heather Wilde’s book is creative and compelling and the writing captures the excitement of taking an idea and making it a reality. At times this book is so riveting – you can’t wait to find out what happens next.
What may surprise you is how much you learn about other cultures. Heather and her husband lived on a sailboat in Mexico for much of the time they worked remotely for Evernote. They also hired employees in India.
Some of the highlights of the book are the stories about their Bengal cat who played a role in their happiness and survival. You will laugh with amusement when you read about this cat’s influence in difficult circumstances.
The tales of food adventures inspired some of my cooking. When I read about the fries drenched in chicken drippings, I just had to make some roast potatoes. I even created a new chicken dish with what I had in the refrigerator. This made my husband happy!
What did amaze me was how my questions at the start were answered later in the book. How do you get an internet connection while on a boat? Where do you charge a laptop or a phone when sailing around? Heather Wilde is a brilliant, resourceful woman who learns major life lessons from all her experiences. Her writing is warm and honest.
I think you will enjoy this book and take away important points for further reflection. The thing I learned most from the book is not to make anyone else responsible for your happiness.”- The Rebecca Review, Top 500 Reviewer & Vine Voice-Amazon
“When I decide to read a book, I generally have some expectations about what I will gain from reading it. If you are like me, I urge you to set aside your expectations about Birth of a Unicorn – Six Basic Steps to Success by author Heather Wilde.
Instead of the book focusing on the growing pains of Evernote, the author focuses on her own personal journey with Evernote. Ms. Wilde opens up completely about some of the innermost portions of her life – personal and business – sharing the ups and downs, the good and bad. You will get to know some deeply personal aspect of her life.
The story she tells is interesting and entertaining. You can feel her emotions, her happiness and frustration. One trait which was prominent throughout the book was her commitment to excellence. If you plan to build a business from the ground up, you need to be fully committed. You need emotional flexibility and resilience.
The interior design is well done, making it an easy read. The cover design is creative, capturing the concept of a big new idea brilliantly. And the final nice touch is a bookmarker with the “Unicorn Horn/Lightbulb.” Interesting and insightful, more about the personal qualities necessary for success than a story about Evernote.”- John Chancellor, Top 1000 Hall of Fame, Vine Voice
“A personal, honest and engaging account of being a founding employee of a “tech unicorn” and a fascinating insight into remote working.”-Beck Nickolls, reedsy.com
Interview With Heather Wilde
TR: Please tell us something about ‘Birth of a Unicorn’ that is not in the summary. (About the book, character you particularly enjoyed writing etc.)
HW: This answer is more about what influenced my writing style – I grew up in New York City in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, and my father was an important figure in Wall Street finance. As such, it has been ingrained in me since childhood that real life was supposed to be like a Clive Cussler novel – with tons of ups and downs, real adventure and daily excitement, good and bad. When writing this book, one of my main goals was capture that essence of what it feels like to live a life this way – because it really *is* like that for entrepreneurs.
TR: I did not know that a billion-dollar company is also referred to as a unicorn and I imagine there are others who don’t know this either. Can you tell us about this and why “Unicorn”?
HW: “Unicorn” in Silicon Valley vernacular refers to two things — first, a billion-dollar valuation on a company. The second is a “rock star” employee. Hang around Silicon Valley enough and you’ll hear people talk about how they need to “catch a unicorn to build a unicorn”, ie, get the one-in-a-million team together that will guarantee you billions. So, the book is about the “birth” (as painful and long as that can be) of me, as a “unicorn” employee that creates successes, and Evernote, the “unicorn” billion-dollar company.
TR: I can’t help but think of the #metoo movement happening and wonder if as a woman, as a leader, your experience has been like working with men. Do you care to tell us about this?
HW: I have had the great fortune to work with brilliant and exceptional humans throughout my entire career. I consider many of them amongst my closest friends, and I have been supported by and supportive of them for 10-20 years in many cases. Because I’m in the tech field, most of my colleagues have been male, and there have been a few hiccups along the way, but most of the issues I have encountered haven’t been from my coworkers.
TR: Many people dream about being able to work from anywhere around the world. You have lived the “laptop lifestyle” working remotely. Can you tell us more about this?
HW: I can’t remember a time in my life where we weren’t going on a day trip for the weekend, or heading out for some work trip of my father’s – schoolwork in tow — so I grew up with the idea that if you want to go somewhere, you just do it. When I was younger and didn’t have much money for travel and I had the itch to go somewhere, I would join in on friend’s road trips, sleep on the couch, and volunteer to cook. As an adult it just morphed into saving money, finding the best deals on flights/hotels – eventually buying a boat and an RV, and making sure I had steady work that was location independent.
TR: Where did you get the inspiration for your cover?
HW: “Inspiration” was actually the inspiration! The idea of the lightbulb is classic to signify an idea, and the filament of the bulb being a unicorn’s horn was the artist’s choice, but I loved it immediately. I chose the pastel colors to show that it was a “softer” type of business book than one would expect, and the shading of the filament shows that there is light and dark within.
TR: How much time and effort went into your research for the book?
HW: The book covers a span of 13 years of my life.
TR: How long did it take you to write this book from concept to fruition?
HW: Writing the book to publication took around 3 years – Around 6 months to finish the initial draft, a year to work with alpha-readers to get it up to snuff, 6 months to find a publisher and then another year working on getting it ready to publish.
TR: What are you currently working on?
HW: My day job – I work full-time as the Digital Solutions Lead of TheDifference, where I get to work on amazing projects, and then in my spare time I’m the co-founder of Serenze Global, a 501c3 non-profit with the aim of providing technical education to underserved individuals. 100% of author proceeds of this book are donated to SerenzeGlobal.
TR: Why didn’t you go deeper into Evernote’s day-to-day operations?
HW: I wanted to tell a type of story that hasn’t been told before. You can pick up any number of business books that tell you that X business did Y and received an ROI of this, but unless your widget is exactly the same as their widget, it isn’t applicable to you. My aim is to create a book that would give you – for the business decisions that I do show – what went into them, and how they would apply to anyone. Also, I still would love to see Phil Libin write about Evernote someday – he’s an excellent writer as well.
If there’s enough demand for it, though, I wouldn’t be opposed to writing an interview-based book from all of us for the history of the early days.
About Heather Wilde
Heather Wilde was the eighth employee of Evernote, where she oversaw the company’s growth from thousands to 100 million customers. She has published popular games, trained Fortune 500 brands, advised hundreds of start-ups, and managed some major non-profit programs. At her non-profit, Serenze Global, and as a fractional CTO through her company ROCeteer, her award-winning work keeps the Unicorn Whisperer constantly traveling across the globe to find the next unicorn.
Website: https://heathriel.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathriel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/heathriel
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7705219/
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