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Edward Amoroso, "Reaching the Chasm: How to Drive Your Early-Stage Start-Up to Scale" (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2025)

Feb 3, 2026
Edward G. Amoroso, founder and CEO of TAG Infosphere and former AT&T/Bell Labs technologist, shares lessons from evaluating hundreds of startups. He discusses why purpose beats product, how belief attracts early customers, patterns that predict scale, ethics versus hype, and practical tactics for moving from early adopters to the mass market.
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INSIGHT

Purpose Beats Product

  • Founders win early customers by selling their belief system, not feature lists.
  • Buyers join startups because they share the company's purpose and vision.
ADVICE

Position Around A Belief

  • Do position your startup around a clear belief system that some customers will passionately share.
  • Avoid competing feature-for-feature with large incumbents; compete on why you exist.
ANECDOTE

Quitting Big Jobs For A Gnawing Idea

  • Amoroso describes founders who quit large firms to pursue a gnawing idea and attract early adopters by conviction.
  • Those founders' obsession and personal stake make customers willing to be design partners.
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