When Grit
is Not Enough

An Entrepreneur’s Playbook for Taking Your Business to the Next Level

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About the Book

Ready to take your business to the next level?
This book is for you.

As an entrepreneur growing your business, how will you respond when things don’t go as planned? How do you keep up with constant technology shifts? How do you successfully scale your teams and strategy as you scale your product? When Grit Is Not Enough is a tactical playbook that has answers to these questions and more. Its lessons show you how to create a strong culture of organizational learning and agility and build high-performing and engaged teams who will thrive in our ever-changing world. This road map will empower you to compete—and win—against heavily funded and resourced competitors.

Author and tech CEO Dean Guida, who took his company from a startup to a thriving multinational business, knows well that entrepreneurial grit can only get you so far. Packed with his knowledge from more than three decades of operating in an unforgiving marketplace, When Grit Is Not Enough covers a wide range of topics.

The book covers a wide range of topics, including:

Creating organizational alignment
Setting meaningful measurements and goals

Building a data-driven culture
Creating a Learning Organization
Strategic planning

Leadership and coaching
Having tough conversations
Hiring and retaining valuable team members

If you’re an entrepreneur whose hard work and grit have gotten your business off the ground and ready for the next stage, this book will get you there, enhancing your chances of success, happiness, and accomplishment with your company and journey in life.

Available Everywhere Books are Sold

January 15, 2024

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Praise

‘When Grit Is Not Enough’ is a masterclass in building a thriving software business from the ground up. Dean Guida shares battle-tested insights and systems, revealing the art of bootstrapping with tenacity, creativity, and strategic acumen. This book is a treasure trove of wisdom, offering pivotal moments, from crucial decisions on culture to setting big hairy audacious goals, that shaped his company’s trajectory. For founders and investors alike, this is the ultimate guide to building an enduring business. A must-read for those who dare to dream big and build bigger.

Joanne Yuan

Partner at Turn/River Capital

Dean Guida’s journey is a testament to the power of combining grit with strategic thinking. ‘When Grit is Not Enough’ is a practical guide filled with actionable advice. It’s a must-have resource for any business leader looking to break through barriers.

Sean Ellis

Author of Hacking Growth

“I’ve known the author for nearly 25 years, at a time when his startup was in its infancy. The market challenges that Infragistics has faced caused them to reinvent nearly a half dozen times since. In this age where VCs chase massive growth and quick exits, Dean instead instills the mindset, processes, and culture needed to build an evergreen business – one where value creation is continual and enduring regardless of the market’s conditions.

Dean offers transparency into how Infragistics applies these principles and executes their cadence around culture, strategy, and execution by sharing their current year plans and how the planning cycle is managed. Great read for executives and CEOs alike.”

Tyler Jewell

CEO of Lightbend

Dean Guida does a truly remarkable job of providing a framework for both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned executives to drive increased performance and progress across through their respective organizations. ‘When Grit is Not Enough’ provides clarity of the suggestions and blueprints are not only easily digestible, but are provided with empathy and understanding of the challenges one faces during the company building process. I would highly recommend this book to any entrepreneur or business operator looking for guidance on how to level up their performance and drive significant tangible results.

Thomas Swalla

CEO, Dotmatics

This book is fantastic! What a detailed, clear, and thorough road map for best practices in every aspect of running a company. Great for both the C-suite and also managers of teams. I’ve read hundreds of business books over the last forty years. Never read one as clear and thorough as this one!

Foy Cooley

CEO of Access Self Storage

One of the lasting lessons CEOs have learned over the past few years is that there will always be unknowns when it comes to business. Whether it is artificial intelligence, inflation, or global conflict, being prepared for unexpected issues can make or break a company. Dean Guida’s book is a guide with actionable information for every business leader/entrepreneur to deal with the complexities of the business world.

Sam Reese

CEO, Vistage Worldwide

About the Author

Dean Guida

Tech entrepreneur and CEO Dean Guida knows there’s a limit to what you can build with grit alone.

At sixteen, Dean bought the first IBM PC and fell in love with writing software. He went on to receive a bachelor of science degree in operation research from the University of Miami. After graduating, he was a freelance developer and wrote many systems for IBM and on Wall Street. At twenty-three, he started Infragistics to build UX/UI tools for professional software developers.

Seemingly overnight, Dean had to go from early internet coder to business operator—a feat that forced him to learn some of business’s biggest lessons on the job. He immediately began navigating the nuances of scaling a company, hiring and growing teams, and becoming a leader, a manager, and a mentor.

Fast-forward thirty-five years, and Dean’s tech company now has operations in six countries. More than two million developers use Infragistics software, and its client roster boasts 100 percent of the S&P 500, including Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, Exxon, Intuit, and Bank of America.

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