Authors - Peter Birkeland

Testimonials

Authors I Have Collaborated With

Brad Feld

Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup, Second ed. (Wiley, 2019)

The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors (Lioncrest, 2021)

“Pete joined our team and provided the coordination for the second edition. In addition to a heavy edit cycle, he drove a rewrite of parts of the book along with a restructure of the beginning. We’ve loved working with him and are excited about working on Do Even More Faster with him.”

Amir Hegazi, Entrepreneur, Startup Advisor

Ecosystem Arabia: The Making of a New Economy (2020)

“Peter has a knack for understanding the author’s purpose and aligning the written work with that versus pushing product into alternative directions. Working with Peter is like having a complementary partner who’s able to see your work from fresh eyes and anticipate how it might be perceived by the outside world. This is especially important for us writers who tend to get buried into our own work bubble and inevitably can lose connection at times with our readers.

He also brings tremendous value in terms of both pre-writing advice and post-writing review. I found his feedback to be astute and he was instrumental in helping me get ‘unstuck.’ This allowed me to keep my flow and enthusiasm throughout the project, literally without missing a beat as I went on to complete my manuscript in record time. Most particularly, I give credit to Peter for advising on key fundamental issues such as structure and methodology early on, which are more challenging and time consuming to fix down the road. Peter is an invaluable asset to any business writing project.”

Will Herman, Corporate Director at JumpCloud

The Startup Playbook: Founder-to-Founder Advice From Two Startup Veterans (Wiley, 2020)

“Working with Pete on The Startup Playbook was a joy. He’s inciteful, detailed and focused. He not only read the work, but made sure he understood what was behind it. He made great suggestions on how to change it to meet the audience’s needs, while helping to make changes that expanded the book’s reach. Oh, did I mention that he also worked incredibly fast to get it all done. We’re very impressed with his work.”

David Cohen, Founder of Techstars

Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup, Second ed. (Wiley, 2019)

“I have worked with many, many writers over the years and my advice is this: If you’re writing a book on business or entrepreneurship, work with Pete. His ability to express your voice is amazing and it’s fun to work with him.”

David Brown, Founder of Techstars

No Vision All Drive: What I learned From my First Company (Wiley, 2019)

“Pete–Thanks so much for all your help with this effort. The results are fantastic!”

Ben McDougal

You Don’t Need This Book: Entrepreneurship in the Connected Era Startup Success (Pour Over Publishing, 2021)

“Pete provides valuable developmental editing services. As a publishing company supporting a first-time author, Pete’s friendly advice and professional support boosted the readability of our manuscript and delivered timely confidence as we published You Don’t Need This Book: Entrepreneurship in the Connected Era. Thanks again for the opportunity to collaborate and keep building my friends!”

David Jilk

The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors (Lioncrest, 2021)

“Pete performed a pre-contract review of our manuscript and gave us valuable advice on both structure and some content ideas to help readers enter into its potentially challenging subject matter. He gave us the benefit of both his editorial experience and some domain familiarity. Pete was a pleasure to work with, smart and easygoing.”

Matt Blumberg

Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business (Wiley, 2020)

Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company’s Critical Functions and Teams (Wiley, 2021)

“I have worked on multiple books with Pete and I highly recommend collaborating—whether it’s your first book or you’re an experienced author. In the 2nd edition of Startup CEO, I had a pretty good idea on how I wanted to structure the content but Pete helped me think through new content and came up with a structure that helps the book flow and be more impactful.

Startup CXO was a colossal effort: 132 chapters, 600+ pages, 19 contributors, and many of those contributors were first-time authors. I could never have pretended to write Startup CXO on my own and although I conceived of it, wrote parts of it and helped to edit it, it was truly a collaborative effort. Pete was a big part of that. He was a tireless collaborator across all sections of the book and made sure it came out well-written, balanced, and consistent.

Startup Boards was a different beast altogether because I approached the original authors, Brad Feld and Mahendra Ramsinghani, about collaborating on a revised edition that would add new, relevant content. We added content on how to build a board, how to recruit board members, onboard, compensate, and evaluate them. We added content for aspiring board members on how to find board opportunities and prepare for that first board role. And we changed the overall narrative to address a critical concern for startups: diversity.

Startup Boards was a major effort to restructure and write new content, with the added complexity of multiple authors. Pete was invaluable in our effort, providing guidance and helping to integrate the new content so that the book is easy to understand and valuable.”

Claudia Reuter

Yes, You Can Do This: How Women Startup, Scale up, and Build the Life They Want (Wiley, 2020)

“After receiving a contract to complete my book with a major publisher, I faced what all writers face–a looming deadline. With just a few months to finish the book I had spent years working on, I was grateful to be put in touch with Peter Birkeland for editing. Pete was a terrific editor. We met multiple times, and I always appreciated Pete’s feedback on my work. I highly recommend to any writer, at any stage of their writing project, to work with Pete if you are looking for editorial guidance and support.”

Amos Schwartzfarb

Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Startup-ups (Wiley, 2019)

“A lot of people have great ideas, experience, and skills, and if you really want to set yourself apart from everyone else a book is a great way to do that. As a first-time author it was extremely helpful to work with Pete. He’s not only a writer and editor, but he’s also a great strategist for how to create a great book that people will actually like and engage with. Getting a book published is a lot of work and having someone by your side who knows the industry inside and out is invaluable – Pete can be that person for you like he was for me.”

Gary Hamel

Leading the Revolution: How to Thrive in Turbulent Times by Making Innovation a Way of Life (Harvard Business Review Press, 2002)

Chris Heivly

Build The Fort: Why 5 Simple Lessons You Learned as a 10-Year-Old Can Set You up for Startup Success

“I gigged with Pete on the revised edition of Build The Fort, and he was very helpful to me in thinking about what is possible. Being a first-time author is a lot like being a first-time entrepreneur and I would never advise a first-time founder to go it alone. If you’re writing a book, you should collaborate with someone and Pete is a great partner to help bring out your best ideas in the best way possible.”

Rory Verrett

The Pomegranate Principle: Best Practices in Diversity Recruiting

“I’d like to thank my writing partner, Peter Birkeland, in as big of a way as possible. When I began thinking about this project, I envisioned writing this alone. When someone suggested a writing partner, I envisioned a Black woman and me talking about DEI, using shorthand about these sometimes complex topics, reminiscing about shared social and career experiences as Black professionals, and finishing each other’s sentences as we quickly completed chapter after chapter. That’s just how your unconscious mind works. I don’t know anyone, however, who could have helped me complete this project as well as Pete, a middle-aged, white writer and former professor, CEO, and board chair. I realized after our fourth conversation as Pete I wrestled with a very nuanced DEI topic, that he was the reader I was trying to influence. Earlier in his career Pete had been the executive and hiring manager I needed to convert to a DEI champion. He was the perfect sparring partner for this topic and I’m grateful for the hard work he put into making The Pomegranate Principle come to life.”