1. The life cycle of an entrepreneurial venture consists of four stages: idea, growth, shakeout, and maturity. 2. In the idea stage, entrepreneurs incubate their product concept, conduct prototyping and test marketing, and start building a customer and supplier base. 3. During growth, entrepreneurs focus on expanding their market share, channels, team, and resources in order to achieve sales growth and increase market share, often with help from venture capitalists.