From the stories of entrepreneurs who have built some of the world's great companies (such as the world's largest medical device company and the world's largest consumer electronics retailer), Bootstrap to Billions shows entrepreneurs how they too can control and build a huge business from scratch to create wealth and keep it.

Is it possible for entrepreneurs to succeed at growing ventures without early-stage venture capital? Based on the fact that more than 9 out of 10 of America’s billion-dollar entrepreneurs did take off without early-stage VC, Dileep Rao says YES! In Nothing Ventured, Everything Gained, Dileep Rao shatters the dominant myth that entrepreneurs need early-stage venture capital to build a giant business. In fact, says Rao, by avoiding or even delaying VC, billion-dollar entrepreneurs can control their companies and the wealth created by them—and retain more of that wealth. The book is based on 30 of Rao’s interviews with billion-dollar entrepreneurs (BDEs) and hundred-million-dollar entrepreneurs (HMDEs) and the analysis of the strategies of 85 BDEs. The author introduces the finance-smart skills, opportunity secrets, and strategy secrets of BDEs who took off without VC, and proves his points via stories of successful giants like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs. Every entrepreneur will do well to read and benefit from Rao’s invaluable insights and expertise. ​Dileep Rao, PhD, financed the growth of hundreds of businesses and real estate projects over the twenty-three years he was VP of financing and business development at a venture development and finance institution. He advises entrepreneurs, governments, Fortune 1000 corporations, and financial institutions on building big businesses with finance-smart strategies. Dr. Rao is a clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Florida International University and has taught at Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, and in executive MBA programs in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

Take Control of Your Business—and Watch it Grow How can entrepreneurs learn from those that came before, so they can better craft their own approach to success? Award-winning professor of entrepreneurship, Dileep Rao, presents readers with a detailed guide to success through his interviews and analysis of billionaire and millionaire entrepreneurs. While starting a business without outside help seems difficult—even impossible—Rao shows you that it can be done. And the right type of funding could even lead to a more successful business. Rao shares how more than 90 percent of America’s billion-dollar entrepreneurs avoided or delayed venture capital, and instead used smart strategies on business, capital, and leadership. It takes more than one person to grow a business from the bottom up. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice control in the process. Armed with twenty-three years of experience as a financier, Rao shows readers how to optimize internal financing to attract external financing, to keep control of the venture—and more of the wealth.

This tells the story of Douglas Engelbart's revolutionary vision, reaching beyond conventional histories of Silicon Valley to probe the ideology that shaped some of the basic ingredients of contemporary life.

When Claire Hilyer receives a mysterious letter and package from her best friend Tony, she thinks it an unexpected romantic gesture. Then she learns Tony sent it over twenty-five years ago, before his birth. Intrigued, Claire visits Tony's house. She arrives in time to see him fighting a stranger, and a moment later, they vanish before her eyes into the past. Tony's package is a cry for help from 2017 to Claire. He must learn to survive without money, family or friends in an era before his birth. Meanwhile, a deadly enemy craves Tony's invention - a time travelling device - for his own deadly purposes and stalks him from the past and the future. Can Claire save Tony and bring him home before time runs out?

Probability with STEM Applications, Third Edition, is an accessible and well-balanced introduction to post-calculus applied probability. Integrating foundational mathematical theory and the application of probability in the real world, this leading textbook engages students with unique problem scenarios and more than 1100 exercises of varying levels of difficulty. The text uses a hands-on, software-oriented approach to the subject of probability. MATLAB and R examples and exercises — complemented by computer code that enables students to create their own simulations — demonstrate the importance of software to solve problems that cannot be obtained analytically. Revised and updated throughout, the textbook covers basic properties of probability, random variables and their probability distributions, a brief introduction to statistical inference, Markov chains, stochastic processes, and signal processing. This new edition is the perfect text for a one-semester course and contains enough additional material for an entire academic year. The blending of theory and application will appeal not only to mathematics and statistics majors but also to engineering students, and quantitative business and social science majors. New to this Edition: Offered as a traditional textbook and in enhanced ePub format, containing problems with show/hide solutions and interactive applets and illustrations Revised and expanded chapters on conditional probability and independence, families of continuous distributions, and Markov chains New problems and updated problem sets throughout Features: Introduces basic theoretical knowledge in the first seven chapters, serving as a self-contained textbook of roughly 650 problems Provides numerous up-to-date examples and problems in R and MATLAB Discusses examples from recent journal articles, classic problems, and various practical applications Includes a chapter specifically designed for electrical and computer engineers, suitable for a one-term class on random signals and noise Contains appendices of statistical tables, background mathematics, and important probability distributions

This dynamic business biography is packed with great stories and practical lessons from one of the most successful figures in the entertainment industry today.

Most technology startups never make it to the funding stage, and only a small percentage of those that are venture-backed generate a positive return for their investors. An even smaller number of startup founders enjoy a truly prosperous exit. Bernd Schoner cofounded his tech startup during the dot-com bust, navigated it through market crises and internal turmoil, brought it through the global financial meltdown intact, and eventually sold it to a multibillion-dollar, multinational public technology company. In The Tech Entrepreneur's Survival Guide, Bernd shares what he learned and what he wished he knew at the time. He explains the major phases in a technology company's life cycle, helping entrepreneurs avoid common pitfalls and survive crises when they strike. He guides readers from the initial bootstrapping process through venture-capital financing and provides valuable advice on how to sell a technology company profitably--even in a challenging economic environment. Every chapter presents solutions to realworld issues that could otherwise have fatal consequences for a tech venture. Aspiring tech entrepreneurs will learn to: Set up shop: build the team, assemble necessary startup assets (including technology and intellectual property), get legal and financial affairs in order Secure capital: ask for money, nail the term sheet, ask for more money Get out: know when to sell, who to sell to, and how to make it a happy exit for all stakeholders, including the employees Written with deep insight, refreshing candor, and a dash of humor, this comprehensive guide to the often harsh realities of startup life is indispensable for entrepreneurs at any stage. PRAISE FOR THE TECH ENTREPRENEUR'S SURVIVAL GUIDE: "A genuine narrative from the field, with battle scars and self-reflection. Reading this book will help you avoid many pitfalls." -- Nicholas Negroponte, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab "There's a lot of great insights and practical advice for the entrepreneur in this book, stuff you normally won't read or hear unless you buy some hard-bitten company founder a few drinks. If you are launching a technology startup, reading this book is the thing you should do first." -- Mark Roberti, founder and editor in chief of RFID Journal "I wish I had read Bernd's book when we founded The Echo Nest. Bernd touches on all the major issues in the initial formation stages of a tech company and many of the problems that come up when the company matures. If you are thinking of founding your own tech startup, read this book first." -- Tristan Jehan, cofounder of The Echo Nest "A visceral, behind-the-scenes guide to technology entrepreneurship. Bernd tells it like it is and presents a universe of solutions to tricky startup situations that can significantly improve the odds of success. Indispensable." -- Larry Begley, cofounder and managing director at .406 Ventures "The best-laid business plans never survive contact with reality. Bernd has provided a comprehensive guide to anticipating the unexpected in the life of a startup." -- Neil Gershenfeld, professor and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Bits and Atoms

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.