You’re only a startup CEO once. Do it well with Startup CEO, a "master class in building a business." —Dick Costolo, Former CEO, Twitter Being a startup CEO is a job like no other: it’s difficult, risky, stressful, lonely, and often learned through trial and error. As a startup CEO seeing things for the first time, you’re likely to make mistakes, fail, get things wrong, and feel like you don’t have any control over outcomes. Author Matt Blumberg has been there, and in Startup CEO he shares his experience, mistakes, and lessons learned as he guided Return Path from a handful of employees and no revenues to over $100 million in revenues and 500 employees. Startup CEO is not a memoir of Return Path's 20-year journey but a thoughtful CEO-focused book that provides first-time CEOs with advice, tools, and approaches for the situations that startup CEOs will face. You'll learn: How to tell your story to new hires, investors, and customers for greater alignment How to create a values-based culture for speed and engagement How to create business and personal operating systems so that you can balance your life and grow your company at the same time How to develop, lead, and leverage your board of directors for greater impact How to ensure that your company is bought, not sold, when you exit Startup CEO is the field guide every CEO needs throughout the growth of their company.

One of the greatest challenges for startup teams is scaling because usually there's not a blueprint to follow, people are learning their function as they go, and everyone is wearing multiple hats. There can be lots of trial and error, lots of missteps, and lots of valuable time and money squandered as companies scale. Matt Blumberg and his team understand the scaling challenges—they've been there, and it took them nearly 20 years to scale and achieve a successful exit. Along the way they learned what worked and what didn’t work, and they share their lessons learned in Startup CXO. Unlike other business books, Startup CXO is designed to help each functional leader understand how their function scales, what to anticipate as they scale, and what things to avoid. Beyond providing function-specific advice, tools, and tactics, Startup CXO is a resource for each team member to learn about the other functions, understand other functional challenges, and get greater clarity on how to collaborate effectively with the other functional leads. CEOs, Board members, and investors have a book they can consult to pinpoint areas of weakness and learn how to turn those into strengths. Startup CXO has in-depth chapters covering the nine most common functions in startups: finance, people, marketing, sales, customers, business development, product, operations, and privacy. Each functional section has a "CEO to CEO Advice" summary from Blumberg on what great looks like for that CXO, signs your CXO isn't scaling, and how to engage with your CXO. Startup CXO also has a section on the future of executive work, fractional and interim roles. Written by leading practitioners in the newly emergent fractional executive world, each function is covered with useful tips on how to be a successful fractional executive as well as what to look for and how to manage fractional executives. Startup CXO is an amazing resource for CEOs but also for functional leaders and professionals at any stage of their career." —Scott Dorsey, Managing Partner, High Alpha

Having good financial management is critical to the survival of startups and small and medium businesses. Unfortunately, financial management is often an overlooked aspect for many entrepreneurs. This leads to an increased risk in a business failing due to financial constraints or unforeseen pitfalls.It's intended that this book can be learning material for many different people and businesses, regardless of your stage or financial experience. We cover the basics of business finance and specifically how these functions apply to growing businesses. We also discuss the different focuses a CFO holds and how these roles help navigate the scaling of businesses.

An engaging guide to excelling in today's venture capital arena Beginning in 2005, Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, managing directors at Foundry Group, wrote a long series of blog posts describing all the parts of a typical venture capital Term Sheet: a document which outlines key financial and other terms of a proposed investment. Since this time, they've seen the series used as the basis for a number of college courses, and have been thanked by thousands of people who have used the information to gain a better understanding of the venture capital field. Drawn from the past work Feld and Mendelson have written about in their blog and augmented with newer material, Venture Capital Financings puts this discipline in perspective and lays out the strategies that allow entrepreneurs to excel in their start-up companies. Page by page, this book discusses all facets of the venture capital fundraising process. Along the way, Feld and Mendelson touch on everything from how valuations are set to what externalities venture capitalists face that factor into entrepreneurs' businesses. Includes a breakdown analysis of the mechanics of a Term Sheet and the tactics needed to negotiate Details the different stages of the venture capital process, from starting a venture and seeing it through to the later stages Explores the entire venture capital ecosystem including those who invest in venture capitalist Contain standard documents that are used in these transactions Written by two highly regarded experts in the world of venture capital The venture capital arena is a complex and competitive place, but with this book as your guide, you'll discover what it takes to make your way through it.

Entrepreneurs who dream of building the next Amazon, Facebook, or Google can take advantage of one of the most powerful economic engines the world has ever known: venture capital. To do so, you need to woo, impress, and persuade venture capitalists to take a risk on an unproven idea. That task is challenge enough. But choosing the right investor can be harder still. Even if you manage to get backing, you want your VC to be a partner, not some adversary who will undermine your vision in order to make a quick return. Jeffrey Bussgang is one of a few people who have played on both sides of this high-stakes game. By his early thirties, he had helped build two successful start-ups-one went public, the other was acquired. Now he draws on his experience and unique perspective on the "other side" as a venture capitalist helping entrepreneurs bring their dreams to fruition. Bussgang offers detailed insights, colorful stories, and practical advice gathered from his own experience as well as from interviews with dozens of the most successful players on both sides of the game, including Twitter's Jack Dorsey and LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman. He reveals how to get noticed, perfect a pitch, and negotiate a partnership that works for everyone. An insider's guide to the secrets of the world venture capital, Mastering the VC Game will prove invaluable for entrepreneurs seeking capital and successful partnerships.

It’s vital for startup founders to understand how to wisely deploy their funds and undertake financial decision-making. This book covers all aspects like budgeting, financial planning, costing, pricing, capital structure, capital budgeting, investment decision-making, accounting, financial management, taxation, corporate governance, ethical practices, and usage of technology in finance and can guide startup founders with a tech or non-finance background regarding how to manage finance at their startups. Managing the finances is a vital skill that startup founders must develop because, at the initial stages, there is a lack of full-time competent finance professionals on their payrolls. The key aspects discussed in this book would sensitize and educate startup founders to understand the importance of various financial aspects and be in a much better position to engage with financial experts regarding these important issues. Thus, it would reduce the total dependence of startup founders on their Chartered accountants and finance domain professionals.

Business owners believe that if sales and profits are strong and growing, banks should enthusiastically provide the necessary funding. Bankers are concerned that business owners do not understand the difference between profits and cash flow, and may overly rely on debt to support the growth. CPAs provide valuable information in the form of financial statements, but often struggle with explaining how they should be interpreted. This book bridges the communication gap between these parties, and describes in simple and easy to understand language what it all means. What key indicators to look at and why. What the rules of behavior are for dealing with the banker and CPA. The Excel-based workbook that is available on the author's website makes it easy by doing all the calculations automatically, including the ability to forecast profits, cash flow and financial strength. It is critical that the business owner, banker, and CPA understand each other. Give it 60 minutes a month. That's all it takes to make it happen.

The founder of the technology incubator Startworks provides “a useful all-in-one blueprint to cover all aspects of putting together a successful company” (Young Upstarts). Are you wondering how to turn your great new business idea into a successful company? Here’s the roadmap. In Great from the Start, John Montgomery combines three decades of experience as one of America’s preeminent corporate lawyers with the wisdom of a wide range of startup industry veterans to offer the business secrets of Silicon Valley as an essential blueprint for any entrepreneur wishing to start a successful company. From raising venture capital to building a balanced team, from designing your culture to managing a board of directors, this book will help you experience the joy of building a successful company. Finally, if you are a leader who aspires to operate from the heart, believes in abundance and plays power with instead of power over, Great from the Start suggests how you can leverage neuroscience and the science of consciousness to inspire and lead your corporation so that it is optimized for the people that work there. “I have always struggled to communicate the multiple other relevant priorities, and the other intangibles required for a great execution. I found many of these in a new book, Great from the Start, by John B. Montgomery, which does a great job of laying out specifics, but also starts with a good summary of the intangibles, summarized as the five rules of relevancy.” —Martin Zwilling, Forbes “A high impact book.” —Raj Sisodia, coauthor, Firms of Endearment and Conscious Capitalism, and founder Conscious Capitalism Institute

From goals to product to investors KEY FEATURES ● Product management. ● Recruiting co-founders and core team. ● Pitching to investors. DESCRIPTION This book has been written for budding startup founders. Startups are complex organizations, and it becomes very difficult to succeed without knowing the startup best practices. The book teaches startup best practices in a simple and concise manner. The book covers best practices related to startup lifecycle, product management, co-founder management, core team recruitment, startup funding, pitch deck creation and much more. It also covers the best practices, that the author learned while working under the famous entrepreneur Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm. A must read for any budding entrepreneur, the book is an easy-to-understand guide on various best practices an entrepreneur needs to follow, across the stages in the startup lifecycle. It tries to make every topic interesting and easy to learn using the techniques of visual thinking. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ● Understand startup best practices. ● Understand product management. ● Understand issues in human resource management for startups. ● Understand startup investors. ● Create a good pitch deck. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR This book has been written for the budding entrepreneurs who want to learn startup best practices. No prior knowledge of any kind is required to understand the book. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction to Startup Canvas 2. Product 3. People 4. Purchasing Power 5. Conclusion: When Should I Start a Startup

An essential guide to understanding the dynamics of a startup's board of directors Let's face it, as founders and entrepreneurs, you have a lot on your plate—getting to your minimum viable product, developing customer interaction, hiring team members, and managing the accounts/books. Sooner or later, you have a board of directors, three to five (or even seven) Type A personalities who seek your attention and at times will tell you what to do. While you might be hesitant to form a board, establishing an objective outside group is essential for startups, especially to keep you on track, call you out when you flail, and in some cases, save you from yourself. In Startup Boards, Brad Feld—a Boulder, Colorado-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist—shares his experience in this area by talking about the importance of having the right board members on your team and how to manage them well. Along the way, he shares valuable insights on various aspects of the board, including how they can support you, help you understand your startup's milestones and get to them faster, and hold you accountable. Details the process of choosing board members, including interviewing many people, checking references, and remembering that there should be no fear in rejecting a wrong fit Explores the importance of running great meetings, mixing social time with business time, and much more Recommends being a board member yourself at some other organization so you see the other side of the equation Engaging and informative, Startup Boards is a practical guide to one of the most important pieces of the startup puzzle.