New Book Helps Entrepreneurs to Grow Their Business With Customer's Cash

Hoboken, NJ

More than two generations ago, the venture capital community - VCs, business angels, incubators and others - convinced the entrepreneurial world that writing business plans and raising venture capital constituted the twin centrepieces of entrepreneurial endeavour. They did so for good reasons: the sometimes astonishing returns they've delivered to their investors and the astonishingly large companies that their ecosystem has created.

But the vast majority of fast-growing companies never take any venture capital. So where does the money come from to start and grow their companies?

In his new book, Customer-Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins explains how this funding comes from a much more agreeable and hospitable source - the customers. In The Customer-Funded Business, Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that innovative 21st century entrepreneurs, working in companies large and small, have ingeniously adapted from their predecessors. These cover:

Matchmaker models (Airbnb)
Pay-in-advance models (Threadless)
Subscription models (TutorVista)
Scarcity models (Vente Privee)
Service-to-product models (GoViral)

... models that entrepreneurs such as Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Banana Republic's Mel and Patricia Ziegler also used to get their companies up and running and turn them into iconic brands.

Through the captivating stories of these and other inspiring companies from around the world, Mullins brings to life the five models and identifies the questions that angel or other investors will - and should! - ask of entrepreneurs or corporate innovators seeking to apply them. Drawing on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and investors who have actually put these models to use, Mullins goes on to address the key implementation issues that characterize each of the models: when to apply them, how best to apply them and the pitfalls to watch out for.

Whether readers are aspiring entrepreneurs lacking the start-up capital they need, an early-stage entrepreneur trying to get their cash-starved venture into take-off mode, an intrapreneur seeking funding within an established company, or an angel investor or mentor who supports high-potential ventures, this book offers a sure-footed path to starting, financing or growing their venture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

JOHN MULLINS, PhD, an Associate Professor of Management Practice in Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, is one of the world's most authoritative and best-known voices on the creation, financing, and growth of entrepreneurial ventures. A veteran of three such ventures, including one he took public, his previous books are the go-to sources on the assessment of entrepreneurial opportunities (The New Business Road Test) and on the creation of breakthrough business models (the widely acclaimed Getting to Plan B, with Randy Komisar). John is a frequent speaker to communities of entrepreneurs and their teams, CEOs of fast-growing companies, and investors therein.