Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs: Venture Finance Without Venture Capital

Written by Dileep Rao

Narrated by Sam Devereaux

Take Control of Your Startup—and Watch it Grow
An analysis of success: By learning from both the mistakes and achievements of those before us, we can better craft our 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 billion-dollar entrepreneurs (those who built a venture from startup to more than $1 billion in sales and valuation) and 100 million-dollar entrepreneurs (startup to $100 million).

Build your business without venture capital (VC) funding: While starting a business without outside help seems difficult, Rao is here to show entrepreneurs that not only is it possible, but it could very well lead to a more successful business. Rao shares how more than 90 percent of America’s billion-dollar entrepreneurs in the VC era (since 1946) avoided or delayed VC, and instead used finance-smart expertise—skills that combine business-smart, capital-smart, and leadership-smart strategies.

The right mix of internal and external financing: It takes more than one person to grow a business from the bottom up. But that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice control of the venture in the process. Armed with 23 years of experience as a financer, Rao shows readers how to optimize internal financing so as to attract external financing. By keeping control of the venture, entrepreneurs keep more of the wealth, as well.

Dileep Rao’s Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs shares with readers:

Pre-financing, financing and post-financing skills and strategies of finance-smart entrepreneurs
The ins and outs of venture finance, applicable to anyone looking to start a business
Tips on increasing capital productivity and attaining financially sustainable entrepreneurship
If you’ve enjoyed entrepreneurship-focused titles such as The Lean Startup, The $100 Startup, and Venture Deals, then Rao’s Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs is the next book for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Everand Productions
• Release date: Nov 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781094411682

Dileep Rao

 Dileep Rao, PhD, has been a financier for 23 years and has financed hundreds of businesses and real estate projects. In that time he has also founded four ventures and managed five turnarounds. He has consulted on new business development with Fortune 1000 corporations, including Medtronic and General Mills. An award-winning Professor of Entrepreneurship at Florida International University has also taught at Harvard University, Stanford University, INCAE (Costa Rica), and the University of Minnesota. Rao is the author of nationally acclaimed books that include: Business Financing: 25 Keys to Raising Money (NY Times Pocket MBA Series), Finance Any Business Intelligently, Handbook of Business Finance & Capital Sources (Co-Publisher: American Management Assn, NY), Bootstrap to Billions, Nothing Ventured, Everything Gained: How Entrepreneurs Create, Control & Retain Wealth Without Venture Capital. He is entrepreneurial Finance Columnist for Forbes.com and has two engineering degrees and a doctorate in business administration from the University of Minnesota.

Reviews for Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs

[Sara Jilani · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful book to think outside of the box of "I just started a business and I need to get VC funding right away"!

[Andrea Berndt · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

All the insight you need is within the first 45 minutes after that it is just repetition in order to fill pages. I started happy to listen but found myself nearly enraged near the end whenever he said the term "VC"

[Adam coy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A couple of bits of info repated 1000 times. Far too repetative cor my liking

[Logan Speights · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not worth your time. To summarize, don’t use VC. Then say the same obvious things over and over and over again

[David Anderson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent book I learned a it. about business and venture capital

[OmarEl-Mohri · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Far from “Secrets” but I see this as insights for the financial of startups