The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash

Who needs investors?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 centerpieces of entrepreneurial endeavor. So where does the money come from to start and grow their companies? From a much more agreeable and hospitable source, their customers. That's exactly what Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Banana Republic's Mel and Patricia Ziegler did to get their companies up and running and turn them into iconic brands.In The Customer Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that scrappy and innovative 21st century entrepreneurs working in companies large and small have ingeniously adapt

The book for the rest of us Amarsh John has done it again! A book that I can relate to. I = a middle class aspiring Entrepreneur who is NOT living in Silicon Valley.The sexy model I see people following in the startup space is - get an idea, do a three months lean startup, get seed funded (or join a startup accelerator) and then look for series A. I see my Lean startup friends talking about number of visitors to their website, number of downloads of their apps, amount of . before you take the cash, explore your options! I've read both The Customer Funded Business and John's other book, Getting to Plan B. I loved them both and gained great insights and the needed inspiration to make changes. I read Getting to Plan B when my business was small (about $2M in sales). It provided a philosophy of thinking that allowed us to grow (with our hard work) by over 20% annually for the last ten years. During that time we radically changed how we earn our income and s. Very Insightful John Seiffer Mullins describes 5 different models that companies have followed to launch using customer funds. He gives examples of each - mini case studies of firms you've heard about (in most cases). He shares why these models work, why they may or may not work in other circumstances. He then outlines what to look out for if you want to apply that model to your company - or to a company you may be investing in.Too many business books focus on a top

"One of five 'not-to-be missed' books, 2014. Verne Harnish, Fortune Magazinethere s inspiration aplenty for entrepreneurs looking to do things their own way. What is says is such good common sense that it s amazing it took so long to be written. (Elite Business, August 2014) Mullins is a good corporate storyteller, which is what makes this book an engaging read. (Talk Business, September 2014) No matter what sort of business you re actually contemplating starting, this is a book you want to read. (Entrepreneur Middle East, September 2014) a great book that any aspiring entrepreneur should read. (The Telegraph, December 2014) . (Financial Times, August 2014) A truly different, but comprehensive way of looking at the issue of funding, this book will set the idea juices flowing