Get Backed
"Anyone who comes to pitch on Shark Tank should read this book first!" --Barbara Corcoran, ABC's Shark Tank "I have seen literally thousands of companies trying to raise capital and know that a great pitch deck is critical. This book gives you the playbook for creating yours." --Naval Ravikant, cofounder and CEO, AngelList "I raised twice the amount of money I set out to in a mere five weeks. I'm naming my firstborn child after the Evans." --Slava Menn, cofounder and CEO, Fortified Bicycle HOW DO YOU LAUNCH THE VENTURE OF YOUR DREAMS? Get Backed isn't just about startup fundraising. It's a handbook for anyone who has an idea and needs to build relationships to get it off the ground. Over the last 3 years, entrepreneurs Evan Loomis and Evan Baehr have raised $45 million for their own ventures, including the second largest round on the fundraising platform AngelList. In Get Backed, they show you exactly what they and dozens of others did to raise money--even the mistakes they made--while sharing the secrets of the world's best storytellers, fundraisers, and startup accelerators. They'll also teach you how to use "the friendship loop", a step-by-step process that can be used to initiate and build relationships with anyone, from investors to potential cofounders. And, most of all, they'll help you create a pitch deck, building on the real-life examples of 15 ventures that have raised over $150 million. What's in the book? * The original pitch decks and fundraising strategies of 15 ventures that raised over $150 million * Email scripts that will get you a meeting with angel investors, venture capitalists, and potential board members * Pitching exercises developed by startup talent beds like Stanford University's d.school and Techstars * A breakdown of the 10 essential pitch deck slides, how to create them, and what questions you should answer with each * An overview of the 5 main funding sources for startups, the pros and cons of each, and who the big players are * A crash-course in visual and presentation design that will make any deck beautiful * Templates for 4 stories every entrepreneur should know how to tell * The story of one entrepreneur who showed up in Silicon Valley with no network and six months later had investments from Fred Anderson, Bono, and Peter Thiel Get Backed will show you exactly what it takes to get funded and will give you the tools to make any idea a reality.
Crowdfunding Basics in 30 Minutes
Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe can not only help you raise money to fund your idea or cause, they can also help establish a community of enthusiastic supporters. This crowdfunding book by author and crowdfunding expert Michael J. Epstein will show you how!
Legal Forms for Starting and Running a Small Business
Create solid contracts for your business As a small business owner, you can't afford to farm paperwork and contracts out to a lawyer--you have to deal with them yourself. With Legal Forms for Starting & Running a Small Business, you can act with confidence. Here you'll find the forms you need to start and grow your business. Each document comes with thorough, plain-English, line-by-line instructions to help you: write contracts hire employees and consultants protect your trade secrets create noncompete agreements prepare corporate bylaws prepare an LLC operating agreement record minutes of meetings borrow or lend money buy a business lease commercial space buy real estate, and much more The 10th edition has been thoroughly reviewed and updated by Nolo's experts, and provides the most up-to-date legal information for small businesses.
The following are some of the books on entrepreneurship offered by MATC Libraries. To find more, click this link.
Dear Founder
Maynard Webb--Silicon Valley angel investor, board member at Salesforce and Visa, former chairman of the board at Yahoo!, and former CEO of LiveOps and COO of eBay--has long been considered one of Silicon Valley's most trusted sources of advice for entrepreneurs. Known for sharing his insight through personal letters to new company founders and entrepreneurs, Webb now reveals to all business readers what he has previously counseled to a private audience. Dear Founder, a collection of more than eighty thoughtful, wise, and wide-ranging letters, is rich with sound advice on an array of business topics: how to hire your first employees, how to build and manage culture, how to raise money, how to set and reach goals, how to scale, and how to think about legacy. These and dozens of other business-critical subjects are addressed with a blend of empathy, humor, candor, tough-love, and hard-won wisdom from more than forty years in a range of businesses from start-ups to established companies. Dear Founder is an invaluable book for anyone who wants to lead and succeed in any business.
Straight Talk for Startups
"Straight Talk for Startups memorializes age-old best practices and empowers both experienced and new investment professionals to beat the odds."--David Krane, CEO, Google Ventures "Straight Talk for Startups is filled with real, raw, and fact-based 'rules of the road' that you need to know when diving into our ultra-competitive startup world. A must read and a re-read!"--Tony Fadell, Coinventor of the iPod/iPhone & Founder of Nest Labs Veteran venture capitalist Randy Komisar and finance executive Jantoon Reigersman share no-nonsense, counterintuitive guidelines to help anyone build a successful startup. Over the course of their careers, Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman continue to see startups crash and burn because they forget the timeless lessons of entrepreneurship. But, as Komisar and Reigersman show, you can beat the odds if you quickly learn what insiders know about what it takes to build a healthy foundation for a thriving venture. In Straight Talk for Startups they walk budding entrepreneurs through 100 essential rules--from pitching your idea to selecting investors to managing your board to deciding how and when to achieve liquidity. Culled from their own decades of experience, as well as the experiences of their many successful colleagues and friends, the rules are organized under broad topics, from "Mastering the Fundamentals" and "Selecting the Right Investors," to "The Ideal Fundraise," "Building and Managing Effective Boards," and "Achieving Liquidity." Vital rules you'll find in Straight Talk for Startups include: The best ideas originate from founders who are users Create two business plans: an execution plan and an aspirational plan Net income is an option, but cash flow is a fact Don't accept money from strangers Personal wealth doesn't equal good investing Small boards are better than big ones Add independent board members for expertise and objectivity Too many unanimous board decisions are a sign of trouble Choose an acquirer, don't wait to be chosen Learn the rules by heart so you know when to break them Filled with helpful real-life examples and specific, actionable advice, Straight Talk for Startups is the ideal handbook for anyone running, working for, or thinking about creating a startup, or just curious about what makes high-potential ventures tick.
Business Model Generation
Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation. Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition. Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you're ready to change the rules, you belong to "the business model generation!"
In the Business of Change
Meet the social entrepreneurs who are using business to disrupt the status quo and rebuild their communities Our communities are facing the fallout from the demise of vital industry, bankrupt economies, bad policy or policing, and political mismanagement. People are looking for answers, and the "same old" simply won't do. In the Business of Change is a practical and inspirational guide that showcases how social entrepreneurs from places such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver, who are weary of waste, injustice, and government inaction, are using business savvy to tackle challenges in their communities. Part storytelling, part lessons learned, coverage includes: Profiles of remarkable individuals and companies in such diverse sectors as employment, food, art, education, and social justice An overview of lessons learned and real impacts on the ground Tips for getting started, connecting to the local community, and scaling up. In the Business of Change is for everyone who wants to rebuild their communities and believes that business can be a powerful, positive force for change.
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The 1-Page Marketing Plan
WARNING: Do Not Read This Book If You Hate Money To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn't get done. InThe 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and rebellious marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast. It's literally a single page, divided up into nine squares. With it, you'll be able to map out your own sophisticated marketing plan and go from zero to marketing hero. Whether you're just starting out or are an experienced entrepreneur,The 1-Page Marketing Plan is the easiest and fastest way to create a marketing plan that will propel your business growth. In this groundbreaking new book you'll discover: * How to get new customers, clients or patients and how to make more profit from existing ones. * Why "big business" style marketing could kill your business and strategies that actually work for small and medium-sized businesses. * How to close sales without being pushy, needy, or obnoxious while turning the tables and having prospects begging you to take their money. * A simple step-by-step process for creating your own personalized marketing plan that is literally one page. Simply follow along and fill in each of the nine squares that make up your own 1-Page Marketing Plan. * How to annihilate competitors and make yourself the only logical choice. * How to get amazing results on a small budget using the secrets of direct response marketing. * How to charge high prices for your products and services and have customers actually thank you for it.
One Perfect Pitch
What's YOUR story? In the hypercompetitive world of Silicon Valley, this question has replaced "What's your pitch?" It's another way of asking, "Who are you?" The art of the pitch is nothing short of a survival skill. If an entrepreneur can't convince an investor in 10 minutes that a business idea has potential, that is often the end of it.