I wrote the book, StartFast!, five years ago. It's still relevant, still getting five star reviews on Amazon, but I've learned so much more in the last five years. StartFast! covers the process of taking a business from idea to startup. I plan to write two more books to complete the StartFast! Trilogy. Faster to Scale! will be about hacking growth, revenue and profits. The third book will be called Investor Ready! and will cover the process of deciding whether your business is venture investable and if so, how to get ready for fund raising, how to conduct a raise, get through due diligence and close. I envision a boxed-set of all three books, intended to be the "bibles" of everyone who goes through our StartFast Venture Accelerator.
I hope to write these next two books this fall and have them ready by year-end. This time, I'm going to market the books broadly. With the original StartFast!, I've probably given away more copies than Amazon has sold. Perhaps I'll crowd-fund these next two and the boxed-set. There are lots of blogs about crowdfunding a book (e.g. http://tommorkes.com/the-complete-guide-to-crowdfunding-your-book/) and lots of platforms to choose from (e.g. ChipIn, EquityNet, Pledgie, Sellaband, IndieGoGo, GiveForward, FundRazr, Kickstarter, RocketHub, Fundly, GoFundMe, Microventures and Fundageek). In fact, there are hundreds of crowdfunding sites and options well described with pros and cons on crowd101. I'll certainly apply the knowledge of experts like Jane Friedman. The purpose of crowd-funding is three-fold, to:
Why are these new books needed? Beginning with Faster to Scale - Hacking Growth, Revenue and Profits to Quickly Attain Business Success, there are many books about growth hacking, but none so far which give the succinct, no-nonsense, step-by-step approach of StartFast!. Faster to Scale begins by helping the reader categorizing the kind of business they are building. Then, based on the type of business, offers a step-by-step approach for creating scale in that business quickly and in a capital-efficient manner.“Growth hacking is about running smart experiments to drive growth within your business." says Sean Ellis, "refocusing of the relationship between product and growth, where product creates the market potential and growth fulfills that potential. Building a culture of experimentation (and being accountable for the results of those experiments) is the most crucial element when building a company focused on growth. " Sound advise for which Faster to Scale provides the roadmap and action plan.Investor Ready is the third book. It succinctly and clearly lays out the steps for deciding if and how to fund your business, finding investors, building a winning pitch deck, surviving due diligence and closing. This book removes the mystery from the funding process. My intention in writing all three books is the same - to help entrepreneurs. I feel that these additional two books are sorely needed as more and more entrepreneurs look to move forward. If you want to see the lessons at work, please schedule a visit to StartFast, or ask to meet with one of our graduates. If you think these books are a good idea and agree that I should launch a crowd-funding campaign to get them written and published, please subscribe to this blog as your "vote of confidence."
