First-Time Founder’s Guide to Startup Equity
The First-Time Founder’s Equity Bible™
The Equity Bible™ is a practical guide to raising startup capital, covering debt vs. equity, angels vs. VCs, cap tables, valuations, deal terms, and protecting founder ownership.
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CANNOT SAY ENOUGH — IF YOU’RE FUND RAISING (esp. FIRST TIMERS)
If you’re a startup looking to raise money this book is a MUST READ. Jerry and Ashton do a fabulous job explaining and making sense of almost all there is to know on the topic. They use MealNow — a startup going through this process — to explain with fantastic examples. I like the way they anticipate the reader’s questions, define terms and really understand the emotional process of fund raising.
I got the book and devoured it in one weekend. By the time I was done it was highlighted, scribbled, tagged and deeply appreciated. I was compelled to redo the valuation table, update our exec summary, figured out a strategy going forward. It’s our first round of funding and thanks to this book, we’re more confident than ever.
The book explains how to create a cap table step by step — this alone is worth getting it.
Informative, Effective, Digestible
The brevity in which it was written makes this guide nothing short of informative, effective, and easily digestible — a HUGE change from your run-of-the-mill educational books. As a student, I couldn’t recommend this book any more to those aspiring entrepreneurs out there.
Best 90 pages any entrepreneur or investor could read.
This is simply a must read. Gerry is a 5x founder, JD who teaches Venture Capital at Indiana University. Read this book if you want a better understanding of fundraising for your startup, gain perspective from the investor, or learn about certain types of equity and what pre and post-money valuation mean. It can be read in a weekend.
I run an Angel Investor group with 120 investors and look at about 400 opportunities a year — this is recommended reading for both groups.
Highly recommended for first-time or wannabe founders
This is an extremely well written book that helps any first-time founder better navigate the funding process. The narrative is written in an easy to understand way, and if any questions still persist, examples will help you determine the answer yourself. I strongly recommend this book to any wannabe founder.