A summary of things you should know about Venture Capital according to Elaine Leong: Introduction In this episode Elaine Leong takes a deep dive into her and Kaiwen Leongs’ book,Read More
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]]>In this episode Elaine Leong takes a deep dive into her and Kaiwen Leongs’ book, Venture Capital where she teaches you how to raise funds for your business startup.
In her book, Leong shows you how to avoid the mistakes most businesses make and shares some secret tips and tricks to taking your business to the top when it comes to funding. The goal of the book is to bring you into the mind of successful venture capitalists to shape your experience in growing your business.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs trying to raise venture capital funds and need real-life financing advice from experienced venture capitalists and angel investors.
Kaiwen Leong and his colleague Wenyou Tan have the experience in helping others and the information is given in a way that is really for the absolute beginner.
If they are new to this I think they should read it from front to back. But if they have some experience I think they can jump in and out based on the chapters that they feel are most relevant to them.
If I had to choose one principle I would choose one from one of the case studies that we gave. This principle basically teaches you that you can get anything you want if you are creative enough about it and put enough effort into it.
Each chapter in this book is broken up into three parts. The first part is the appetizer which is just a brief overview about what the chapter is about.
The second part is the main course which is the meat of the chapter and gives advice on the topic that we listed in the brief overview.
The third part is the dessert portion and this is personal stories that we’ve come across and these tell specific lessons that are tied to the specific chapter itself. We find that people enjoy the dessert section the most simply because experience is one of the things you can’t buy. Apart from that we have a section called silverware which is geared towards those who are not so familiar with financial and entrepreneur terms. Some people only tell the success stories but we believe that it is equally important to inform the reader on what not to do because avoiding the mistakes is almost as important as doing the right thing.
In each chapter we have categorizations of different entrepreneurs. The first one is about the topnotch people who actually make it to the top.
The second category is the in-betweeners who are just average entrepreneurs. And the third category is the no hope entrepreneurs and these are entrepreneurs who do terribly.
We tried to structure the book in a way that is intuitive to a beginner. So we start off with what you need to get to the top. After this brief introduction to Venture Capital we launch into the tools that you need which includes how to give the elevator speech and how to write a business plan.
We hope that Venture Capital will really help beginner entrepreneurs understand the whole VC landscape better.
“Think creatively and put in a lot of effort and you will get something out of it.” – Elaine Leong
I graduated from Princeton last year. I have some experience in investments, division, and now also in some multinational banks. I have written a lot and also co-authored six different books so far.
Kaiwen and I’s first book was Singapore’s Lost Son and that was a biography about his life, how he made it from a drop-out to a millionaire Princeton PhD holder. Kaiwen was a social entrepreneur and created social enterprises to help the underprivileged but also make it sustainable. Before he chose which underprivileged group to help he did some extensive research and found out that the people who need the most help may not be the people who first come to mind. People who do need help and are not receiving it were actually ex-convicts. And what he found was that these people were making a lot before through illegal means and they were also used to being in a position of authority. He decided to train these people and teach them how to be entrepreneurs and help channel their energy to be productive. When the success stories from this project hit the newspapers people started approaching him and expressed interest which is how the book started.
Singapore’s Lost Son by Kaiwen Leong
Buy Venture Capital by Kaiwen Leong and Elaine Leong on Amazon today
Follow Elaine Leong on Facebook
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Zero To One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters | Show Me The Money by Alan Barrell | The Responsible Entrepreneur by Carol Sanford
Relevant advice and tips: Top Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Creating a New Business
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Show Me The Money according to Alan Barrell: Introduction In this episode Alan Barrell takes a deep dive into his book, ShowRead More
The post A Preview of Show Me The Money with Alan Barrell appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode Alan Barrell takes a deep dive into his book, Show Me The Money where he takes you on a real-life journey of creating a new business.
In his book, Barrell walks you through situations based on practitioners who got the basic right, know where the money is, have prepared for fundraising, know how to manage intellectual property, and understand the value their company brings.
This book is perfect for the entrepreneur that plans on utilizing investors to fund a startup and have difficulty managing the external factors involved in doing business.
It’s different by degrees – it is written by practitioners and not by academics. It’s based on expertise gained over the years. There are lots of case studies in this book talking about the real world and the basics.
It depends on the reader. You could read from front to back or skip around if you feel the need.
I would want the reader to take out of the book that the most important factor in everything we are writing about and thinking about is people. The most important thing if you are dealing with investors is the issue of real understanding and trust.
In chapter one the book begins with the first principles. We are very heavy on insisting that people really assess their viability and make sure they are ready before getting it going. If you haven’t started a company you need to really think hard about whether you should and whether you are ready to do so. And when you start the company it is important to get the basics right. We see so many companies that start to do well and then they find that they don’t have the basics in place. You need your basics, management accounts, and proper process in place from day one. We spend a lot of time in the book insisting you think about these basics.
Once you have your basics down you will need money to start your business and in chapter two we go over the market for money. I talk about where the money is generally, what money you can get and what the options are that you have. I always tell my students that the best source of money we will find is our own customers.
In chapter three we get into the whole issue of preparing for fundraising. This is something I have spent a vast amount of my life doing with young people and with myself. The preparation for fundraising is so important and in this chapter we are trying to get the reader to think about the sources and investors. You will need to prepare yourself very carefully for the encounter you will have with these people.
In chapter four we look at competitiveness and in some detail at intellectual property and how to manage that. When it comes to intellectual property you must work with the experts. Nobody in my view should try and do a deal of any magnitude without a smart lawyer at their right hand.
In chapter five we look in a bit more detail at some of the new sources of funding that I have spoken about such as impact investing, venture philanthropy and grants.
In chapter six we deal with the often very difficult subject of valuation and financial ratios. Very often entrepreneurs falter at the stage of valuation and of course the investors will try and value the company at a lower value than the entrepreneur. Valuation is not all about calculations and mathematics it is about understanding the market for money and how investors will value your company.
In the final chapter of the book we talk about what to do after it is all over with, after you’ve been paid. The important element we go over is managing your investors and we also get into the conflict that can occur between the different investor directors. We also talk about the skills needed to help manage the investors who put a significant amount of money into your company. And in this chapter of the book we refer to the need to make sure that you have a clear view in your mind of the complete supply chain of money.
“You look at things and ask why but I dream of things that never were and ask why not.” – Unknown
I live in the wonderful city of Cambridge where I would say we have the closes thing to Silicon Valley. I work part-time at the University of Cambridge as the Entrepreneur in Residence. I’ve done a lot of work with larger companies. I’m a scientist, turned businessman, turned investor.
The main inspiration was a huge interest in new business creation. It’s the new businesses and startups that are driving the economy of the world. I am passionate about new company startups as a means of growing economies and societies.
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jerry Porras and Jim Collins
Buy Show Me The Money by Alan Barrell on Amazon today
Visit AlanBarrell.com to learn more about Alan
Follow Alan Barrell on Twitter
For questions contact Alan by email here
Download the full transcript here
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Walk Away Wealthy by Mark Tepper | From Idea to Exit by Jeffrey Weber | PACE by Jesse Mecham
Relevant advice and tips: Top Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Creating a New Business
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
The post A Preview of Show Me The Money with Alan Barrell appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
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