Funding & Financial Execution for Early-Stage Companies

Customer Reviews

The author treats the subject in a ready-to-use, practical terms. The book discusses the most important financial steps the startup must take - financial plannning, understanding and attracting the right kind of investment and the financial execution during the early stage. Along the way, the author discusses the issues that one can only gain by many years of experience. Highly recommend it.

Most start-up business plans (and books and guidelines offered by experts) concentrate on product and technology, some sales and marketing, and the team and their history. They leave out many critical issues that are covered here. Rod Hoagland unfolds and discusses the critical links and feedback loops between the financial plan and the rest of the business plan in a very practical and understandable manner.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are particularly timely in today's difficult fundraising environment. They cover many of the topics that must be considered for fund raising, including alternatives to equity financing.

Section Two of the book (Ch. 8-11) tackles the very complicated subject of financial execution. While one can not expect a CFO/COO to pop out of the box here, the issues covered provide a comprehensive To DO list. Many definitions and explanations are provided. Using this section, a new company can plan staffing and outsourcing requirements. The confusing and now controversial stock options are explained at a high level. While the details of an employee stock option plan exceed the scope of this book, the basic definitions and guidelines provided here are very helpful considerations for new companies.

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