The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash

Praise for The Customer-Funded Business

“This is THE cornerstone idea for entrepreneurs—to shun all other avenues first and pursue customers to fund their venture. This provides a critical forcing function business leaders need, in order to guarantee they are creating something truly valuable. After learning this lesson the hard way (raising angel funds and failing), my two latest ventures have followed Mullins' sage advice and flourished.”

—Verne Harnish,CEO Gazelles;Author of Scaling Up and Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

“The customer is not just king, he can be your VC too! John Mullins' brilliance has inspired my own success for many years and his ideas can drive yours as well.”

—Bernard AuyangEntrepreneur and investor;International Chairman 2014–15, Young Presidents' Organization

“Mullins has connected the dots. His clarity of insight blazes through in the five crisp models of the customer-funded business. He sharpens our understanding of how to use the power of market innovations and customer traction to fund emerging businesses. A great set of tools for the new and experienced entrepreneur.”

—Jerry EngelGeneral Partner, Monitor Venture Partners;Adjunct Professor Emeritus,Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley

“John Mullins' sage advice for entrepreneurs and the investors who back them is just as important for established companies that are trying to unlock innovation and growth. Customer funding is a powerful approach that too many businesses have ...