Take control of your start-up - and watch it grow.

An analysis of success: By learning from both the mistakes and achievements of those before us, we can better craft our own approach to success. Award-winning professor of entrepreneurship Dileep Rao presents listeners with a detailed guide to success through his interviews and analysis of billion-dollar entrepreneurs (those who built a venture from startup to more than one billion dollars in sales and valuation) and 100-million-dollar entrepreneurs (start-up to $100 million).

Build your business without venture capital (VC) funding: While starting a business without outside help seems difficult, Rao is here to tell entrepreneurs that not only is it possible but it could very well lead to a more successful business. Rao shares how more than 90 percent of America’s billion-dollar entrepreneurs in the VC era (since 1946) avoided or delayed VC, and instead used finance-smart expertise - skills that combine business-smart, capital-smart, and leadership-smart strategies.

The right mix of internal and external financing: It takes more than one person to grow a business from the bottom up. But that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice control of the venture in the process. Armed with 23 years of experience as a financer, Rao tells listeners how to optimize internal financing so as to attract external financing. By keeping control of the venture, entrepreneurs keep more of the wealth as well.

Dileep Rao’s Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs shares with listeners:

• Pre-financing, financing and post-financing skills and strategies of finance-smart entrepreneurs
• The ins and outs of venture finance, applicable to anyone looking to start a business
• Tips on increasing capital productivity and attaining financially sustainable entrepreneurship

If you’ve enjoyed entrepreneurship-focused titles such as The Lean Startup, The $100 Startup, and Venture Deals, then Rao’s Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs is the next book for you.