Build the Damn Thing
How to Start a Successful Business If You're Not a Rich White Guy
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The Wall Street Journal Bestseller featured in Bloomberg, Fast Company, Masters of Scale, the Motley Fool, Marketplace and more.
An indispensable guide to building a startup and breaking down the barriers for diverse entrepreneurs from the visionary venture capitalist and pioneering entrepreneur Kathryn Finney.
Build the Damn Thing is a hard-won, battle-tested guide for every entrepreneur who the establishment has left out. Finney, an investor and startup champion, explains how to build a business from the ground up, from developing a business plan to finding investors, growing a team, and refining a product. Finney empowers entrepreneurs to take advantage of their unique networks and resources; arms readers with responses to investors who say, “great pitch but I just don’t do Black women”; and inspires them to overcome naysayers while remaining “100% That B*tch.”
Don’t wait for the system to let you in—break down the door and build your damn thing. For all the Builders striving to build their businesses in a world that has overlooked and underestimated them: this is the essential guide to knowing, breaking, remaking and building your own rules of entrepreneurship in a startup and investing world designed for and by the “Entitleds.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Anyone can build a startup," according to this encouraging guide from investor and entrepreneur Finney (How to Be a Budget Fashionista), but what the "Entitleds"—Finney's term for rich white guys in the business world—don't want people to know is that the start-up game is "based on everything but merit," and "Builders" (nonwhite entrepreneurs) "always play on a harder level." She recounts her own story creating a "media empire," writing that the "path to success isn't a straight line." To help level the start-up playing field, she offers a wealth of practical tips on all the steps for building a company. She advises on landing on an idea ("find a painful enough problem that many people are willing to pay for your solution"), crafting an elevator pitch (with a fill-in-the-blank template), defining company values and building a team that aligns with them (every company needs four archetypes, "the Doer, the Lieutenant, the Strategist, and the Economist"), and securing funding (a crowdfunding draft email helps). Finney has a realistic but inspiring perspective on what it takes to succeed, and quotes from Lizzo, Mariah Carey, and Cardi B are a fun touch. This is worth a look for aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs alike.
