Build the Damn Thing

How to Start a Successful Business If You're Not a Rich White Guy

By: Kathryn Finney

Narrated by: Kathryn Finney

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

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 start-up 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 start-up 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 listeners 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 Percent 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 start-up and investing world designed for and by the "Entitleds".

©2022 Kathryn Finney (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Kathryn represents the kind of leadership, courage, and ovaries that the future demands. She doesn’t give a shit about playing by the rules of the current elite and status quo. This is what it takes to build great companies that break barriers in this post pandemic, post science, post truth world.” – Guy Kawasaki, bestselling author of Art of the Start and Chief Evangelist of Canva

“Kathryn Finney is the mentor every founder needs.” – Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race and founder of The Human Computer Project

"Indispensable advice for entrepreneurs! Kathryn Finney will show you how to cut through the bias, prejudice and bullying too often disguised as "feedback" from entitled investors who pretend to be looking for innovation but who are in fact just matching obsolete patterns. She'll reveal how you can get the data, dispense with the BS, and build new companies for a better world!" – Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor and Just Work

Inspired by the story

It's good to have such a relatable business book in my library. I will refer to it often.

Funny, frank and full of facts

Kathryn Finney has spent her career navigating the choppy waters of startup land. This book gives practical, honest and often humorous insights into how folks can become better leaders and better business owners. The audio is great because Kathryn reads it like no one else could. It was a treat to have her in my ears.

So good I have the hard copy + audible

The content is top notch. I wish this book existed earlier in my career, but I’m glad it exists now! This book sheds light on barriers and gives tools to break the barriers down.

Good for new & seasoned entrepreneurs

Here is a business book that is packed with good, educational & useful information. It is easy to understand and to the point. Makes the huge leap of starting a business less daunting. Hats off to the author.

Worth way more!

Her book could have easily been a cohort or program or masterclass for thousands of dollars. The amount of value she gives in this book is a blessing for so many entrepreneurs who truly need it. This is one of the best books I have read in my life and I am so happy I stumbled across it. This book is literally amazing.

A brilliant guide to get out of your own way!

An easy & insightful listen, that gives aspiring diverse entrepreneurs the tools and motivation to get out of their heads and just build it! The strategies, personal experiences and candid conversations of what worked and what to NEVER do will certainly help the reader to avoid common & not so common pitfalls toto launching a scalable business. The sections are also like a workbook, so you can revisit any lesson when needed. This is a must read for any new, or aspiring, founder!

can't recommend it enough!!!!

I loved the content and have sent this to numerous friends and clients to read/hear.

Essential read for any entrepreneur

Kathryn writes with an approachable, understandable, and honest voice. I was inspired to be confident, be humble, and just go ahead and get started! I think this book should be essential reading in all business programs.

Phenomenal Resource and Read!

This is the most thoughtful, comprehensive, honest and realistic book that I've read on the business building process - and I've read them all. This book is a must read for everyone thinking about starting a business. Kathryn Finney masterfully breaks down the steps and offers practical tips and suggestions. Beyond that, Finney is a great storyteller sharing candidly (and hilariously) from her own journey. This is a fantastic investment of your time whether you're starting your first business or fiftieth.

Thank you!

Thank you for giving us this perspective and sharing some concrete information. Will 100% share this with my Latino peers.