Be Your Own VC
10 Bootstrapping Principles to Generate Cash and Keep Control
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Be Your Own VC
Buy for $15.59
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
James M. Benham
-
By:
-
James M. Benham
About this listen
Half a million businesses are started every year in the US and less than 5 percent will successfully raise outside capital. Ninety-five percent of ideas will have to bootstrap to survive.
A bootstrapped entrepreneur is someone willing to build what they have to, so they can then build what they want to. It’s a powerful mindset aimed at survival above all—even if you decide to go raise money. Bootstrappers are better equipped to work within their means, maintain control of their vision, and maximize their own shareholder value.
In Be Your Own VC, serial entrepreneur and CEO James Benham shares ten business principles and the story of testing them over two decades. He describes how bootstrapping led his tech company to a multimillion-dollar exit and the freedom to build what they love. This guidebook is for innovators with a goal—and those who advise them.
©2022 James M. Benham (P)2023 James M. BenhamListeners also enjoyed...
-
10x Is Easier than 2x
- How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less
- By: Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy
- Narrated by: Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,436
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,293
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,291
Dan Sullivan, the world's leading coach for highly successful entrepreneurs, wants you to know that achieving 10X growth is exponentially easier than striving for 2X growth. Most find this idea confusing at first because simply imagining 10X growth causes them to think they need to do 10X more work to achieve it. However, being a 10X entrepreneur is nothing like what most people think.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best Book of the year for me!!!
- By Trenton on 05-15-23
By: Dan Sullivan, and others
-
$100M Leads
- How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff
- By: Alex Hormozi
- Narrated by: Alex Hormozi
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,475
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,271
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3,268
This audiobook contains the playbooks that took me from sleeping on my gym floor to owning a portfolio of companies that generate $200,000,000 per year in under a decade. Wanna know the biggest difference between those two time periods? How many leads I was getting.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Better than $100M Offers, But Read Both in Order
- By Jonathan and Hannah on 09-13-23
By: Alex Hormozi
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,242
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,007
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,005
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
The Infinite Game
- By: Simon Sinek
- Narrated by: Simon Sinek
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 13,030
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 11,176
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 11,083
Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules, and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified. Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite game are changeable, while infinite games have no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers - only ahead and behind. The question is, how do we play to succeed in the game we’re in? In this revelatory new audiobook, Simon Sinek offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I love Sinek but...
- By Amazon Customer on 11-11-19
By: Simon Sinek
-
The SaaS Playbook
- Build a Multimillion-Dollar Startup Without Venture Capital
- By: Rob Walling
- Narrated by: Rob Walling
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 141
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 126
Learn how to compete against large competitors and structure your pricing for maximum growth. Discover the four SaaS Cheat Codes that can dramatically accelerate your business's success. Learn how to avoid common mistakes that SaaS founders make and identify the right marketing approaches for your business.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Solid
- By Phil Williams on 12-14-23
By: Rob Walling
-
How I Built This
- The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs
- By: Guy Raz
- Narrated by: Guy Raz
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,669
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,429
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,424
Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips).
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
GET THIS BOOK!
- By Mattye LaSuer on 01-16-21
By: Guy Raz
-
10x Is Easier than 2x
- How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less
- By: Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy
- Narrated by: Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,436
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,293
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,291
Dan Sullivan, the world's leading coach for highly successful entrepreneurs, wants you to know that achieving 10X growth is exponentially easier than striving for 2X growth. Most find this idea confusing at first because simply imagining 10X growth causes them to think they need to do 10X more work to achieve it. However, being a 10X entrepreneur is nothing like what most people think.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best Book of the year for me!!!
- By Trenton on 05-15-23
By: Dan Sullivan, and others
-
$100M Leads
- How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff
- By: Alex Hormozi
- Narrated by: Alex Hormozi
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,475
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,271
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3,268
This audiobook contains the playbooks that took me from sleeping on my gym floor to owning a portfolio of companies that generate $200,000,000 per year in under a decade. Wanna know the biggest difference between those two time periods? How many leads I was getting.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Better than $100M Offers, But Read Both in Order
- By Jonathan and Hannah on 09-13-23
By: Alex Hormozi
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,242
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,007
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,005
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
The Infinite Game
- By: Simon Sinek
- Narrated by: Simon Sinek
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 13,030
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 11,176
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 11,083
Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules, and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified. Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite game are changeable, while infinite games have no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers - only ahead and behind. The question is, how do we play to succeed in the game we’re in? In this revelatory new audiobook, Simon Sinek offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I love Sinek but...
- By Amazon Customer on 11-11-19
By: Simon Sinek
-
The SaaS Playbook
- Build a Multimillion-Dollar Startup Without Venture Capital
- By: Rob Walling
- Narrated by: Rob Walling
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 141
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 126
Learn how to compete against large competitors and structure your pricing for maximum growth. Discover the four SaaS Cheat Codes that can dramatically accelerate your business's success. Learn how to avoid common mistakes that SaaS founders make and identify the right marketing approaches for your business.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Solid
- By Phil Williams on 12-14-23
By: Rob Walling
-
How I Built This
- The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs
- By: Guy Raz
- Narrated by: Guy Raz
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,669
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,429
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,424
Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips).
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
GET THIS BOOK!
- By Mattye LaSuer on 01-16-21
By: Guy Raz
-
Business Entrepreneurship Beyond the 9 to 5
- For Those Starting Out or Starting Over
- By: Taylor Daniels
- Narrated by: Jeremiah Cahours
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 23
Discover just how impactful and incredible being a business entrepreneur can be for you and your family. Are you worried about the added stress that living paycheck to paycheck causes you and your family? Sixty-three percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Keep reading to make sure you’re not one of them. While you may feel that you will never have the time or energy to start a business, there are ways to work around this so that money problems become a thing of your past.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Audiobook is a great resource!
- By Tlee on 02-07-23
By: Taylor Daniels
-
Inspiring Entrepreneur Stories
- 10 Successes from the World of Business and Lessons to Help You Succeed
- By: Lars De Veer
- Narrated by: Kelly Rhodes
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 23
Gain insight from entrepreneur success stories! Maybe you have been working hard toward your goals for a long time now, but you are still not quite seeing the success that you are striving for. It may be that you have taken good strides so far, but you know that you want to achieve more success.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great and inspirational
- By brett comeau on 06-04-21
By: Lars De Veer
-
How to Grow Your Small Business
- A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off
- By: Donald Miller
- Narrated by: Donald Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 279
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 226
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 226
Using the exact steps you’ll learn in this book, Donald Miller grew his small business from four employees working out of a basement to a 15 million dollar operation, increasing revenue sixfold in just six years. As Miller grew his own business from the ground up, he realized nobody had put together a simple, step-by-step playbook for growing a business. That book didn’t exist. Until now. In this book, you’ll learn the 6 steps to grow a successful small business and create a playbook to implement them—your Flight Plan.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Applied everything here, also on business made simple course and story brand book and my business grew
- By Marco Randazzo on 04-12-23
By: Donald Miller
-
Bad Blood
- Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
- By: John Carreyrou
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 39,201
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 34,737
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 34,668
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.5 billion.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Extreme retaliation against former employees
- By LEE on 05-29-18
By: John Carreyrou
-
Unreasonable Hospitality
- The Remarkable Power of Giving People More than They Expect
- By: Will Guidara
- Narrated by: Will Guidara
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,677
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,299
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3,299
Will Guidara was twenty-six when he took the helm of Eleven Madison Park, a struggling two-star brasserie that had never quite lived up to its majestic room. Eleven years later, EMP was named the best restaurant in the world. How did Guidara pull off this unprecedented transformation? Radical reinvention, a true partnership between the kitchen and the dining room—and memorable, over-the-top, bespoke hospitality.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Stratification What it Means to Be of Service
- By Amazon Customer on 10-31-22
By: Will Guidara
-
Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition
- How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant
- By: W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 739
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 578
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 570
In this perennial best seller, embraced by organizations and industries worldwide, globally preeminent management thinkers W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne challenge everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success. Recognized as one of the most iconic and impactful strategy books ever written, Blue Ocean Strategy, now updated with fresh content from the authors, argues that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Profoundly Insightful
- By James on 10-29-20
By: W. Chan Kim, and others
-
Dotcom Secrets
- By: Russell Brunson
- Narrated by: Russell Brunson
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,154
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 926
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 922
Master the science of funnel building to grow your company online with sales funnels in this updated edition from the $100 million entrepreneur and cofounder of the software company ClickFunnels.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Lots of good information BUT!
- By Verified Amazon Customer on 12-27-21
By: Russell Brunson
-
No Rules Rules
- Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
- By: Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer
- Narrated by: Jason Culp, Allyson Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,476
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,827
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,817
Here for the first time, Hastings and Erin Meyer, best-selling author of The Culture Map and one of the world's most influential business thinkers, dive deep into the controversial philosophies at the heart of the Netflix psyche, which have generated results that are the envy of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from his own career, No Rules Rules is the full, fascinating, and untold story of a unique company making its mark on the world.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Infomercial for Netflix
- By Srikanth Raju on 11-01-20
By: Reed Hastings, and others
-
Play Nice but Win
- A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader
- By: Michael Dell, James Kaplan
- Narrated by: Michael Dell
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 702
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 597
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 594
In 1984, soon-to-be college dropout Michael Dell hid signs of his fledgling PC business in the bathroom of his University of Texas dorm room. Almost 30 years later, at the pinnacle of his success as founder and leader of Dell Technologies, he found himself embroiled in a battle for his company’s survival. What he’d do next could ensure its legacy — or destroy it completely.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Not perfect, but worth a listen
- By James S. on 11-09-21
By: Michael Dell, and others
-
Your Next Five Moves
- Master the Art of Business Strategy
- By: Patrick Bet-David
- Narrated by: Patrick Bet-David
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 6,992
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,008
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,961
From the creator of Valuetainment, the number-one YouTube channel for entrepreneurs, and “one of the most exciting thinkers” (Ray Dalio, author of Principles) in business today, comes a practical and effective guide for thinking more clearly and achieving your most audacious professional goals.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Mediocre; few actionable take-aways.
- By Michael on 10-31-20
-
Who Not How
- The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork
- By: Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy
- Narrated by: Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,587
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,079
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,068
The world's foremost entrepreneurial coach shows you how to make a mindset shift that opens the door to explosive growth and limitless possibility - in your business and your life.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Valuable information - poor performance
- By LeAnn on 06-02-21
By: Dan Sullivan, and others
-
Buy Back Your Time
- Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire
- By: Dan Martell
- Narrated by: Dan Martell
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,100
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 995
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 996
How you use your free time will make or break your success. The secret? It’s not about working harder or finding more time to do work. It’s about designing the freedom to engage in the high-value work that brings you energy and fulfillment. This is at the heart of the message that has made Dan Martell the world’s most popular SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) coach. Now, in his first book, Buy Back Your Time, he teaches entrepreneurs at every level how to scale their business, fast, while avoiding burnout.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
From Pain Line to Peace: This Book 📕 is My Escape Route to Time Freedom”
- By dayana on 09-18-24
By: Dan Martell
Wealth of knowledge reinforced by great stories
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Must read/listen for entrepreneurs
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.