---
product_id: 8579556
title: "The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash Hardcover – July 21, 2014"
brand: "john mullins"
price: "€ 41.41"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.com.cy/products/8579556-the-customer-funded-business-start-finance-or-grow-your-company
store_origin: CY
region: Cyprus
---

# The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash Hardcover – July 21, 2014

**Brand:** john mullins
**Price:** € 41.41
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash Hardcover – July 21, 2014 by john mullins
- **How much does it cost?** € 41.41 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.cy](https://www.desertcart.com.cy/products/8579556-the-customer-funded-business-start-finance-or-grow-your-company)

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- john mullins enthusiasts

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## Description

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The book for the rest of us
*by A***H on August 19, 2015*

John has done it again! A book that I can relate to. I = a middle class aspiring Entrepreneur who is NOT living in Silicon Valley.The sexy model I see people following in the startup space is - get an idea, do a three months lean startup, get seed funded (or join a startup accelerator) and then look for series A. I see my Lean startup friends talking about number of visitors to their website, number of downloads of their apps, amount of money they have raised, etc. Everyone is out there to become the next facebook, sign up the whole world, go viral, and then figure out a way to make money! John Muller suggests a different model through this book - get an idea, find a customer, invest just enough in your business to win the first customer, scale based upon your customer's experience, bootstrap for as long as you can, then look for investment to accelerate your growth.John's books (my first one was The New Business Road Test: What entrepreneurs and executives should do before launching a lean start-up (4th Edition) (Financial Times Series) talks about Entrepreneurship for people who neither have an Ivy League education, nor do they live in Silicon Valley, where "ideas" perhaps get funded. This book presents the magic masala behind many Entrepreneurs outside the valley, specially in India. And that magic turns out to be the Entrepreneur's ability to somehow bootstrap their business from their customer's money. Being of Indian origin, I can vouch for the fact that such a strategy of using customer's money to bootstrap if the ONLY way to start a company in India (and perhaps for most places outside the US).Many thanks to John and hope to read more from him in the future.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ An important read for any entrepreneur
*by G***A on November 10, 2020*

It was very interesting learning about the 5 different customer funded schemes that the author identifies in his book. Being an entrepreneur, I believe this is a must read for anyone developing a new idea into a business. It is definitely crucial to validate your idea and business model with customers’ money before seeking to raise VCs’ capital. I don’t give it 5 stars because I found it repetitive at times.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Insightful
*by J***R on October 9, 2014*

Mullins describes 5 different models that companies have followed to launch using customer funds. He gives examples of each - mini case studies of firms you've heard about (in most cases). He shares why these models work, why they may or may not work in other circumstances. He then outlines what to look out for if you want to apply that model to your company - or to a company you may be investing in.Too many business books focus on a topic or a theme and then act as it if always works for everyone. John Mullins tells both sides of the story, and does a good job putting it in context.My only quibble (and it's a small one) is that he sees customer funding as a prelude to raising equity investment and dismisses bootstrapping as a method for only small companies. In my experience, some companies go that route, but many more use customer funding as bootstrapping and don't always stay small, but go on to create considerable wealth.Regardless of the next phase of growth, the details of these 5 models and when they work is a great thing for all entrepreneurs to know.

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*Product available on Desertcart Cyprus*
*Store origin: CY*
*Last updated: 2026-02-17*