Forget venture capital! Get customers to fund you

Many new ventures never use venture capital. So how do they get the money to start and grow their business? The answer lies with the customers. Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Banana Republic′s Mel and Patricia Ziegler all used customers to develop their iconic companies. In this session, Dr John Mullins talks about his pragmatic thinking on business and what entrepreneurs need in the early stages of a venture. John is one of the foremost business academics and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship. He has 20 years of executive experience in high-growth retailing firms including two ventures he founded and one he took public. John's first trade book, The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Launching a Lean Start-Up (now 4e, London: Prentice-Hall/FT 2013), has become the definitive work on the assessment and shaping of entrepreneurial opportunities and is widely used by investors and entrepreneurs and in university courses worldwide.