The Porchlight Business Book Awards longlist is here!

Founder Vs Investor: The Honest Truth about Venture Capital from Startup to IPO

Founder Vs Investor: The Honest Truth about Venture Capital from Startup to IPO

By Elizabeth Joy Zalman and Jerry Neumann

A no-holds-barred look into the minds, motivations, and machinations of how investors and founders team up to build a successful startup, debated in a brazenly honest way by two of the best in the business.

READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Quantity Price Discount
List Price $29.99  
1 - 24 $25.49 15%
25 - 99 $18.59 38%
100 - 249 $17.99 40%
250 - 499 $17.39 42%
500 + $17.09 43%

Quick Quote

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit

Non-returnable discount pricing

$29.99


Book Information

Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
Publish Date: 09/12/2023
Pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781400242764
ISBN-10: 1400242762
Language: English

What We're Saying

September 27, 2023

LizAF: An Expert’s Rules for Fundraising Success

By Elizabeth Joy Zalman, Jerry Neumann

Find the prospects, pitch them, and get them to agree to a deal with smart thinking, storytelling, testing, and FOMO. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

September 11, 2023

An Excerpt from Founder vs. Investor

By Elizabeth Joy Zalman, Jerry Neumann

Elizabeth Zalman and Jerry Neumann examine the dynamics between founders and investors, offering insights into the harsh reality of this delicate relationship. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Full Description

"The rarest of business books, one that provides genuinely actionable counsel delivered without empty cliches." - KIRKUS

How many world-changing startups will fail because the founders and investors never figure out how to work together? Founder Elizabeth Zalman and Investor Jerry Neumann square off in this one-of-a-kind book, exposing how startups are built, broken, and fought over.

Every iconic tech company was once a startup. And while these companies like to paint an origin story full of surefooted confidence, the truth is usually something different: the early life of most startups is pure chaos.

This chaos comes from the vastly different motivations and incentives between those with the vision and those with the money. From fundraising paranoia to boardroom coups, Zalman and Neumann train their inimitable voices on the gulf between what founders and investors promise to do and what they end up actually doing.

Founder vs Investor is the brutal truth, from each side's perspective, of the pitfalls of this tenuous relationship--where bad blood can turn sure things into shattered dreams. It is the only book written by insiders with the temerity to pull back the curtain on the world of high growth venture-backed startups.

About the Authors

Elizabeth Zalman is an infrastructure and information security expert. She is a two-time founder and CEO of venture-backed companies, building the first to a successful exit and the second to a multi-hundred-million-dollar business. Elizabeth has raised more than $100 million in venture capital from the most renowned investors in the world.

Learn More


Jerry Neumann is a twenty-five-year veteran of venture capital. He has invested in some of the most successful venture-funded companies of the past three decades, including Datadog and Trade Desk, and has worked alongside dozens of entrepreneurs as investor, board member, and advisor.

Learn More

We have updated our privacy policy. Click here to read our full policy.