Startup Wealth: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Personal Financial Success and Long-Term Security

by Joyce L. Franklin

Entrepreneurs are inherently optimistic people. But the very optimism that contributes to their success may torpedo the subsequent preservation of their fortune. Startup Wealth is a crucial guide for entrepreneurs looking to understand the personal financial and legal challenges of creating and building a company.

More than 65 entrepreneurs, executives, venture capitalists, and advisors offer advice for making smart financial decisions in all phases of a startup. Entertaining success stories and revealing lessons learned come from the founders of Tesla Motors, the CFO of Yahoo, and other tech luminaries.

An exploration of the Entrepreneur's Wheel of Life and easy-to-follow checklists will help you and your employees maximize personal wealth from day one until well after your IPO or acquisition. Rounding out Startup Wealth are comprehensive discussions of equity awards, stock options, and angel investing.
Praise for "Startup Wealth"

"This book contains a wealth of genuinely usable tips and advice, set against a background of entertainingly presented tales of Silicon Valley failure and success. Joyce has compiled a terrific combination of tactical moves informed by factual lessons learned."
-Lise Buyer, Principal and Founder, Class V Group

"Starting a new company can be challenging. In order to succeed, you need to be able to think more than one move ahead. Startup Wealth helps you do just that. Its 'learn by example' approach provides insight that you can use from day one until a liquidity event-and beyond."
--Steve Datnow, CEO and Founder, OrgChart5.com

"This book has some good advice, which often goes unsaid, even by the people who are great at advising entrepreneurs in the early stages."
--Karl Jacob, CEO and Founder, Hangtime, Inc.; Angel Investor

"Startup Wealth covers a broad range of topics, from personal finance to tax planning, when working at a startup, whether during the lean years or a liquidity event. The book is also interspersed with relevant anecdotes from entrepreneurs that make it an enjoyable read. Even if you don't end up at the next Facebook, the advice on managing wealth through the startup process is well worth reading."
---Eric Deal, Engineer and President, Cyclic Design

"While many books have been written about entrepreneurism, few ever address the important intersection between the financial success of the company and the personal financial success of the entrepreneur. In this book, Joyce Franklin provides an excellent guide on how to balance between the two, replete with valuable stories of entrepreneurs who have already been down this path and are willing to share their successes and failures. Whether you're an entrepreneur trying to navigate your own balance between business and personal financial success, or an advisor working with entrepreneurs, you should find the stories and knowledge that Franklin shares to be of enormous value!"
--Michael E. Kitces, CFP(r), CLU, ChFC Publisher, The Kitces Report & Nerd's Eye View; Partner, Director of Research, Pinnacle Advisory Group

"Good ideas-defining the steps to startup success, for example-are not hard to find; business how-to books are full of them. What's scarce is persuasive evidence that these ideas really work, particularly when they seem to challenge conventional wisdom. Joyce Franklin's Startup Wealth documents her entrepreneurial prescriptions with tips and profiles....The lessons she offers aren't "textbook"; rather, they derive from the experiences of men and women whose career paths illustrate the "Entrepreneur's Wheel of Life" that Franklin describes. There's no shortcut to success, but Startup Wealth offers real-world guidance that's proved its value."
--Stevenson Hawkey, PhD, Director of the Financial Planning Program, Department of Finance and Economics, Golden Gate U.

228 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2014

About the author

Joyce L. Franklin, CPA, CFP®, is the founder of JLFranklin Wealth Planning. A longtime advocate for financial literacy, she advises many executives and high-tech entrepreneurs. An alumna of Deloitte and Ernst & Young, Joyce has nearly two decades of personal financial planning experience and more than 25 years of tax expertise. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Personal Financial Planning from the University of California, a Master of Science in Taxation from San Francisco State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from the University of Virginia.

In September 2014, Joyce will publish her second book, Life, Liquidity & the Pursuit of Happiness: How to Maximize and Preserve Your Startup Wealth and Live Your Dreams.

Reviews

[Skylar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really interesting and thorough...but not for the beginner, which is who it's supposed to be written for. This book is not user-friendly, but there's just so much good info, interviews, and advice included that I still give it 4 stars. I won a free copy from Goodreads, and I was REALLY glad to win it! However, too many very specific financial terms aren't defined at all or are defined 50 or more pages later. There is no glossary! Made me so frustrated. Also poorly organized: it jumps right into the meat of the matter, then only much later is there a series of boxes that answer basic questions and provide some definitions. Expect to spend some time going back after you've read the book to try to put the advice back together and figure out how it applies to you.

Despite its failings and frustrations, this book is still the best and most thorough advice you can get in a book. And it IS good advice. It's just not pleasant to wade through. If you're an entrepreneur, you should buy it.

[Caterina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and inspiring for a young entrepreneur like myself. I was not sure at first if this book would be helpful to me but after reading the first couple of pages I was hooked. The only issue I had was that the organization and the layout of this text was very confusing, I wish it had a glossary or/ and an index for referencing. Overall, I was very glad to win this guide and have even recommended this source to my friends.

[Boon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book which explain the whole entrepreneur's life cycle. The tips and techniques are good for US firm and citizen (which I'm not). A little bit too much information on the benefit of personal financial advisor.

[Scott Haraburda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful handbook that a small company could use to help them understand many of the basic financial decisions they must do.