Coming soon • December 1, 2026
Finance without Fear
A practical guide to startup finance, financial literacy, and investor readiness, written for founders rather than CFOs, so you can make the right calls about your own company’s money.
By Bill Aulet and Marius Ursache
“Even the most talented entrepreneurs with terrific ideas can be naive about the fundraising process, and the ultimate consequences are often substantial in terms of their financial returns and even their firms’ outcomes. This book, drawing on the authors’ many decades of pedagogical and practical experience, seeks to address this important gap in an accessible and thoughtful way. It is a valuable resource for both first-time and seasoned entrepreneurs.”
Josh Lerner, Harvard Business School and Private Capital Research Institute
“As the authors say, finance does not make a great company but it sure kills a lot of them. This book goes a long way toward bringing down that mortality rate. Highly recommend for all entrepreneurs.”
Tom Byers, Stanford University, Faculty Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program
“For many technical founders like me, the tendency is to focus on tech and stay away from finance. That’s a mistake. You don’t have to become a finance expert, but a base level of literacy provides a high degree of leverage. Read this book to get there. It’s well worth the calories.”
Dharmesh Shah, Co-founder and CTO, HubSpot
“I am a scientist at my core, not an accountant or finance person, but this book makes that side of the business something I can not just deal with but feel comfortable leading. I am deeply grateful that this book exists, not just for me, but for entrepreneurs worldwide.”
Georgina Campbell Flatter, CEO, Greentown Labs
“Financial literacy is an often-undervalued part of an entrepreneur’s skill set, especially for technical founders. This book helps correct this with its rigorous but easy to digest style.”
Brad Feld, Partner, Foundry Group, author of Venture Deals and Startup Boards
“Starting and growing a startup is hard. Anything that can make this easier is welcome. Managing your finances is a necessary thing and if you want to build a meaningful company, you have to understand it. This book pulls the curtain back and makes it easy to understand without losing the key content.”
Paul English, Co-founder of Kayak and Gumdrop
“As an entrepreneur and investor, I’ve seen innovative, mission-driven startups fail too often on account of inadequate financial management. Bold vision and technical innovation may attract attention, but they don’t keep the lights on, and getting the money right isn’t a concession to capitalism, it’s what makes impact possible. This book provides a great pathway for technical founders who’ve never had to think about the numbers. Now they have no excuse not to.”
Mitch Kapor, Founder of Lotus Development Corporation, co-founder of Kapor Capital
Why we wrote this book
No Great Companies Are Built on Finance, but Many Are Destroyed by It
One of the most frustrating things in entrepreneurship is watching a founder do everything right, build a great product and a great company, and then underperform, lose control, or fail outright because they were not financially literate.
This book will not turn you into an accountant or an MBA. It teaches you how to avoid losing at finance, so you can win where it actually counts: innovation, value proposition, go-to-market, culture, and team.
Why buy the book
Because the #1 Job of a Startup CEO Is to Not Run Out of Cash
Read and understand your financial statements
Cash flow, profit and loss, the balance sheet, depreciation, and working capital, explained the way a founder needs them.
Build a financial model that helps you build the business
Projections built from the real drivers of your business, and the whole plan on one page with the DE Financial Canvas.
Raise money without being naive about the cost
Where the money comes from and what each source costs you, how your venture gets valued, and what changes after the round closes.
Want a taste of it?
Download Three Free Chapters
Read three chapters of the book, free, to get a sense of what to expect:
- Chapter 1: Why a Financial Literacy and Investor Readiness Book
- Chapter 2: The Cash Flow Statement
- Chapter 8: The DE Financial Canvas: Summarizing Your Financial Plan
Pre-order
Where to Buy the Book
The book comes out on December 1, 2026. Pre-order it, forward your order confirmation to preorder@d-eship.com, and we will send you a pack of perks we give only to pre-orders.
Buying more than 25 copies? Get in touch with us for volume orders, institutional purchases, and teaching materials.
Pre-order Perks
What You Get for Pre-ordering
Everything below is for readers who pre-order, from any retailer. If you have already pre-ordered, you qualify too.
Limited AMA with the authors
Ask Bill Aulet and Marius Ursache your questions live. Online session in January 2027, limited to 50 seats.
The complete financial models
A full set of financial statements from the book in Excel and Google Sheets, unlocked so you can rebuild them with your own numbers.
10% off MIT EDP tuition
10% off the tuition for MIT’s Entrepreneurship Development Program in 2027.
25% off the Toolbox
Discount applies for the Toolbox Enterprise accounts (more than 10 projects or startups). Free plans are currently free. Discount applies for the first year only.
Full illustration set
The book’s illustrations as printable posters and wallpapers.
The original DE poster
A high-resolution file of the original Disciplined Entrepreneurship 24 Steps poster, sized for printing.
Extra book material Soon
25% more material that did not make the final edit, collected in one document.
AI investor-readiness interview Soon
An AI interview built on the book’s structure: cash and runway, the three statements, your model, and how ready you are to raise.
AI skills for founders Soon
Ready-made skills for your AI assistant that apply the book’s methods to your own numbers.
AI-enabled Financial Canvas Soon
The one-page canvas from Chapter 8, with an AI guide that walks you through building it for your own startup.
How to claim. Pre-order from any retailer above, since every one counts the same. Forward your order confirmation to preorder@d-eship.com. No screenshots, no uploads.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
December 1, 2026, from Wiley. Pre-orders ship on publication day, so nothing arrives before then. The retailer you order from sets the exact delivery date.
Each retailer sets its own price, and many discount pre-orders, so compare the stores above before you order.
Everything in the perks list above: the live AMA with the authors, the complete financial models, 10% off MIT EDP tuition, 25% off the Toolbox, the illustration set, and the original DE poster. The four items marked Soon are added as they are ready, and you get them too. Pre-orders placed up to November 30, 2026 qualify, including any you placed before this page existed.
Forward your order confirmation to preorder@d-eship.com. Every retailer counts the same, and we need no screenshots or uploads. We reply with links to everything available now, and send each item marked Soon when it is ready.
Three chapters of the book: Chapter 1 (Why a Financial Literacy and Investor Readiness Book), Chapter 2 (The Cash Flow Statement), and Chapter 8 (The DE Financial Canvas: Summarizing Your Financial Plan). Enter your name and email in the form above and we send you the PDF. They come from the final proofs, so a few details may still change before the book reaches stores.
No. The book assumes none. It is written for founders rather than CFOs, and it explains cash flow, profit and loss, the balance sheet, depreciation, and working capital from the ground up, the way a founder needs them.
Yes. Most of the book is about reading your own numbers and building a financial model of your own business. Fundraising is one part of it, and the rest applies just as much if you grow on revenue.
No. This one stands on its own. It complements the 24 Steps rather than depending on them.
New. Book five in the series, and the one about money. It is not a revision of an earlier title: it covers financial literacy, financial modeling, and fundraising, and it is written by Bill Aulet and Marius Ursache.
Yes. Order from your local Amazon or any bookstore, and give them the ISBN, 978-1-394-36156-4, if they need to order it in. Pre-orders from any country qualify for the perks.
Yes. If you need more than 25 copies, get in touch before you order, and we will sort pricing, examination copies, and teaching material.
We do not process orders, so we cannot see, change, cancel, or refund them. Contact the retailer you ordered from, since they hold your order, your payment, and your shipping details. If the problem is a missing perk, write to us at preorder@d-eship.com.