Raise Capital on Your Own Terms

Praise

“Jenny Kassan is one of the brightest, most innovative mission-design lawyers in the country. Here are her secrets to raising money truly on your own terms, with mission and soul intact. It can be done. It is being done. Jenny is the one who can show the way.”
—Marjorie Kelly, Executive Vice President, The Democracy Collaborative, and author of Owning Our Future

“Raise Capital on Your Own Terms is a crucial, powerful resource for businesses and communities that need money to make their dreams come true. There are so many investors out there, especially young investors, who are looking to move money off Wall Street and into businesses in their community. Jenny shows you how to connect with them so you can build a better world together!”
—Kate Poole, Founding Member and Leader of Regenerative Finance

“An insightful, practical, enriching book for entrepreneurs and organizations looking to build their businesses without the financial support of venture capitalists. A much-needed alternative voice for entrepreneurs!”
—Aner Ben-Ami, Managing Director, Candide Group

“Raise Capital on Your Own Terms is a perfect motto that speaks directly to entrepreneurs. We have all that we need to create a better funding system for entrepreneurs, and Jenny lays out the path forward. Pick it up, read it cover to cover, and set your sights on the future.”
—Vicki Saunders, founder of SheEO

“Jenny Kassan’s new book turns the way entrepreneurs should look for investors and capital upside down. Raise Capital on Your Own Terms gives an alternative route from the traditional investors and venture capitalists. It is a book for any entrepreneur, but especially mission-driven ones.”
—Alicia Robb, PhD, founder and CEO, Next Wave, and Managing Partner, Next Wave Impact Fund

“Jenny Kassan is an expert on raising capital from friends, customers, and community and a leader at incorporating codesigned terms of investment that work for everyone.”
—Morgan Simon, author of Real Impact

“Jenny Kassan is the go-to small business advisor. With this book, she shares her proven strategy for helping businesses raise capital on their own terms, in alignment with their own values, by guiding them to finding like-minded, supportive investors.”
—Kristin B. Hull, PhD, Director, Nia Community Fund

“Jenny Kassan’s book is both inspirational and practical. It is inspirational because it lifts the shroud of mystery over raising capital and thereby encourages the entrepreneur to apply her vision and energy to this critical area. It is practical because she walks the reader through the process in well-written, bite-sized chunks; there are plenty of practical tools to aid the process. This is a must for those new to raising capital as well as many who may think they are ‘old hands’!”
—Vince Siciliano, CEO, New Resource Bank

“This should be the Bible for entrepreneurs building a small business. It makes the daunting task of raising capital from a variety of sources easy to navigate through clear and detailed planning advice and the exploration of innovative legal options and ownership models that align what’s possible with one’s values and purpose. These proven strategies from a national expert can empower everyone with a business plan while helping evolve capitalism into something more conscious and regenerative.”
—Michael Kramer, Managing Partner, Natural Investments and coauthor of The Resilient Investor

“If you want your business to be happily funded, forget the venture sharks, the bands of angels, the miserly bankers, and other investment scallywags who will put you through hell before they give you a penny. No one has done more to create simple and practical techniques for community entrepreneurs to finance their businesses than attorney Jenny Kassan. This book, which synthesizes two decades of experience assisting hundreds of clients, is essential reading for anyone who needs capital yesterday.”
—Michael H. Shuman, author of Local Dollars, Local Sense

“A major problem plagues the entrepreneurial sphere. Many of the best businesses don’t reach their potential because the entrepreneurs behind them don’t understand the range of options available to them for raising capital. They’ve not been empowered with information about how to raise capital in a way aligned with their own vision and goals. This book is a solution to that problem. It’s an invaluable and groundbreaking resource that I would recommend to all entrepreneurs to expand their thinking and develop their unique right approach to raising capital. We have needed this book for a very long time, and now it is here.”
—Tara Mohr, author of Playing Big

“This book is a must-read for all those embarking on an entrepreneurial journey to manifest their dream business. It is wise and user-friendly and addresses both the inner stories or beliefs and outer challenges that tend to create self-limiting outcomes. It opens possibilities to consider diverse kinds of investors and details how to reach them. Accessible and clear, it lays out all one needs to know about how to raise capital to support your dream with integrity and purposeful vision and without sacrificing control or authority. It’s terrific!”
—Nina Simons, cofounder of Bioneers

“The process of raising money often dehumanizes both sides; they become caricatures consumed by fear of failure mixed with greed. Jenny Kassan outlines a path where business owners or startups can retain their integrity and raise capital on their own terms, ones that make sense with investors who appreciate the real value created by business owners. A more local, more grounded, more connected kind of economy is what the legal techniques described in this book guide us toward. This is the kind of world I want to work for. I am glad to be in her orbit.”
—Kevin Jones, cofounder of Socap, Good Capital, and Neighborhood Economics

“Jenny Kassan fulfills a desperate need for entrepreneurs seeking capital. Her book addresses the emotional, psychological, and practical barriers to seeking funds in an interconnected and easy-to-understand way. I can’t recommend this book enough.” —Nikki Silvestri, founder and CEO, Soil and Shadow

“I’m so excited about this book! Jenny Kassan has been at the forefront of the community capital field, and readers could not find a better coach, mentor and guide to this innovative way of raising capital. Prepare to have your old notions of how to raise capital turned upside down!”
—Amy Cortese, author of Locavesting