Management & Leadership
![Frederic Kerrest - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B09KSCV97G.jpg)
Zero to IPO: Over $1 Trillion of Actionable Advice from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs
From the cofounder of a $40 billion software company comes an invaluable guide packed with $1 trillion worth of advice from some of the world's most successful and recognizable entrepreneurs.
Over the past 20 years, first as an early employee at Salesforce and later as a cofounder of Okta (a publicly traded software company now valued at over $40 billion), Frederic Kerrest has met the most successful entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley and beyond. He's discussed every angle of entrepreneurship with them―what works, what doesn't, and what to do when things get rough―and he's taken notes. The result is this unmatched blueprint for building and growing a business, drawn from his own experience as well as that of his fellow visionaries and business leaders, who have collectively built over $1 trillion worth of wealth for themselves and their investors. They include Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz (Andreessen Horowitz), Eric Yuan (Zoom), Stewart Butterfield (Slack), Aneel Bhusri (Workday), Julia Hartz (Eventbrite), Aaron Levie (Box), Fred Luddy (ServiceNow), Melanie Perkins (Canva), Patty McCord (Netflix), Sebastian Thrun (Udacity), and dozens of other luminaries.
These ideas and practices aren't taught in business schools. They've been learned the hard way, through trial and error in the real world of business. Kerrest has battle-tested them himself, so he knows their power. Organized by topic in roughly the order that leaders will encounter them as they scale their businesses, this book is the ultimate guide to taking a company all the way from founding to IPO―and beyond.
Over the past 20 years, first as an early employee at Salesforce and later as a cofounder of Okta (a publicly traded software company now valued at over $40 billion), Frederic Kerrest has met the most successful entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley and beyond. He's discussed every angle of entrepreneurship with them―what works, what doesn't, and what to do when things get rough―and he's taken notes. The result is this unmatched blueprint for building and growing a business, drawn from his own experience as well as that of his fellow visionaries and business leaders, who have collectively built over $1 trillion worth of wealth for themselves and their investors. They include Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz (Andreessen Horowitz), Eric Yuan (Zoom), Stewart Butterfield (Slack), Aneel Bhusri (Workday), Julia Hartz (Eventbrite), Aaron Levie (Box), Fred Luddy (ServiceNow), Melanie Perkins (Canva), Patty McCord (Netflix), Sebastian Thrun (Udacity), and dozens of other luminaries.
These ideas and practices aren't taught in business schools. They've been learned the hard way, through trial and error in the real world of business. Kerrest has battle-tested them himself, so he knows their power. Organized by topic in roughly the order that leaders will encounter them as they scale their businesses, this book is the ultimate guide to taking a company all the way from founding to IPO―and beyond.
Readers Top Reviews
Brian P. HalliganS.
Freddy Kerrest started Okta from scratch ($0) and scaled it to a company worth over $20billion. His book is chock full of lessons and wisdom along the way. There are lots of books on the journey written by journalist, biographers, academics, etc. This is one of the rare finds that is written by the person who road and drove the journey from $0 to $20billion. Loved it.
Freddy shares his experiences and lessons learned from building his successful software start up. His stories of success, and survival, are filled with wisdom and humor, and and provide a set of practical insights/tools that any entrepreneur can apply toward their big ideas. Freddy has built one of the most successful software companies this century - Okta, the world's #1 Identity platform - he's the real deal, and this book is too!
Sridhar R
I met Freddie on a cold winter morning in San Francisco just as I was starting neeva.com, the search engine. His first words still ring in my head: "Listen, I don't care whether you think you are a big shot or not, let me tell you what you need to do. You need to talk to at least half a dozen customers every week and you need to be selling all the time. Pay special to the attention to the people that say "no". And always ask for money. No free trials." Freddie brings his wealth of knowledge and straightforward but extremely valuable advice to all of us in this book. If you are a founder, you will really enjoy and benefit from referring to this book as you go through the joy and trials of creating a great company.
Emily Van Gorder Smi
Written from a personal perspective, this book provides insight into the process that is opaque to many - while maintaining practical and realistic guidelines. Loved it!
Amy Kahn
This book in very helpful. For everyone who feels lost and in need of guidance while building a business or even an idea, this book consolidates advice from experts in the field who are normally not accessible to the general public. Hugely impactful, highly recommended
