Finance from Scratch

Learn finance the way a founder lives it.

Maya Torres has $10,000 in savings, a loyal farmers-market following, and a dream of opening a café. Over twenty chapters, her company, Tidewater Coffee Co., grows from one shop to a roastery, a venture round, an overseas supply chain, and finally an IPO. At every step she faces a real financial decision, and so do you.

Finance from Scratch covers everything in a first course in finance, explained in plain English and tested with worked examples you can follow line by line. No prior finance knowledge is needed, only basic algebra.

Inside you will learn how to:

• Read financial statements, analyze ratios, and manage cash runway
• Master the time value of money: loans, savings, annuities, and retirement
• Measure risk and return, diversify, and use the CAPM
• Value bonds, stocks, and startups
• Estimate the cost of capital (WACC) and choose a capital structure
• Decide which projects to fund with NPV, IRR, and payback
• Raise money from banks, angels, and venture capitalists
• Manage currency and commodity risk with forwards, futures, and options
• Take a company public, from valuation to IPO pricing

Built for learning:

• 100+ worked examples with step-by-step solutions
• Practice problems at the end of every chapter, with answers in the back
• Financial calculator and Excel guide with keystrokes and formulas
• Formula sheet, glossary, and full index
• Charts and diagrams throughout

Who this book is for:

• Business students who want the ideas to finally click, alongside any intro finance or corporate finance course
• Startup founders who need to raise money, read a term sheet, and make investment decisions
• Beginning investors who want to understand what their money is really doing

Start from scratch. Finish thinking like a CFO.