The author has 30+ years of senior executive & start-up experience, augmented by the academic perspective of the Academic Director of the Dept. Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship, Rotterdam School of Management @ Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands. It is further enriched by in-market examples and interviews with subject matter experts from Private Equity, Investment banks, Incubators, and serial founders. These experts will jointly have more than 400 years of experience! We think adding the academic perspective might sound counterintuitive for a practical how-to guide, but we believe it makes the content more robust, credible, insightful, and re-applicable.