Customer Reviews

Pro Excel Financial Modeling: Building Models for Technology Startups (Expert's Voice in Office)

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I've been searching for a book like this for quite a while.

I'm not a CPA.....I'm a software guy. More specially, I run a software development firm. In recent past, five of my clients have been raw start-ups, where they have enlisted my firm to help create their product. As their trusted advisor, I get to peek at their financial models. In some cases, I have to help them create components of their models, especially as they forecast out their product development costs.

There aren't many resources for entrepreneurs to help them do a comprehensive financial model in excel. I've come across a few websites offering pre-built excel models. But they definitely lack the depth that is presented in this book. A couple of my clients have spent waaay too much money with CPAs to turn out lack-luster, hard to follow, models. I will start handing this out to my clients and save them money.

The only knock I have towards the book is that it is geared towards product-based ventures. I didn't see much support for services-based or subscription-based internet offerings.

This is a must read for anyone attempting to develop a comprehensive financial model of their business. While the book is focused on technology startups, you will find that it is very applicable to many other business and at different stages other than startup. It is easy to read with real life explanations as to why each section is important and the critical connection the model has to real parts of the business. This one will be a key reference on my bookshelf for a long time (right next to my college statistics text).

The best part of this book is the structure that Tom has chosen. With detailed explanation of why each section of the model is important followed by examples of the spreadsheets, charts and process flowcharts, each chapter is finished off with detailed exercises that walk you through the steps to create what you have just covered. You'll be modeling in no time!

Pro Excel Financial Modeling is an excellent work. The Excel model is wonderfully compressive and detailed. It puts all the tools you need to analyze business growth in one place. The book is easy to read and tracks you step by step through the Excel model. This book is a great resource for all growing companies, not just technology-based organizations.

This is a great book for any early stage entrepreneur that is preparing a "do-it-your-self" model to evaluate the business practicality of his or her idea. The book is very easy to read and walks the reader through a very straightforward and practical approach for preparing a simple first stage business model. The author does not get bogged down in technical accounting detail but rather presents the material in a very logical and understandable way for the non-accountant entrepreneur. As a CPA I often see entrepreneurs burn through a lot of money with professionals because they come to the professional prematurely with half baked ideas, having given no thought to the business model. Using this book and the approach laid out by the author, will help the entrepreneur focus his business thinking and allow him to evaluate the business viability of an idea before he goes to his professional. This practical business model approach will better prepare the entrepreneur to make the most efficient use of his CPA's time and his own money.

Pro Excel Financial Modeling: Building Models for Technology Startups

The entrepreneur is the parent of the new enterprise. He (or she) starts with an idea that becomes a vision with expectations. With skill, confidence, perseverance, and energy, the entrepreneur transforms the initial idea into an operating enterprise that reconciles with the vision and its expectations.

But how does the entrepreneur do it? What steps does he take? How does he go from A to B to C and so on, without relying on unrealistic assumptions, and being embarrassed when asked the question he never thought of?

He does it by building a model, a tool that requires him to refine and test his assumptions and expectations against logical and real relationships between the actions and events that success requires. He must answer the questions before they are asked, and discover the consequences of his plans before he has committed capital and reputation.

Pro Excel Financial Modeling: Building Models for Technology Startups, written by Tom Y. Sawyer and published in the spring of 2009 by Apress, provides the road map for those from the less experienced to the very experienced entrepreneur to travel from idea to funded and successful startup operation. The book is not a tutorial on using excel, but rather a guide to building a financial model that reflects the reality of the early stage of a technology startup, using excel as a tool.

Some of the value of this book comes from the fact that it not only discusses the nuts and bolts of developing the model, but addresses the mental processes and other considerations the entrepreneur and his associates must go through. The book leads the reader through many of the elements of a business enterprise, forcing him to consider each component and its relationship to the others.

Using a case study approach to develop an integrated set of financial models for a hypothetical startup, the author walks the reader through the necessary steps and considerations.

Using this book to develop financial models that will allow the entrepreneur to test, revise and confirm his ideas, visions and expectations before risking his capital and reputation is the first step toward creating the successful technology startup.

This just covers a basic level for excel knowledge. Excel can do so much more in modeling then this book shows. I can only wonder why they call it "Pro" Excel Financial Modeling. "Beginner" is more appropriate.

I was extremely disappointed with this book! This book can only be of any use for a total novice Excel modeler. No serious user of financial statements who performs complex modeling of any sort could possibly find this book to be of any use whatsoever. There is no treatment of complex capital structure, there is an utter absence of any robust scenario analysis or valuation.

Why in the world would someone provide this book with a title "Pro Excel Financial Modeling", when it does not address any of the real issues that professional modelers deal with on an everyday basis? The approach is so overly simplistic that the book reads like a complete joke! I will return this book for a complete refund!