Book · Full-length book, about 320 pages

The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash

John Mullins · Wiley Paid Intermediate

This is the definitive book on funding growth from customer cash instead of your savings or an investor, and it names the five models plainly enough to pick one and run: matchmaker, pay-in-advance, subscription, scarcity, and service-to-product. Mullins (London Business School) is not shy about Indian examples, TutorVista, Via, and Loot all appear, so the playbook does not read as a purely Silicon Valley story. Treat it as the map of your options; upfront and annual prepay is his pay-in-advance model, but you may find another fits your business better.

• There are five distinct ways to run on customer cash, and pay-in-advance (getting paid before you deliver) is only one of them, subscription and service-to-product are often the more durable route.
• Each model has its own traps and its own questions an investor will later ask, so choosing deliberately beats stumbling into one.
• Customer cash is not just cheaper than outside money, it also proves demand, which makes any later fundraise far easier.