Skip to main content
Back to Published Books
Be Your Own VC

Be Your Own VC

by James Benham

About This Book

Half a million businesses are started every year in the US and less than 5 percent will successfully raise outside capital. Ninety-five percent of ideas will have to bootstrap to survive.

A bootstrapped entrepreneur is someone willing to build what they have to, so they can then build what they want to. It’s a powerful mindset aimed at survival above all—even if you decide to go raise money. Bootstrappers are better equipped to work within their means, maintain control of their vision, and maximize their own shareholder value.

In Be Your Own VC, serial entrepreneur and CEO James Benham shares ten business principles and the story of testing them over two decades. He describes how bootstrapping led his tech company to a multimillion-dollar exit and the freedom to build what they love. This guidebook is for innovators with a goal—and those who advise them.

Business Business Management
James Benham

James Benham

James Benham started his journey as a tech entrepreneur from his Texas A&M University dorm room in 2001. For over 20 years he has led JBKnowledge, an IT consulting and SaaS company, to launch six products, successfully sell two and beta test many more - all while bootstrapping. James leads over 240 employees in the USA, Argentina and South Africa in providing tech products and services to the world’s largest insurance and construction companies. Based in College Station, Texas, James served two terms on City Council, five years as an adjunct professor of Construction Science at TAMU, and now serves as a Regent on the governing board of Texas Southern University. He’s a pilot with a passion for aviation who flies himself to most of his meetings and speaking events. Hundreds of thousands have heard him speak on his popular weekly podcasts: The ConTechCrew and The InsureTech Geek, or in one of over 400 conferences he has presented at in the last 15 years.

View full profile