About the Book
Ascend Your Start-up is a winner of the New York Book Festival.Wall Street Journal Best Seller
Ascend Your Start-up: Conquer the 5 Disconnects to Accelerate Growth is an industry-defining panacea for start-ups who have stalled out on their journey to the top of the mountain.
Dedicated to her late grandmother, author Helen Yu inhales multiple generations of wisdom and exhales a revolutionary framework for tech founders and CEOs that enables their businesses to scale faster and fearlessly.
From Yu’s 15 years of first-hand experience in tech start-ups, readers will learn the 5 fundamental growth disconnects that trap start-ups in the cliffside, keep them from reaching the summit and touching the sky. Ascend Your Start-up also empowers founders and CEOs to self-reflect and grow, posing a thoughtfully architected set of 26 essential questions you can ask yourself in order to scale your business.
Inspiration flows freely through the book’s pages as Helen draws parallels between the journey of growing a start-up and her sacred promise made to her grandmother to climb Mt. Everest.
You will learn:
Industry-specific, highly experienced advice for tech start-ups
Fundamental wisdom on the 5 disconnects that prevent a start-up from ascending
Turning an idea into a product and moving it to the market
Taking a marketed product to scale
Inspirational guidance for tech start-ups facing the emotions and challenges of growing
Ascend Your Start-up is the profound answer to the question every start-up has asked themselves: “How do we get to the top?”
About the Author :
An advisor to the world’s largest technology companies, Helen Yu passionately believes growth comes at the crossroad of tech and humanity. Whether she is speaking to a crowd of 5,000 or a small start-up leadership team, she brings global customer success experience from her work with tech titans like Oracle, Adobe, and many start-up CEOs who went on to achieve multibillion-dollar revenue growth and record profitability.
As the founder and CEO at Tigon Advisory, Helen drives growth for the largest technology companies in the world and is a board advisor for fast growth SaaS companies. She also serves as Vice-Chair and Board Director at the Global Cybersecurity Association.
A highly respected thought leader, she is a top Twitter influencer in AI, Cloud, IoT, Cybersecurity, 5G, Growth, FinTech, and Start-Ups with a weekly reach of more than 10M. Helen is recognized as a global thought leader by organizations including IBM and Thinkers360. She speaks regularly at conferences including SXSW, TiECon, Global AI and Big Data conference, DMS, and Money2020.
Gebhard Rainer is a Chief Executive Officer with global operations and finance experience and a proven record of success transforming the structure of organizations to position them for growth and profitability. He achieves business transformation and financial results by creating and implementing innovative process re-engineering initiatives and simplification of workflows which reinvigorate global luxury brands. A creative and resourceful problem solver, he approaches complex operating challenges with experienced analysis, great energy and enthusiasm, ultimately improving the value of the business overall.
Gebhard is a transformative team builder who is able to attract and retain top talent and lead successful acquisition integration. He engenders great loyalty and collaboration from those who work with him and consistently creates high performance cultures across international borders.
Review :
”Startup veterans know that a startup cannot succeed without a mindset relentlessly attuned to experiments and pivots. Ascent Your Start-Up arms readers with a requisite framework to prepare them for the challenging journey through every stage of growth.”
—Eva Tsai, Marketing Executive at Google Cloud, Startup Board Director and Advisor
”I recommend Helen Yu's book Ascend Your Start-Up: Conquer the 5 Disconnects to Accelerate Growth for its great insights to scale your business.”
—Spiros Margaris VC / Ranked Global No. 1 Finance Influencer by Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters), Ranked Global No. 1 Fintech, AI, Blockchain, No. 2 InsurTech Influencer by Onalytica
"As a startup founder, you often encounter all varieties of challenges and growth disconnects that prevent your business from scaling. 'Ascend Your Start-Up' strategically helps you bridge those disconnects and thoughtfully forces you to reflect on your business in a productive manner."
—Jonathan Lacoste, Co-Founder of Jebbit
"I have been involved with venture back startups on a global level for over 20 years. I have learned a lot and this knowledge helped me be part of two IPO's and a successful trade sale to Oracle. Navigating a startup to a scaleup needs resilience, patience and execution. Helen is an insightful and experienced executive who has witnessed first-hand the journey that early stage companies take. Her book is a pragmatic asset to any executive embarking along the journey of building a successful company. This book is like having an experienced advisor / sounding board in the palm of your hand. A highly recommended read.”
—Lawrence Whittle CEO Parsable, Inc.
"In this helpful guide, Helen parlays decades of experience scaling and advising startups into practical, actionable advice for any B2B startup team."
—Clara Shih, Founder of Hearsay Systems and CEO of Salesforce Service Cloud
”Helen Yu will help firms beat the odds with a successful launch. Inspiring to the greatest heights, with her authentic and personal story of loyalty, dedication, and strength of character, it is a must-read for start-ups and Fortune 500 executives alike.”
—Martin Tang, Chairman, Global Cybersecurity Association, Switzerland
”Ascend Your Start-up is the holy grail for startup founders, growth minded executives, and turnaround leaders. Helen’s provides both pragmatic guidance and a playbook that’s required reading for every industry.
—R “Ray” Wang, Bestselling author and CEO of Constellation Research
”Ascend Your Start-up arms readers with checklists and practical questions to ask throughout your start-up journey. Written with an adventurous backdrop, it captures the challenges and rewards of moving methodically through every stage of growth.”
—Cynthia Plouche, Board of Directors; ESG Enthusiast
"I was fired up to see Helen building a practical guide, based upon her decades of experience, around managing the various phases of growth in a company's trajectory. Read it, so you can avoid the pitfalls!"
—Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight
”A must-read for founders to learn from and avoid the errors and pitfalls that lead most startups to fail. A practical guide for an entrepreneur’s journey.”
—Dev Ganesan, CEO at PathFactory
”Get unstuck and reclaim your startup’s mojo with the brilliance of Ascend Your Start-up! Helen Yu spills the beans on tested success formulas for scaling up your startup in her latest book!”
—Ajay Awatramani, Chief Product Officer, Cornerstone On Demand (CSOD)
”Ascend Your Start-up provides a clear framework for anticipating and overcoming the central disconnects that unlock growth in start-ups and Fortune 500 innovation centers alike. Helen’s vast experience and ability to convey complex issues in a concise manner makes this a ‘must read’.”
—Jason Holmes, Managing Director, Nomad Advisors LLC, Former COO, Marketo
”Helen Yu’s practical guide for growing and scaling businesses is a must read for all entrepreneurs.”
—Shellye Archambeau, former CEO at MetricStream, BOD at Verizon and Fortune Top 10 Business Book author
”The ethical, just and effective intersection of humanity and tech is one of the most important endeavors of our time. Helen embodies that intersection. As a tech CEO and founder myself, and for others like me, her book is the perfect guide as we build modern companies for scale in a world where purpose is everything.”
—Coco Brown, Founder and CEO of Athena Alliance, Inc.
”All founders, especially first-time founders, need to master the art of asking the right questions. Helen's greatest strength is her ability to ask the right questions and help founders uncover the answers they need. Helen worked with my co-founder and I during a critical 2 year period and helped us successfully pivot our business by challenging us in all the right ways with the questions we needed to hear.”
—Tom Coburn, CEO + Co-Founder of Jebbit
