The Million Dollar Napkin

A Simple System That Turns Chaotic Companies into Scalable Growth Machines

Scale your business and gain the freedom you dreamed of as a founder.

Chuck is exhausted. The company he founded has a superior product and was gaining traction. Now, sales are slipping, his executive team is falling apart, and he can’t remember the last time he made it home for dinner. How long can this last?

But then Chuck meets the right mentor. Harper owns a bar that doesn’t seem special, but beneath the surface it is just one piece of a wealth-producing empire. Harp has cracked the code for scaling businesses without sacrificing everything else in life. More than a modest bartender, Harp is about to share the secret to his success.

It all starts with Chuck asking a deceptively simple question: “How do customers happen?” Over a series of late-night conversations, Harp reveals a growth operating system that busts myths about strategic planning, holds people accountable for the business drivers that truly matter, and rallies executive teams around a common goal.

Equal parts gripping fable and vital business playbook, the tools in The Million Dollar Napkin are real, tested, and proven. Entrepreneur, investor, founder, and CEO Ryan Deiss is an expert on scaling and customer value optimization. His system works for his companies, it works for Chuck, and it will work for you.

In this book, you’ll learn to make the following:

• value engines that show the process of how your company creates value
• scorecards that show how well that process is working
• quarterly sprint plans that show how to make that process better

Together, these three components create a self-reinforcing loop called the Growth Flywheel. Your job as CEO isn’t to work harder, it’s to keep the flywheel spinning. Ryan Deiss’s The Million Dollar Napkin shows you how with a fast-paced story and a step-by-step guide for building a business that grows predictably and scales sustainably, without burning yourself out.