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Zoho is one.
Agree, appears to be accurate; only reference to outside funding was an anonymous entry date April 1st, 2000 — which is April fools day:

- https://www.cbinsights.com/company/zoho/financials

Here’s an article that appears to back the claim:

- https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/10/how-zoho-became-1b-company...

Appears founder may only have 5% of Zoho now:

>> While Vembu has been running Zoho for nearly a quarter century, his sister Radha and brother Sekar own the bulk of the company, according to Indian filings. A product manager at Zoho, Radha has a 47.8% stake in the company that’s currently worth an estimated $2.2 billion. Sekar, founder of Vembu Technologies in Chennai, owns 35.2% worth $1.6 billion. Vembu owns 5%, worth $225 million. The family, now worth at least $4 billion, was ranked No. 48 on Forbes’ 2022 list of India’s 100 Richest under Sridhar’s name due to his prominence as founder and CEO.

Source:

- https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2023/03/13/zoho-srin...

It's really not. The overall tone is "You don't know anything about finance/accounting as an inexperienced leader but that's okay! - Just outsource it! Oh and here are some tidbits so you can pass off as knowledgeable in conversation"
It's not tone - it's explicitly targeted at people who don't know much/anything about finance/accounting and almost by definition are relatively inexperienced at running a business.

There isn't a great alternative. Taking the time to become an expert certainly isn't a good idea. Hiring a CFO with seed money isn't a good idea.

So this is the level of finance/accounting sophistication now expected for a business with a valuation of $30m–60m? Maybe I'm out of touch. I think this guide lowers the bar unnecessarily.