Extensive leadership experience with companies that are focused on growth. Experienced in leading management teams throughout organizational and cultural transformations. Accountable for Sales and Operations in both national and global teams. Proven ability to build highly successful teams with concentration on client relationships and the development of people.
Project managed plan year end education deadline reminders within claims, customer service, client team, operations, technology, and clients.
Liam Topal is the co-founder of BookThatBook, a platform designed to facilitate book exchange and buying/selling among students and the general public.
BookThatBook is a smart book marketplace and exchange ecosystem that enables users to discover, trade, rent, or sell books locally or within trusted communities. AI-assisted categorization, condition evaluation, and pricing guidance simplify listing and matching. Users can search by book type, academic level, or subject, while proximity-based discovery ensures convenience and faster fulfillment.
The idea is to build a modern, intelligent platform where students, families, and readers can easily exchange, rent, or purchase books through trusted peer networks. By combining AI-driven matching, community features, and local discovery, BookThatBook reduces cost barriers while encouraging sustainable book circulation.
Large online retailers dominate book sales but often overlook localized exchange, affordability, and community-driven access. Students and families still struggle to find nearby secondhand books quickly and reliably. The challenge is to provide a seamless, intelligent, and trusted platform that connects people efficiently while competing with centralized marketplaces.
BookThatBook delivers a mobile-first, AI-enhanced platform that connects buyers, sellers, and renters through smart matching and local discovery. Key capabilities include:
AI-powered book recommendations and pricing assistance
Rental and exchange options alongside traditional buying/selling
Campus and community networks for trusted transactions
Book condition evaluation tools
Sustainability tracking to highlight environmental impact
Barcode scanning and simplified listing workflows
Cross-device accessibility via modern web and mobile apps
These features transform BookThatBook into a comprehensive ecosystem that makes book access affordable, convenient, and socially responsible.
University textbooks remain expensive, and students often struggle to locate affordable secondhand options nearby. Parents face similar challenges when managing yearly school book cycles. BookThatBook was created to simplify discovery and exchange — and has since evolved into a smart marketplace that empowers communities to circulate books efficiently.
By combining intelligent technology with proximity-based access, the platform helps users save money, reduce waste, and build trusted peer networks — turning books into shared community resources rather than one-time purchases.
FasterCapital and its team are all doing a great job of developing the whole startup and making our product. Why would one hire a team or outsource the development when they can find the right technical cofounder and get 50% funding?
Lea Sweeney Entrepreneur - BookThatBook , Tech Cofounder
Grow your Startup is the program you need if you are trying to bridge the gap between having a good product and attaining an equally good number of customers and users. The program has helped my startup expand its customers' network and helped us get their constructive feedback which resulted in further developing the product to match customers’ needs. FasterCapital helped us connect and collaborate with other startups and the corporate sector.
Lea Sweeney Entrepreneur - BookThatBook , Grow your Startup
FasterCapital's team demonstrated good knowledge as a technical partner about what we want to build, their recommendations where great and they were immediately selected. They are an A-Team! They also made it easier for us to raise money as they already provided 50% of the seed funding...
Ivan Perry Entrepreneur - BookThatBook
We came to FasterCapital with an idea. They helped us turn the idea into a product. They helped also in doing the market research and making our product stand out from the many products in the market. Idea validation is instrumental for any startup and thanks to FasterCapital’s program, we had the chance to validate our idea and we were able to come up with a better concrete understanding of the features of our product.
Ivan Perry Entrepreneur - BookThatBook , Idea to Product
Joining the program helped us close deals with investors more successfully. We needed advisory in refining our business materials. The team also provided us with insights on how to hold successful negotiations with investors.
Ivan Perry Entrepreneur - BookThatBook , Raise Capital
BookThatBook has secured $4M in series A funding. FasterCapital has led the round and contributed USD 500k investment in this round. BookThatBook is following aggressive B2B and B2C marketing strategies and has increased its userbase by 500% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
BookThatBook has gone through another round of funding and raised usd 250k from FasterCapital to add more featuers to its product. Ivan Perry (cofounder of bookthatbook) has commented: "the journey with FasterCapital was great so far. After going to the market, we realized that we still had to add more features on our mobile apps and also on the web services. We will also offer an API for 3rd party companies that allow them to connect and use our system as a service". Mr. Bashar Hamood said: "We are always committed to help startups in our incubation program if they need further assistance. We like the new vision of the team and we support them through another small round of funding". BookthatBook joined the acceleration program of FasterCapital in Oct, 2017 and then the incubation program on Jan, 2018. BookThatBook is based in United States.
BookThatBook has launched its website today. On the cooperation between FasterCapital and BookThatBook, Lea Sweeney said: "We have already agreed on product specification with FasterCapital and we are now in the development stage. We can't wait until we have the product ready! FasterCapital and its team are all doing a great job of helping us and the sales team here in the United States make a unique product". We at FasterCapital are also very happy with the cooperation with BookThatBook and our role as a technical cofounder and advisor. Mr. Hesham Zreik has commented: "Innovative startups are hard to find these days especially in an industry that is overpopulated by too many wanna-be entrepreneurs who don't have a unique approach to the problem. After the early discussions with the team of BookThatBook, it was clear that they are up to something unique in addressing the problem. We immediately saw that such an opportunity is something we shouldn't miss especially when we felt that there's a common vision on the product that need to be built. We estimate that an early version of the product will be ready within 3 months or so. We are also excited to launch it.
One of our accelerated startups has been accepted into the incubation program and raised successfully $400,000 in its first round of funding. BookThatBook aims to be a location-based search that aims to bring book lovers together. FasterCapital will provide full technical development for this startup and has already helped in refining the business plan and monetization for this startup. BookThatBook is a startup from United States, which was founded by Ivan Perry and Lea Sweeney. BookThatBook was introduced to FasterCapital by its regional partner Marc Flack. BookThatBook is based in United States.
Book you've been searching for might be two blocks away from where you live! Yet you can't find them! You need a solution and we have it. BookThatBook is the location-based search, buy\sell, books service, that aims to bring book lovers together. BookThatBook is a startup from United States, which was founded by Ivan Perry and Lea Sweeney. BookThatBook was introduced to FasterCapital's acceleration program by its new, enthusiastic regional partner Marc Flack. We congratulate BookThatBook to be now one of our accelerated startups.
