Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist

When you're raising money for the first time, you're at a severe informational disadvantage -- investors know all the lingo, all the deal terms, and all the negotiation tactics. Even when everyone is being aboveboard, you're at a disadvantage if you don't know all the possible parameters of a deal and all the things that can go right and wrong down the line. Enter this book. It is the shortest route for evening that playing field.Someone recommended it to me right before I raised my first venture capital money, and I'm so glad they did. This book helped me ensure my company got a clean term sheet, and took a lot of the stress/anxiety out of the process. I especially love the "Entrepreneur's Perspective" sidebar commentary throughout -- it gives you multiple angles on every issue discussed.I recommend this book to every single entrepreneur I meet who is thinking about raising money! Buy this book!

I just finished reading Venture Deals, 4th ed. Also just closed on my new biotech’s seed round. Kind of wish I’d read it 6 months ago! But I was waiting for the 4th ed to come out and I was able to be reading while we were in the last weeks of closing. Learned a ton from the book. Thanks for helping a scientist learn about how to get and manage funding for a startup!

As our consultancy has started to transition into a venture firm, I picked up this book to help me learn more about the VC world and how it all comes together. I needed to gain a better understanding of the bigger picture, and grasp the roles and points of view from each side of the table. Brad and Jason did a fantastic job of painting the venture landscape, and they characterized each party’s involvement in an easy-to-understand way.While I think this book would be incredibly valuable for any businessperson, I think it’s especially helpful to young entrepreneurs like myself. I can’t imagine what it would be like to try and figure this all out on my own after being handed a resource like Venture Deals. I especially appreciated the comments from Matt Blumberg (CEO of Bolster) that provide the entrepreneur’s perspective, and I love that these guys focus their attention on the founders - because without them there wouldn’t be any deals to be made at all.A big thanks to the authors, and I look forward to picking up more of their books in the future. I’ll be recommending this one to many founders, VC’s, and lawyers as I continue along my journey into the venture universe and build companies that create a long-lasting, positive change.

As first-time-founders, we've learned tons from the advice of our mentors and successful entrepreneurs. Every single mentor has recommended this book to us. While your expertise might be in engineering, product, marketing, or any other function - it's rare for founders to have expertise in VC. This book is incredibly insightful, thorough, and somehow even funny.While many startup books are theory and fluff with no tactical advice, Venture Deals is the exact opposite. Venture Deals is a book you should expect to crack open and reference many times over the course of growing your business.Thank you, Brad and Jason, for putting together this excellent resource!

I love this book. This is my all time favorite book. I have finished yet but there’s so much wisdom you can take from this book. Recommend it to all who are interested in startup’s

I'm glad I was recommended this book. It's a long read but a necessary one. I knew nothing about VCs other than them being the early backers of companies we know today like Facebook or Google. Now I can understand more in-depth what a fund is, how it originates, and how VCs can be ran well.

Great book to read! Helpful in understanding the thought process behind venture deals. It’s a suggested resource to the techstars/Kaufman online course and was recommended to me by an investor.

Brad's book merits a "6-Star". It's the centerpiece required reading for the course I'm teaching at UC Berkeley this semester (Street Smart Startups). Clear. Lucid. Straight-forward English. No gobbledygook. It's must reading for every entrepreneur, aspiring entrepreneur, and venture or angel investor.....not to mention their lawyers!!

Excellent book, both as a “cover-to-cover” read and a permanent reference. I found it invaluable at several stages in my company. Early on when considering whether or not to raise capital, this provided us an in depth look at the challenges and pitfalls we’d face even after securing funding (I'm glad we waited!). A couple of years later, with an informed decision to raise, this book again helped us have intelligent conversations with potential investors to make sure we could find a fit for both sides of the table.

I'm a trainee solicitor in HK and I've learned a lot from this book. This is the first profession-related book I completed reading after I started working. It provides a very useful introduction and overview of common concepts and issues in VC deals, and it covers everything I wished to know about VC before buying this book. Although the content is US-focused, I find it still very relevant to readers outside of the US. For example, after reading the first few chapters if the book, I became much abler in understanding the pre-IPO investment section in the accountant section of HK prospectus.

I am a long time entrepreneur but had never raised funds for one of my companies until now. This was by far the #1 book recommended by numerous people. The vocabulary alone that I’ve had to learn would have been almost impossible without this book. Thanks to Jason and Brad for writing it.

If you only read one book on term sheets, choose this one. And if you aren’t convinced, read a few of Brad Feld’s blog posts first.

Whether you are in the process of trying to raise money, or understand how VC’s work, or even just learning something new, this is a must-read. Breaks everything down to be as easily digestible as possible. Everyone in the whole tech startup ecosystem should have this one in their collection.

I liked it so much i gave mine away after the 3rd chapter and bought another one...then i bought the Audible version.

Content book is cool but the presentation with a paper override the book it’s not cool to save or present in your library

It can be a slow read at times, but it is so valuable. The information you will get by dedicating to this book is great. I have a long background in finance and learned a great deal more from reading this.

This book is very readable, which is difficult to do with a technical topic like this. It maps out what you need to know and does so very efficiently and with subtle humor. These guys know their stuff well enough to make it concise and interesting.

I was read at now about 5 books of vc topics.. I want the time machine and start with Venture deals.. thanks for write

You will learn lots about Venture Capital. This is a MUST HAVE for anyone interested in learning about the VC world and how to fund raise.

I wanted something to hold my Frixion pens. This is a very simple option, and lets me find a color easily. Wish it was maybe an inch shorter? This is what it looks like with 12 pens inside. I'm sure it could hold a lot more, though. Love the color of the trim and the cute, round zipper-pull.

I'm a trainee solicitor in HK and I've learned a lot from this book. This is the first profession-related book I completed reading after I started working. It provides a very useful introduction and overview of common concepts and issues in VC deals, and it covers everything I wished to know about VC before buying this book. Although the content is US-focused, I find it still very relevant to readers outside of the US. For example, after reading the first few chapters if the book, I became much abler in understanding the pre-IPO investment section in the accountant section of HK prospectus.

Work nice on my variable speed Metabo grinder. The hub is so recessed I had to by a 3 inch extension before it would clear the body of my grinder.. Well built.

Only way to go for blending and polishing stainless. seems to be built heavy enough to last a long time. must use with slow, variable speed grinders.

Great seller, fit perfectly and will buy again. Thank you!

The design is pretty nice and I like the extra pockets. However the materials make the pants bad. Putting the hands in the pocket feel weird and risky. You have to move in a certain way and since it feels like it will rip and tear and the pants I ordered are XL. I can't lift my legs up all the way, have to alter my walk, and getting in the bed was hard. I had to jump on the bed like a fish while wearing them. These pants feel like stage prop clothes and they don't last a good while. If you made the clothes with high quality cotton like you said in the description then I would have change the rating to 5 stars.

These tech wear pants are really nice! They look great and are good quality. The fit was as expected, and I love the reflective details on it too. Overall, I’d definitely recommend this product!

Maybe it's just my thighs but I bought a XXL to be safe and they fit like an XL. Which isn't bad, they just feel like they're going to tear if I squat.

Super false advertising. I wanted to love these pants but the design is literally drawn on. Not reflective which is what I wanted them for. They are also off on sizing. I ordered my usual size and I was swimming in these pants!

Back to school gear!! The student like these pant. Early teens perfect look. Little big in waist and length, but it didn’t seem to matter to him. Good value for the price.

Really happy with my purchase. Paired this frame with a black and white ballet photo and it looked fantastic. It was exactly how I pictured it. The frame was really pretty and arrived in one piece and not a to single scratch.

It came like this yet the box it was in was in perfect condition. Makes me think it was packaged like that:(Edited - they credited me .10 cents ? Like Really

Junk

It fit my daughters diploma from college perfectly, it does not look cheap. I got the gold and it’s not too Brassy or shiny it’s just right

Ela é linda, bem forrada, bem costurada, se vc tiver pincéis com os cabos um pouco grossos talvez não consiga fechar sem forçar, mas dá para colocar todos os seus pincéis bem arrumadinhos.O valor dela é ok, vale sim pro produto.A malinha chegou 6 dias antes do prazo final e bem embalada.

A must have for future/current Founders & Entrepreneurs. Supremely informative and transparent. Compact chapters that make ultra complex investment/legal terminology easy to digest in simple language. There are no guarantees in business, but I guarantee that this book will be a helpful and coveted resource. - Albert Williams

I read this book to get better insights into the process, terminology and artifacts associated with venture deals. It delivered all of this and more! I learned additional details about things I thought I already knew like company valuation.