Venture Deals

Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, both managing directors of Foundry Group, began a series of blog posts in 2005 that walked through each part of a venture capital term sheet. College courses later used the series, and the book expands that material into a full account of how venture financing works. It explains what individual terms mean and which ones matter, how valuations get set, how investors are paid and motivated, and where convertible debt, crowdfunding and pre-sales fit in. It also shows how these issues shift from seed to late-stage rounds, flags common legal and business mistakes, and adds commentary from a CEO with long experience of raising money from investors. Entrepreneurs, lawyers and students are its intended readers.

Tim Ferriss lists it among the startup and angel investing resources in the real-world MBA chapter of Tools of Titans. Wedding Lovely founder Tracy Osborn said she probably consulted it every day while raising money and found it plain and easy to follow.