Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
Venture Deals
ISBN: 978-1-119-59482-6
Just before COVID-19 threw everything into chaos in March of this year, I had signed up to take the online Venture Deals course created by the Kauffman Foundation, managed by Techstars, and taught by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson of the Foundry Group venture capital firm. Even though I’m not planning to raise money in the near future, I wanted to know about the ins and outs of fundraising. I get questions about fundraising, angel investors, and venture capital from beginning entrepreneurs who attend some of our local entrepreneurial events, and I wanted to have some idea of what I’m talking about when those questions arise.
As part of the course, we had to read the Venture Deals book, which covers the course materials with a few additional topics thrown in, as investment vehicles are added and fundraising strategies have changed slightly over the last few years. As a stand-along book, Venture Deals is an amazingly in-depth resource for both new and seasoned entrepreneurs and startup founders. As used with the Venture Deals course, it was a great resource to help complete the homework assignments.
From front cover to back, the authors help guide you through the process of raising money all the way through to letters of intent for mergers and acquisitions by larger companies, and the basics of who to consult and what happens when you want to take your company public through an IPO. They discuss the basics of term sheets, how companies are valuated, capitalization tables, and what kinds of outside professionals are necessary at each stage of fundraising – lawyers, accountants, investment bankers, and others. Turns out that there is much more to running a company than sales, marketing, and taxes!
I truly did appreciate the level of depth into which this book goes. There were a number of topics discussed that could apply to a fully bootstrapped business – folks who have no intention whatsoever of raising a dime of seed or venture capital. The authors emphasized working with sufficient legal counsel, even while working on seemingly mundane topics like trademarks and copyrights. The intention of the book is to be a one-stop shop for newer entrepreneurs and business founders, and that’s well appreciated.
Overall, 10/10, would highly recommend, not as a book to sit and read from cover to cover – it’s not really designed for that – but to use as an ongoing resource for entrepreneurs of all stripes. Even though it reads like most informational business books, Venture Deals is packed with information and can get a bit “textbooky” at times. For the simple stuff, this book is certainly less expensive and more informative than calling your lawyer. This is one of those reference books I plan to keep on the shelf at the ready for the duration of my career in entrepreneurship.