Explanations to the inner workings of one of the least understood, but arguably most important, areas of business finance is offered to readers in this engaging volume: venture capital. Venture capitalists provide necessary investment to seed (or startup) companies, but the startup is only the beginning, there is much more to be explored. These savvy investors help guide young entrepreneurs, who likely have little experience, to turn their businesses into the Googles, Facebooks, and Groupons of the world. This book explains the often-complex methods venture capitalists use to value companies and to get the most return on their investments, or ROI. This book is a must-have for any reader interested in the business world.

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller! What are venture capitalists saying about your startup behind closed doors? And what can you do to influence that conversation? If Silicon Valley is the greatest wealth-generating machine in the world, Sand Hill Road is its humming engine. That's where you'll find the biggest names in venture capital, including famed VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, where lawyer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC Scott Kupor serves as managing partner. Whether you're trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how VCs think. In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Kupor explains exactly how VCs decide where and how much to invest, and how entrepreneurs can get the best possible deal and make the most of their relationships with VCs. Kupor explains, for instance: • Why most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category. • Why the skill you need most when raising venture capital is the ability to tell a compelling story. • How to handle a "down round," when startups have to raise funds at a lower valuation than in the previous round. • What to do when VCs get too entangled in the day-to-day operations of the business. • Why you need to build relationships with potential acquirers long before you decide to sell. Filled with Kupor's firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.

“An incisive history of the venture-capital industry.” —New Yorker “An excellent and original economic history of venture capital.” —Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution “A detailed, fact-filled account of America’s most celebrated moneymen.” —New Republic “Extremely interesting, readable, and informative...Tom Nicholas tells you most everything you ever wanted to know about the history of venture capital, from the financing of the whaling industry to the present multibillion-dollar venture funds.” —Arthur Rock “In principle, venture capital is where the ordinarily conservative, cynical domain of big money touches dreamy, long-shot enterprise. In practice, it has become the distinguishing big-business engine of our time...[A] first-rate history.” —New Yorker VC tells the riveting story of how the venture capital industry arose from America’s longstanding identification with entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Whether the venture is a whaling voyage setting sail from New Bedford or the latest Silicon Valley startup, VC is a state of mind as much as a way of doing business, exemplified by an appetite for seeking extreme financial rewards, a tolerance for failure and experimentation, and a faith in the promise of innovation to generate new wealth. Tom Nicholas’s authoritative history takes us on a roller coaster of entrepreneurial successes and setbacks. It describes how iconic firms like Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia invested in Genentech and Apple even as it tells the larger story of VC’s birth and evolution, revealing along the way why venture capital is such a quintessentially American institution—one that has proven difficult to recreate elsewhere.

Praise from Jason Mendelson (auth. Venture Deals), "Patrick brings an educator's perspective and an entertainer's sensibilities to his overview of venture capital." An approachable but disciplined overview of venture capital written by a professional musician turned business school professor over a 15-year period of teaching venture capital and startup classes at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. The book is a one-stop shop for understanding venture capital, distilling lessons from hundreds of interactions with VCs and founders. Readers of the book will learn: The core competencies of successful VCs What VC's are looking for in startups How venture capital differs from other forms of startup financing How the sharks on TV's Shark Tank are ruining venture capital The top two terms on any term sheet (and a few other key terms) Why VCs often behave like music industry professionals How to think like a VC Understanding how venture capital works in our economy can be of benefit to a wide variety of readers, from entrepreneurs to corporate decision-makers and everyone in between. This book treats venture capital as a topic of entrepreneurial strategy, not finance, and includes a background of the industry, an explanation of all aspect of the "VC Job Cycle" and a framework called "VC Razor" for performing due diligence. Learning how to think like a venture capitalist can help anyone become a better decision-maker. "Well organized, clearly articulated, this volume spans the gamut from beginner's overview to expert's guidebook. Venture Capital has never been more important, and this volume could not have been more timely." Jerome Engel, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business "Patrick lays out important concepts and insights in an easy to understand and digest form. As he clearly articulates in the book, the way that venture capitalists think is valuable to anyone in business." John F. Clarke, Dean of Graduate Programs, Tulane University Why Write Another Venture Capital Book? From the author: Over the years as I have taught venture capital classes and run a worldwide venture capital competition, I have struggled to find materials for my students. I have been frustrated by the simultaneous abundance and lack of available content. There is an abundance of terrific blogs written by VCs and founders, often teaching specific lessons derived from specific situations. Many VCs are prolific writers and have covered a wide variety of topics of the VC investment process. However, most blog postings have a very narrow scope, and they are not organized into a coherent body of work. They go deep in the weeds, but the forest gets lost. Similarly, there is also an abundance of textbooks that treat venture capital as a topic of finance. Wrong forest! Venture capital is undeniably a subset of private equity. However, approaching the industry from that perspective ignores the vast majority of what VCs actually do. If you would like to study venture capital as a finance subject, there are many other books that will serve you better than this one. Treating venture capital as a topic of finance overemphasizes the importance of numbers. For VCs, number play a large role, but just as important is the story about the numbers. In this regard, I will argue that VCs are more like journalists and filmmakers than financiers. What I have not been able to find is a holistic overview of venture capital as a topic of strategy, explaining its place in the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is not simply entrepreneurial finance! VCs play a very important strategic role in commercializing technologies. Just as importantly, they employ specific strategies that we can learn and apply to our own entrepreneurial circumstances.

Written by two of Boston's most active and experienced early stage investors, Venture Capital: A Practical Guide to Fund Formation and Management is a handbook and desk reference written for fund managers who are launching new venture capital funds, and those who aspire to start funds in the near future. Experience has taught us there is more to running a successful venture fund than finding companies and hoping for big exits. In this book, we will discuss: 7 Critical Questions That All Venture Fund Managers Need To Consider - What are the key factors to consider in defining your fund's investment strategy? - How do you go about raising capital for your fund? - What are some of the biggest challenges faced by a fund manager? - How do you structure a fund from both a legal and accounting standpoint? - What types of skills do you need on your fund's management team? - What are the economics behind running a fund? - How should a fund manager report fund activity and results to the fund stakeholders (i.e. investors or Limited Partners)? Running an early stage venture fund can be interesting and rewarding work. But setting up and managing an investment fund takes significant time and effort. Given the relatively long life cycle of a startup company investment -- typically 10+ years before a successful investor outcome -- fund managers must be willing to commit their time and effort for at least a decade. Not everyone is willing to commit at that level. Whether you are thinking about setting up a new fund or already managing an active fund, make sure you know what the best practices are in fund management. This book will help you grasp the magnitude of the effort and determine whether you have what it takes to be successful.

Despite all of the writing on venture capital, there is a missing part of the literature. There has been no book written about raising a venture capital fund. It remains a secret to a few privileged venture capitalists who have gone through this fundraising process. Until now . . . This book serves as a guide. It dives into the process of raising a venture capital fund, the how-tos, the unique language of the limited partner (LP) world, secrets of how LPs think about fund diligence and alignment, the best practices in fundraising, what works, and how you can best prepare for success. I've written this book after spending a decade investing into venture capital funds at a $30B wealth management firm and a $160B technology company. I've been on both sides of the table, the VC and the LP side. I've been behind the scenes managing every aspect of the fundraising process, investing into 80 funds, and reviewing thousands of fund investments. I also co-founded a company that specifically focuses on co-building venture capital businesses, which includes helping VCs understand the intricate dynamics of raising a venture capital fund. After reading my book, you will gain the knowledge and insights gained from these experiences.

Addresses significant developments in the valuation of early stage enterprises at fair value with emphasis on practical applications—features a broad selection of case studies of early stage valuation Early Stage Valuation: A Fair Value Perspective provides a comprehensive review of the current methodologies used to value Early Stage Enterprises (ESEs) at fair value for financial reporting, investment, and mergers and acquisitions. Author Antonella Puca, Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal Valuation Services in New York, provides accurate, up-to-date information on recent guidelines and new approaches for valuation assessments. This authoritative guide examines how to apply market analysis, discounted cash flows models, statistical techniques such as option pricing models (OPM) and Monte Carlo simulation, the venture capital method and non-GAAP metrics to ESE valuation. The text considers the most recent AICPA, Appraisal Foundation and IPEV guidance, and examines developments in both academic research and venture capital investor practice. Numerous real-world case studies illustrate early stage valuation suitable for structuring sound, internally consistent business transactions. Covering current trends and the latest regulatory guidance in the area, this book: Provides step-by-step guidance on practical valuation applications Reflects current standards for ESE valuation, including the AICPA Guide to the Valuation of Portfolio Company Investments, the IPEV guidelines and guidance from the Appraisal Foundation Covers new approaches to the valuation of ESEs with option pricing models, Monte Carlo Simulation, calibration and non-GAAP metrics Offers an overview of start-up valuation Discusses how intangible assets are impacting the valuation of ESEs The book also includes contributions from Neil Beaton, Andreas Dal Santo, Alexander Davie, John Jackman and Mark Zyla. Early Stage Valuation: A Fair Value Perspective is an essential resource for valuation specialists, private equity and venture capital fund managers, analysts, attorneys, investment bankers, regulators and auditors, and investors with interest in the private equity and venture capital industry.