I was hesitant to buy Brad Feld’s new book on venture capital after being disappointed by “Do More Faster”. However, this book has proven to be very informative and valuable read. As an early employee in a venture funded startup, my motivation in reading this book was to get more familiar with terms and technical details of a funding round.
Venture deals, as the name suggests, is all about raising venture capital, and explains a term sheet in great detail, and provide guidance on which terms to focus on. It reads like a school textbook from time to time.
By reading this book you’ll learn about the difference between pre-money/post-money valuation, how option pool affects founders’ shares, importance of liquidation preference, provisions like pay-to-play and vesting, and concepts like capitalization table. You’ll also get to know about how venture capital funds work, the organizational structure of a VC company, management fees, commitment period etc.
If you’re a first time entrepreneur planning to raise venture capital, or an employee at a venture funded early stage company, this book can be very informative and useful.