Deal Terms: The Finer Points of Venture Capital Deal Structures, Valuations, Term Sheets, Stock Options and Getting Deals Done

by Alex Wilmerding

Book Overview

Offering unprecedented looks into the leading minds of different industries, each essay in these books is written by a different C-level executive from Fortune 500 companies. Their insights provide... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587622084
• ISBN13: 9781587622083
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Aspatore Books
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Quick Guide to Venture Capital Thinking

This book, one claimed by the publisher to fall into the need-to-read category rather than the nice-to-read, is aimed at giving the businessman the information he needs to know to be able to hold an intelligent conversation with a venture capitalist. It's a pretty quick and easy read, but the businessman who has gotten his business up to the stage where outside money is needed is probably not a financial type but an engineer, or scientist or perhaps just plain businessman. This book, written from the venture capitalist standpoint, will explain to him such things as how to value a company, verious types of stock, dilution of the ownership, in short, all of the things that will need to be understood when a big time financial deal goes down. It's not an in depth book, each of these subjects can and has several books describing them 'in depth.' Instead it is a small book that gives you what you need to know quickly.

Great Book - But Even Better is Author DVD Called Negotiating Term Sheets & Valuations in VC Deals

This author definitely knows his stuff - but even better is author's new product called Negotiating Term Sheets and Valuations in Venture Capital Deals (ISBN 1597010987). It is a 100 minute DVD that has a lot of different material in it that is critical for doing venture capital deals. It also covers specific negotiation strategies and roles and motivations for each key deal participant - which is not covered in this book or the authors other book (Term Sheets & Valuations).

Direct to the Deal Terms

This book has a few sample drafts of term sheets and other legal documents. That is not the primary focus of this book. You can hire that kind of talent (legal drafting) on a per hour basis. This book helps the owners make the BUSINESS decisions necessary to avoid hamstring their new venture during this difficult passage. Included is information about what to pay your independent directors, advisory board members and senior management. Also included is what percentage of the company the founders should expect to keep, how to avoid excessive dilution during an unfortunate down round and how to present your opportunity to potential investors. All of these BUSINESS decisions are beyond the discretion of attorneys in this area, they typically instruct the entrepreneur to reflect upon the topic and then the attorney will draft it to suit. Wilmerding interviews individuals that are representative of players an entrepreneur will encounter in getting his business funded. These real world examples of how business (strategy) items are handled or viewed by third parties are the best part of his book.

Very Insightful...Read Before Your Next Deal

Mr. Wilmerding's book is a great reference for every venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and investment banker. I was very impressed with the analysis of actual deal sheets, and the recommendations on specific points within a deal.Also of particular value is the focus on the preferred and convertible stocks. The in-depth analysis of both the simple and complex types of offerrings brings to light a lot on the topic, and what to watch out for with new laws and regulations regarding these documents.This book is a must read for anyone doing financial deals of any type. Although I have been doing deals for over 20 years, there were a couple of points in particular that I took away from this book that I now use in all the deals I do. We also had one of our portfolio entrepreneurs read it, who took away a lot and now uses this book as their "standard" for the types of deals they do.Want to know what venture capitalists really think about deals and how they structure them? It's in this book.

An Indispensable Reference for Entrepreneurs & VCs

This is a great book on venture capital deals. I highly recommend it to every venture capitalist, entrepreneur, investment banker, or anyone else doing deals. The templates in it, with detailed explanations, are first rate and really simplify what to look for. There are also a plethora of deal pointers that can save you an incredible amount of time and money that anyone doing a VC deal (or trying to do a VC deal) needs to be aware of. A must have reference on your bookshelf.