Product Description

Term Sheets & Valuations is the first ever in-depth look at the nuts and buts of terms sheets and valuations. The book, written by leading venture capitalist Alexander Wilmerding of Boston Capital Ventures, covers topics such What is a Term Sheet, How to Examine a Term Sheet, A Section-by-Section View of a Term Sheet, Valuations, What Every Entrepreneur & Executive Needs to Know About Term Sheets, Valuation Parameters, and East Coast Versus West Coast Rules. In addition, the book includes an actual term sheet from a leading law firm with line by line descriptions of each clause, what can/should be negotiated, and the important points to pay attention to. A must have book for any executive, entrepreneur, or financial professional.

Praise for Term Sheets & Valuations:

"This primer should be required reading for every entrepreneur. It is short, authoritative and worth its weight in gold." - Murray Low, Executive Director, Columbia Business School, Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship

"An invaluable resource for executives and financial professionals." - Graham D.S. Anderson, General Partner, EuclidSR Partners

"A valuable resource for entrepreneurs..." - Jeffrey Donohue, Esq.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146042 in Books
• Brand: Brand: Aspatore Books
• Published on: 2006-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .38" h x 5.56" w x 8.55" l, .38 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 106 pages

Features

• Used Book in Good Condition

Review

"This primer should be required reading for every entrepreneur. It is short, authoritative and worth its weight in gold." --- Murray Low, Executive Director, Columbia Business School, Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship

"An invaluable resource for executives and financial professionals." --- Graham D.S. Anderson, General Partner, EuclidSR Partners

"A valuable resource for entrepreneurs..." --- Jeffrey Donohue, Esq.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Without explaining why the middle ground or company favorable language is different from or better than VC favorable language
By JPW
I decided to buy this book after a careful reading of its reviews. Although apprehensive of the shortness of the book, I was ultimately sold by the comparison of VC favorable vs. Middle ground vs. Company favorable terms.

This book is introductory in length, advanced in content, and incomplete in information. I can't help but get the feeling that the publishers wanted to give enough information to educate broadly on the topic, but leave enough in question so that the readers feel compelled to purchase one of the publisher's many other books, which are conveniently listed with prices in the final few pages.

A majority of the book, as you can guess, analyzes the sections you'll find in most term sheets. After each brief analysis, you see a VC favorable version, middle ground version, and company favorable version of the particular term sheet section. Unfortunately, most analyses failed to explain the significance of the differences between these versions. Without explaining why the middle ground or company favorable language is different from or better than VC favorable language, or knowing the ramifications of language changes or omissions, the book leaves the reader guessing or on a hunt elsewhere for answers. And although a few of the language differences were apparent on their faces, many were not. The author also makes assumptions that you know what certain terms mean without providing even the slightest explanation. The chapter on valuation was somewhat helpful, but it's a topic that needs to be explained in far more than a handful of pages. The section about East coast vs. West coast term sheets was about 1.5 pages long, and again, is a topic that requires a much more than a few extremely broad statements to be helpful.

If you're looking to educate yourself on venture capital, you're much, much better off reading the Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson book, Venture Deals. This book is absolutely not worth $31.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Good Content, Bad Format
By P. Scott Pope
Term Sheets and Valuations analyzes the finer details of VC term sheets within a framework of what are "investor favorable", "middle-of-the-road", or "company favorable" elements. While this format is helpful, the excerpts are sometimes a bit hard to follow. Not being an attorney, I found this a somewhat arduous read, especially for such a short book.

A better format would have been to include three separate term sheets properly marked up to highlight key differences. This would have required four documents: the book and three separate term sheets. Despite the increased printing costs, it would have been well worth it.

Another problem with the book is the lack of valuation information. Given the title, I would have expected extensive valuation examples. There really aren't any, sadly. This appears to have been done for extreme brevity.

The author does deserve credit for distilling a subject into a rather brief text. Given the limited population that would truly be interested in the nuances of term sheets, his attempt at this book was rather admirable.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Ok, but could have been much better
By D Twain
First off, I agree with the other reviewer who said that the author and publisher could have made this book much more useful by adding the 3 term sheets to the book (Investor Favorable, Middle of Road, Company Favorable), instead of jumbling all the information in one term sheet and dispersing it within the body of the text.

Furthermore, this book is very poorly edited - the content is good, but it reads like a second draft rather than a completed product.

A few paragraphs repeat themselves practically word for word within the space of a few pages (bothersome, considering this is a 100 page book), and the author sometimes glosses over valuation numbers, ownership percentages and the like in his explanation of redemption rights, dilution terms and subsequent rounds of investment.

It is not tightly written at all, and it prompted me to email the author for clarification - unfortunately, the email address given in the book is out of date. It is still useful to read, but the imprecise use of numbers in his explanations really kills the value of this book.