Daily Archives: March 20, 2014

Book Review – Venture Deals

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If you can’t tell by the book list on the side of this page, we “read” (technically, listen to) a lot of books on business, startups, and VC.  One of our favorite books is Venture Deals: Be Smarter than your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by none other than Foundry Group’s own Brad Feld (See our VC spotlight on him!) and Jason Mendelson.  Seriously though, if there ever was a “Foundry Group Fan Club”, C:V. would be a charter member…

Name: Venture Deals: Be Smarter than your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist

vdeals

Overview: This book literally boils down a Term Sheet in all its Legal jargon glory and makes it so basically anyone can understand.  It takes you through each topic, term, and component and gives you a no-nonsense explanation of what it means with specific examples of it in action.  It has sections that cover all aspects of economics and control in a financing and even a foreword from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo!

Invest, Invest with Participating Liquidation Preferences, or Pass: Invest!

Investment Thesis:  This book should be a MUST READ for all aspiring Entrepreneurs and VC’s!  Brad and Jason have an uncanny ability to break down the most difficult and dry legalese into engaging and informative advice.  Another one of our favorite parts of the book is the “Entrepreneur’s Perspective” as it gives a viewpoint for many of the topics from the founder’s standpoint and not just the VC’s.  This book receives our highest recommendation.

Round of the Week – Aquantia

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To quote our favorite YouTube video “Series F. Where’s my IPO, Series G: Gettin Low”, whenever we see a later round investment we are always intrigued as to what the status of the company (and cap table) is.  In that light, we have given semiconductor company Aquantia and their $16M G round the honor of Round of the Week.

Name: Aquantia

Website: http://www.aquantia.com/

Funding to Date: $154M (too many to list!)

Deal Notables: Even with strong headwinds of VC’s movement away from semiconductor investments, Aquantia has raised yet another round and is apparently on an IPO path. Thankfully, they own about 70% of the market and are expecting phenomenal growth with  “large revenue opportunities”. So if anyone has the chops to go public amid all the chaos, they seem to fit the bill.  We just hope the founding members have some equity remaining to compensate them for their hard work all these years…