Brad Feld

Mahendra Ramsinghani

An essential guide to understanding the dynamics of a startup's board of directors Let's face it, as founders and entrepreneurs, you have a lot on your plate—getting to your minimum viable product, developing customer interaction, hiring team members, and managing the accounts/books. Sooner or later, you have a board of directors, three to five (or even seven) Type A personalities who seek your attention and at times will tell you what to do. While you might be hesitant to form a board, establishing an objective outside group is essential for startups, especially to keep you on track, call you out when you flail, and in some cases, save you from yourself. In Startup Boards, Brad Feld—a Boulder, Colorado-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist—shares his experience in this area by talking about the importance of having the right board members on your team and how to manage them well. Along the way, he shares valuable insights on various aspects of the board, including how they can support you, help you understand your startup's milestones and get to them faster, and hold you accountable. Details the process of choosing board members, including interviewing many people, checking references, and remembering that there should be no fear in rejecting a wrong fit Explores the importance of running great meetings, mixing social time with business time, and much more Recommends being a board member yourself at some other organization so you see the other side of the equation Engaging and informative, Startup Boards is a practical guide to one of the most important pieces of the startup puzzle.

Getting the Most Out of Your Board of Directors

Startup Boards

The definitive guide demystifying the venture capital business The Business of Venture Capital covers the entire spectrum of a venture capital business, from raising venture funds to structuring investments, value creation as board member and assessing exit pathways. Author Mahendra Ramsinghani covers the distinct aspects of the venture capital fund raising and investment process with insights and perspectives from leading experts. Interviewees include Limited Partners (LPs) such as Credit Suisse, Grove Street Advisors and General Partners (GPs) from Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. If you’re curious about venture capital businesses, you’ve found the only book that covers it all. • The first book to address the full investment cycle of the venture capital business • Demystifies the key aspects of the business - raising venture funds, fund-level due diligence and fund terms, structuring investments, value creation, and exits • Foreword by Mark Heesen, President, National Venture Capital Association • Benefit from the experiences of the best-in-class practitioners, who have made investments in leading companies like Zynga, Twitter & Foursquare • Describes how venture capital is an art as well as a science In-depth and thorough, The Business of Venture Capital is the one book that includes insights, tools and real world examples every practitioner can benefit from.

Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies

The Business of Venture Capital

Matt Blumberg

The new edition of the definitive guide for venture capital practitioners—covers the entire process of venture firm formation & management, fund-raising, portfolio construction, value creation, and exit strategies Since its initial publication, The Business of Venture Capital has been hailed as the definitive, most comprehensive book on the subject. Now in its third edition, this market-leading text explains the multiple facets of the business of venture capital, from raising venture funds, to structuring investments, to generating consistent returns, to evaluating exit strategies. Author and VC Mahendra Ramsinghani who has invested in startups and venture funds for over a decade, offers best practices from experts on the front lines of this business. This fully-updated edition includes fresh perspectives on the Softbank effect, career paths for young professionals, case studies and cultural disasters, investment models, epic failures, and more. Readers are guided through each stage of the VC process, supported by a companion website containing tools such as the LP-GP Fund Due Diligence Checklist, the Investment Due Diligence Checklist, an Investment Summary format, and links to white papers and other industry guidelines. Designed for experienced practitioners, angels, devils, and novices alike, this valuable resource: Identifies the key attributes of a VC professional and the arc of an investor’s career Covers the art of raising a venture fund, identifying anchor investors, fund due diligence, negotiating fund investment terms with limited partners, and more Examines the distinct aspects of portfolio construction and value creation Balances technical analyses and real-world insights Features interviews, personal stories, anecdotes, and wisdom from leading venture capitalists The Business of Venture Capital, Third Edition is a must-read book for anyone seeking to raise a venture fund or pursue a career in venture capital, as well as practicing venture capitalists, angel investors or devils alike, limited partners, attorneys, start-up entrepreneurs, and MBA students.

The Art of Raising a Fund, Structuring Investments, Portfolio Management, and Exits

Managing your own psychology is the hardest skill for any founder As acclaimed investor and entrepreneur Ben Horowitz once stated, managing your own psychology is the hardest skill for any founder or CEO. In The Resilient Founder: Lessons in Endurance from Startup Entrepreneurs, Mahendra Ramsinghani gathers insights from over a hundred founders to deliver an intuitive and insightful guide to understanding our psychology and navigating the psychological pressures of startup leadership. Venture backed companies are expected to grow at high velocity, raise large amounts of capital, build teams effectively to achieve unicorn, no decacorn status. Yet the journey is long, filled with uncertainties, extremities and black swan events. It can wear out the best and the brightest. On the outside, a CEO can demonstrate sheer bravado, an invincible spirit as they behead dragons in the business battlefield. And on the inside, they deal with their dark side, subconscious struggles, emotional barriers, shame or guilt. The role of a founder can be lonely, frustrating and filled with high-highs and low-lows - all of this leading to anxiety, depression even suicide. This book addresses the fundamentals of understanding our own inner workings and explores practical ways of overcoming our inner hurdles. Filled with simple, yet concrete strategies, lessons and insights, founders and business leaders can work with stress, anxiety, and other mental challenges presented by the life of an entrepreneur. In this book, readers will learn to: Understand the basics of founder psychology, and how our inner workings can help or hurt us The importance of building a healthy ego, leading to resilience Draw on the lessons of established startup leaders on how to wrestle with their own mental and emotional challenges Written for founders, entrepreneurs and Chief Executive Officers, The Resilient Founder leads a gentle path to self-awareness, compassionate soul-care and inner wellbeing. Entrepreneur, Investor and author Brad Feld calls this book "dynamite". Case studies, philosophical perspectives and a generous dose of poetry is sprinkled across this book, which can be a companion for all those misfits, rebels and the crazy ones. For all those perpetually hitched on the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurial journey, this book is first of a kind to delve into the dark side and present a balanced approach to building your inner core as you build your company. This is no quick-fix guide, and we are perpetual work-in-progress. Today is Day One. Let us start the journey.

Mahendra Ramsinghani

Books

Your next favorite book is out there