Confessions of a Venture Capitalist: Inside the High-Stakes World of Start-Up Financing [Hardcover]

Ruthann Quindlen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2000

Venture capitalism offers lessons essential to any business, and Ruthann Quindlen, one of America's most visible venture capitalists, has used those lessons to create some of the largest and most fascinating companies of this century. In the past year alone, venture capitalists were responsible for the $10 billion-plus that fueled the best new ideas and most impressive start-ups. But what makes a successful venture capitalist? Cash? Smarts? Luck? In this fearless and informative financial primer, Quindlen educates readers about the growing opportunities -- and hidden pitfalls -- of venture capital investing, and helps readers evaluate their own business ideas more accurately by applying her proven Ten Commandments for Entrepreneurs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many people would love to pick the brains of a venture capitalist to uncover exactly what gets their juices (and checks) flowing. Some books promise such advice from the recipient's point of view, but rarely is the story told from a financier's. As its title promises, however, Confessions of a Venture Capitalist does just that. Ruthann Quindlen, a one-time investment banker now with Silicon Valley's Institutional Venture Partners, lays it on the line in this revealing glimpse inside her world. Short, humorous chapters make it an easy read--a fact that might lead some to suspect that specifics are lacking. But details are there, as evidenced in a section called "Less Is More, or Subtraction by Addition." "Rather than coming to us with just themselves and their bright idea, they believe we want to see business types as part of the initial management team," she writes. "Often, we like the technology entrepreneur and the plan, but end up in the awkward position of not being able to back the business types.... Focus instead on your idea and why customers will love it and how you and only you can make it happen." Such suggestions should prove useful to entrepreneurs, and anyone else interested in today's venture-capital economy. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

Many investors dream about buying shares of companies like Microsoft or AOL at their initial public offerings for only a few dollars per share (split-adjusted). But imagine participating in the earliest meetings, as Quindlen did, where financiers considered getting in for pennies per share (in the cases of the aforementioned companies, most said "no"). In this incisive look at the world of venture capital, Quindlen, a partner at one of the most successful firms, IVP, also presents the inside scoop on the exploits of investment banks like Alex Brown, which in the 1980s brought some of the most exciting technology companies to market, and the venture capital firms that have sprung up along Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley since the early 1990s. The apparent ease with which she conveys her minimalist vignettes belies Quindlen's considerable literary talent; readers will find themselves recalling her phrases with satisfaction. Near the end of the book, she asks many of the successful entrepreneurs she has financed to relate the single most useful piece of advice they could have received when starting out. The distilled wisdom in their answers will teach readers more than they will learn from most business books. Written to help entrepreneurs gain funding, this valuable book is not so much a step-by-step guide as a brilliantly illuminating window into how venture capitalists think. Those looking to finance a business can make no better investment. 25-city radio satellite tour. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 218 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; 1st edition (May 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446526800
• ISBN-13: 978-0446526807
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,238,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but very bland and in no way a "confession", August 18, 2000

By 

Yuri Ashuev (Astoria, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confessions of a Venture Capitalist: Inside the High-Stakes World of Start-Up Financing (Hardcover)

If you are craving an inside look on the operations of the VC world, you are in for a disappointment. If you are looking for enjoyable stories and case studies, you will be left wondering where the other reviewers found the word "fun".

Venture Capitalists are secretive guys. Everyone knows that, and every rare piece of literature on the subject is valuable. What Ms Quindlan says should be consirered a manual on what VCs expect from a good, obedient entrepreneur, but in no way would it prepare him for the encounter with real-life VCs, who are portrayed as true angels...

It is ironic that her friend Jerry Kaplan is used often as an example of a successful buseness man. The man has achieved consirerable personal wealth, but his pen-computing moves proved a failure, and his other company, OnSale was squashed by the likes of eBay.

To get a taste of "high-stakes world of start-up finacing" from both the VC and entrepreneurial perspective, you have to read "Burn Rate" by Michael Wolff and "eBoys" by Randal Stross. Considerably more frank, informative, and enjoyable.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Eye candy only, June 25, 2000

By 

J. Burke "jcburke1" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Confessions of a Venture Capitalist: Inside the High-Stakes World of Start-Up Financing (Hardcover)

As an entrepreneur who is on his 6th company batting .500 I've had truck with a lot of VCs over the years (including ones I like) and this book barely scratches the surface. For someone with as much experience as Ms. Quindlen, this is a shallow glance at an industry that is rich in detailed stories of this success or that failure where both VCs and founders have been stretched and tested in various ways. She begins by saying that she will be discussing mistakes, but this seems to be only a litany of faulty or weak founders/entrepreneurs. Also, the author presents only a one-way view of this industry. For example she recommends to founders that "you can never be too paranoid", but that this rule should only be applied to competition and never to your VCs. VCs are the good guys, there is no investigation of the VCs whatsoever. In other words, you founders should work extra-hard, be totally committed, tell us (VCs) everything, trust us implicitly and be willing to take less because it will be in your best interest anyway. There, you've just read the book in that single sentence. If you want to see what a winning founder thinks of VCs you're better off buying the biography of Jim Clark, "The New, New Thing" (and the writing is better). How unfortunate for us that the experienced Ms. Quindlen makes the same mistakes as a new author that she regrets making as a starting VC: timidity, ultra-conservatism and risk-avoidance.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written and arrogant, July 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Confessions of a Venture Capitalist: Inside the High-Stakes World of Start-up Financing (Paperback)

This book is poorly written and offensive. Ms. Quinlan was dead wrong about the future of internet stocks. She claimed that profitability is not important in this environment but that this is a new paradigm and that the only important thing is to get large quickly. Clearly time has discredited this absured notion. Also she is dismissive and patronizing to entrepreneurs. She castigates some engineers with a solid business plan for not having the courage to quit their day jobs before funding comes in from the venture community. It must be nice to live in an environment where you do not have to worry about tuition, feeding your children, making the mortgage payment etc. so you can cavalierly expect others to quit their day jobs while they wait for the venture caitalist to smile on them. Also, although she would ask entepreneurs to quit ther day jobs, she is clear that if she loses interst in a deal she usually will not have time to make a courtesy call to say that her firm is passing on a deal. This is rich. Quit your day job and by the way, if I choose to pass on your deal you are not worthy of a phone call. Her advice is to just figure the VC is not interested when they quit returning your calls. Ms. Quinlan is a prima donna.She was dead wrong about the internet stocks. She appears unable to show common courtesy to the dedicated and hard working enrepreneurs who may have a deal that is not a good fit for her firm. She admits to a herd mentality among her colleagues that cause them to rush en mass to fund bad ideas because the might be "the next big thing". Overall, she show arrogance, grandiosity, bad judgement and manages to this all with a group of short, poorly connected, poorly written vingettes.