Fundamentals of Venture Capital [Hardcover]

Joseph W. Bartlett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1999

Written in highly readable layman's language, Fundamentals of Venture Capital is a concise introduction to the key issues facing both investors and entrepreneurs as they embark on the journey of turning a good idea into a profitable reality.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Madison Books; Underlining edition (November 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568331266
• ISBN-13: 978-1568331263
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This Book Needs to be Rewritten, March 5, 2002

By 

M. Grooms "spyryl" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fundamentals of Venture Capital (Hardcover)

Most of the other reviewers have said this book is NOT easy to read. I am another one of those readers. I want to be more specific WHY this book is so difficult to read. This book is supposed to be for layman. However the author uses terminology that would go over the layman's head. At the same time he skims and glosses over the details. So it sounds technical but it's not! What's worse, the readability of this book suffers from the use of tedious sentence structure and from unnecessarily high-caliber word selection like: atavistic, quixotic and salubrious.

I was disappointed in this book for more reasons than the readability problem. Chapters 3 through 7 cover the basics of starting a business. First of all these chapters don't belong in this book. As it is chapters 3 through 7 skim over topics that each belong in their own separate and adequately detailed book. Even if this book had been titled, "The Complete Guide to Starting a Business" it would have failed miserably because the level of detail is so totally inadequate.

This book is supposed to be about Venture Capital and that's all it should have discussed from beginning to end. This book is 160 pages long and yet the author only starts to get into venture capital at page 80. Again readability suffers, the detail isn't there, the line of thought is disjointed and the layman would be lost in the technical terms.

I think this book needs to be completely rewritten and revised. I have no doubt the author knows what he's talking about and that he has valuable knowledge to share. However, in it's current form, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. There's little in this book for either the layman or the seasoned professional.

A book that I would recommend to advanced readers is "Structuring Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Entrepreneurial Transactions : 2001" -- by Jack S. Levin. It covers tax and accounting issues in great detail and the readability is superb.

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wealth of practical info on VC but difficult to read, March 23, 2000

By 

Yuri Grigoriev - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Venture Capital (Hardcover)

This is a very practical book, delving deep into the issues around the process of raising VC financing. But it probably has a wrong title- this is not exaclty 'fundamentals of venture capital' that the author is discussing (maybe for the author with his 35 years experience in this industry it seems so). The author goes much further than simply explain the basic things- he describes a lot of issues that are not trivial. This actually makes the book very valuable, in that it is not of the 'Idiot's guide to..' variety. However, it would have been even more valuable had the author described the nature of the issues in more detail. The book is very short (120 pages), and it seems way too little to describe the nature of the issues raised there, which makes it difficult to understand them.

Another drawback of the book is its language- I feel that many things could have been explained in plain English, and this is not a small issue. Some parts of the book are simply impossible to read. I understand that after being a partner in a law firm for many years it's difficult not to use obsure words that can only be found in legal texts, but anyway, this definitely detracts much from the value of the book. The author could have better adhered to the KISS principle ('keep it simple stupid') that he himself mentioned in the book. But again, I'm not a native speaker, so I may be wrong.

A good thing about the book is that it is written with humor and sometimes even sarcasm, which makes it interesting to read for someone who appreciates dry wit.

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the money, January 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Fundamentals of Venture Capital (Hardcover)

Fundamentals claims that it is easy to read - in layman's language- but that couldn't be further from the truth. I am a law student with several years of business experience and I've taken courses on Corporations and Securities Regulation. I bought this book because of my interest in learning about Venture Capital from a lawyer's perspective. Even for me this book was way too complex. The book's chapters and subheadings give the appearance of structure, but the substance is distorted. The author assumes you have a great deal of understanding about these issues already. Unless you already thoroughly understand such concepts as Securities Registration, Corporate Taxation, and Corporate Organization; and unless you have a fundamental knowledge of such terms as IRS code Section 83, SEC Reg D, Form S-8, Rule 10b5, first refusal option, Reg S-X, leveraged buyout, and best efforts underwriting, you will be left with more questions than answers. You won't learn what those things mean from this book, you'll have to find them somewhere else, yet they are essential to understand what he is talking about. The author gives a comprehensive overview of the whole process but will leave the "layman" lost in the effort.