Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Venture Capital

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

As a small business owner and investor, I loved this book. Not only does this book provide in-depth information about raising capital through use of venture capital, banks, investors & angels--it gives practical advice in laymans language.

Sure, legal terminology is used, but so much the better to use when trying to raise money or invest. My only criticism is that the book wasnt longer.

The best advice the book provides is what NOT to do and which PITFALLS to watch for. Also, how to structure your business plan to the specific financing you seek is helpful.

This type of advice is usually out of reach for the average person. I am ordering additional copies for colleagues!

If your a rookie in the world of VC financing and you think that you'll breeze through this 160+ page book in an hour or so, forget it. Having read it, re-read it, underscored, and taken notes, I feel like I've just had two lessons in Karate -- I now know just enough to get myself killed. (And that's with 20+ years of financial background.) That being said - it covers all the bases, contains a wealth of information, and is loaded with practical, albiet sometimes complicated advice. I suggest that you read it, but don't make it your only source -- it's too condensed for the subject matter covered, and will be a bit over the heads of the non-Wall Street types.

I did not find this book easy to read. I am new to this field, and am a potential enterpreneur, which by definition makes me a potential investor. The book is written by a lawyer who shares his considerable experience advising both venture capitalists and enterpreneurs. The legal aspects that are discussed are of supreme importance, and this book offered me some valuable insights into the dynamics of enterpreneurship. If, like myself, you are a not familiar with the field, I would recommend this as the second or third book you read. I bought this book together with "High Tech Start Up", which I read first (and highly recommend). I have to admit that it is likely that there was a lot in this book that I did not fully understand. I will be using the book for cross reference with my other information sources.
---Update June 2007----------------
Having recently re-read "Fundamentals.." I still think this is one of the best business books I have ever read. The book is useful far beyond the realm of venture capitalism. Anyone in the process of starting a new venture that requires risk capital would find a lot of value in this book.

Fundamentals of Venture Capital by Joseph W. Bartlett is a solid overview of the legalities you need to know to seek venture capital. I say overview and not introduction, however, because I bet that after the first few chapters, the average layman will find portions of the book a bit technical. Although the book was intended for entrepreneurs, it is probably most useful to young practitioners in the private placement field, including lawyers, investment bankers and investors who want to understand the legal framework under which private placements are raised in the United States. The entrepreneur might droop just where Bartlett hits his stride--in his succinct discussion of Rule 144, Regulation D and other regulations and guidelines relevant to venture capital and other private placements.

The entrepreneur will find the book particularly useful when Bartlett describes the basic corporate structure; the types of securities and their legal implications, and the important considerations when drafting a business plan or prospectus. The book succeeds best when Bartlett draws upon his experience as a partner of the law firm Morrison Forster to outline the motivations of the venture capital firm, the startup and other participants in negotiations. The chapter on valuation is cursory, but there are other books to which the entrepreneur or practitioner can turn for fuller discussion. Thus Fundamentals of Venture Capital might not be the last book that you pick up to learn about venture capital, but especially if you want to learn about the legal issues, it is not a bad place to start.

Given the overall complexity of the topic, I thought that this was an especially quick read. At the same time, it touched upon enough sub-topics and did so with sufficient detail to get a good overview of how VC approach new businesses. I did not think that this was the authoritative statement on any given point, but a solid primer. To the extent you need to know more about a topic, you should be well armed to research it further.

I encounted the book through a senior capstone course at a local MBA program. I was lecturing on a topic and saw the book on the syllabus.

I'm an attorney with many years' experience in the venture capital area. The content of the book tends to reflect East Coast practice more than West Coast (Silicon Valley) practice. That's not necessarily a flaw, but you should be aware that the styles can differ in some respects.

The style of writing though, is my major complaint about this book. In a word, it's pompous. Too many sentences have very complex, passive or impersonal constructions. Paragraphs are long and dense, without any concern for the reader's fatigue level.

Also, some quantitative concepts could have been much more clearly expressed with a simple formula (high school-level math). The discussion of weighted average antidilution protection at pp. 90-91 is a case in point. I found this impossible to understand when I first read it. The more I read it, the more obscure it became to me. It could have been described much more accurately, and in many fewer lines, with a simple fraction.

Clear communication didn't seem to be a priority for this author.

This book outlines the organizational and funding aspects of venture capital from a legal viewpoint for investors and company management. It does a good job of pointing out the basic legal issues for a non-lawyer. It is not useful for assessing a business venture's fundamentals or valuing a company. The author's website VC Experts is useful.