Customer Reviews

Insider's Guide to Venture Capital, 2002

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3 star:		(1)
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I am the founder of a start-up company in Germany expanding to the U.S. Therefore we are seeking venture capital for setting up our operations in the Silicon Valley area within this year.

After reviewing most of the VC related literature the Insiders Guide was recommended to me. In contrast to other books, the Guide provided us with all the necessary VC contacts for a very affordable price ! The book is up to date and very well structured. The essays provide an interesting insight into the U.S. business habits.

The information from that book were incredibly helpful and accelerate our expansion to the west coast ! Thank you for that book and I am looking forward to the next edition with new VC contacts.

My name is Dante Fichera and I'm the author of this book. I'm not only going to write a review of my book but also write about the history of why I committed four years of my life to this project.

Four years ago while I was working in public accounting as an auditor (mostly auditing VC funds), I frequently met entrepreneurs that did not know how or where to find venture capital. Since I knew who all the VCs in town were, I began compiling their profiles and contact information. I then prepared hundreds of 20-page pamphlets that were stapled together and handed them out at a local networking event in San Diego.

Within an hour all the pamphlets had been snatched up. Months later, I would see entrepreneurs walking around at various networking events with these same pamphlets, clinging on to each falling page.

That is when I set out to compile the most useful resource tool available to entrepreneurs anywhere. I not only compiled over 400 profiles of funds actively seeking investment opportunities, but I also recruited over 20 nationally recognized venture capitalist and business leaders to write essays providing insight for entrepreneurs.

No other book combines the industry knowledge with the most current contact information for prospecting venture capital.

Dante Fichera and David Richardson have produced the book that addresses the issues that entrepreneurs who seek funding in today’s tough market need to know. The book is divided into two parts: 1. Nuts and bolts advice from executives who have been there, done that. 2. A list of firms [and their personnel, addresses, phones and email]; that are in the business of investing in new firms.

Reading “Insider's Guide to Raising Venture Capital, 2002” is comparable to attending an all day seminar about raising funds for new ventures; where you desperately hope to meet the executives who can help you; all while trying to absorb the advice from the experts who sit on the stage above you. This book gives you more useable advice and more contacts. Definitely a good value.

Michel Dedina....

I've helped more than 20 technology companies raise more than $80 million in venture capital. And if you're an entrepreneur seeking institutional capital - you better have this book. You should read every article in the back, BEFORE you start seeking your financing.

This is the book that will put you on the path to developing your strategic plan to raise capital. Don't underestimate the process, or how much competition there is to get a VCs attention, let alone his or her money. Read the articles, develop your plan, then use the book to target venture firms that make sense for your particular business. Once you have that done, you can do your best to figure out a way to get the proper introductions.

This is the book to start you on the right path. If you can't afford to buy this book, don't expect to raise sophisticated capital.

Our venture capital firm was planning to spend $650 on the Pratt Guide to Venture Capital until I ran across this book. The Insiders Guide has in-depth info on every venture firm that I've heard of and is priced low enough to be purchased as a personal reference for anyone.

The Insider's Guide to Venture Capital is a must have resource! It is great to have the Venture Capitalists listed and written about; as well as having the chapters on very important topics! This book is very well organized! This book stands out way above other books on this topic.

The how to chapters in this book are very insightful and demonstrate that the variety of authors have clearly sat in venture discussions for funding as well as the daily operations of business. I state this from similiar first hand experiences.
If you are looking for a particular type of funding the indexed text of this book provides a base line level of research that you can use to identify the right funding sources for your offering, plan an approach, possibly an introduction and surely what the right message to deliver in your pitch.

It is about time that someone finally put together this information regarding VCs, and the accompanying articles are superb. This book is a steal. I highly recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in the world of venture capital.

As a Venture Capitalist I have gone through this book with a critical approach and I can tell that I was very satisfied by the content. The information are quite up to date, accurate; the how to chapters are full of helpful advices; and it is far less expensive than the competition. In 2 words: Well Done.

I think if you are interested in Venture capital stuff or if you need capital, this is definitly a book for you. I offered it to friend of mine who is actually in the process of seeking capital and he is totally satisfied with it. for ..., it is a low cost way to satisfy a friend.