Customer Reviews

Negotiating Term Sheets & Valuations in VC Deals (DVD)

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

 

 

The production values of this video (from ReedLogic Executive Seminars) are abysmal by today's standards. It appears to be the result of transferring an old analog video tape to DVD with minimal editing and has a grainy, digitized appearance. The setting is what appears to be the corner of a small conference room where the presenter, Alex Wilmerding of Boston Capital Partners (a man in his early 40's casually dressed in an open-collar, button down blue shirt), sits and is flanked by two mostly empty bookcases. He appears to be responding to a series of unspoken questions by an off-camera producer whose voice does, unexpectedly, break through twice near the middle and end of the video. The presenter himself is clearly not practiced in public speaking or well-rehearsed, as his answers are frequently interrupted by pauses and "huhs" and the delivery is emotionally flat and monotonous. The whole thing is poorly scripted and very repetitive.

Regarding the content and organization of this "seminar," it is a series of 18 sections preceded by a short introduction. The sections are:

1 Term Sheets
2 The Wording of the Term Sheet
3 The Management Team
4 Red Flags in the Term Sheet for the Entrepreneur
5 Red Flags in the Term Sheet for the Investor
6 Valuation
7 The Role of the Term Sheet
8 Negotiation Strategy for Investors
9 Negotiation Strategy for the Management Team
10 Important Sections of the Term Sheet for Investors
11 Important Sections of the Term Sheet for Entrepreneurs
12 Where Executives Get Confused
13 Strategy for Establishing Valuations
14 Factors in Establishing Valuation
15 Financial Tools/Ratios
16 Case Study: "NewCo"
17 Key Players and their Motivation
18 Advice for the Management Team

Looks good, no?

There is no navigable menu or table of contents here. The only way you can navigate to any of the sections is by using your fast forward, pause and reverse controls like on an old-fashioned VCR. This video is only a little over an hour long meaning each of the sections is very short and consequently superficial. And did I mention that they're very repetitive?

I found the actual content to be modestly informative but strange because the intended audience is advertised to be "C-level executives" (CEO, CFO, etc.) yet the presentation is clearly for "beginners." That being so, the content is lacking for this audience as well since a number of VC jargon terms (e.g. "pre-money," "post-money," various kinds of ownership dilutions) are not defined. The main take-home message is self-promoting and seems to be that VCs are important because they "protect the downside while maximizing the chance for high [10x] multiples of return" (in exchange for 30-40% ownership of your company). What a surprise. Rather than being a good investment, I view the 99 bucks I paid for this video as a "sunk cost."

Perhaps Mr. Wilmerding's various books on these subjects (and similar ReedLogic products) are more substantive and better produced and one might be tempted to give them another chance. But, as George W. Bush has advised: "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."

This is a really great resource on venture capital deals. Viewed it on my computer, which I prefer a lot more than to reading hundreds of pages in a book. The DVD is great and features 100 minutes live with the VC, Alex Wilmerding. Highly recommend this product....