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Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms Paperback – September 27, 2011

by Jeffrey Bussgang (Author)

4.4 504 ratings

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"Read this book right now so you can look your potential VC in the eye with confidence." -David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR

Finding the right venture capitalist to back your start-up is a challenge. Even if you manage to get backing, you want your VC to be a partner, not some dictator who will undermine your vision and take control of your life's work.

Jeffrey Bussgang is one of a very few people who have played on both sides of this high-stakes game. Now he draws on his unique perspective to offer high-level insights, colorful stories, and practical advice gathered from his own experience as well as from interviews with dozens of the most successful entrepreneurs and VCs. He reveals how to get noticed, perfect a pitch, and negotiate a partnership that works for everyone.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Portfolio
Publication date

September 27, 2011
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.7 x 8.31 inches
ISBN-10

9781591844440
ISBN-13

978-1591844440
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Finding the right VC for you and your company can be a challenging task. Bussgang's recounting of his experience gives a unique perspective on the VC world and is a compelling read for entrepreneurs."
-Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com

"Mastering the VC Game is part how to and part war story. It is the best kind of book: a fun and educational read."
-Fred Wilson, managing partner, Union Square Ventures

"A 360-degree perspective on the venture capitalist-entrepreneur virtuous cycle. Read this to understand what it takes to be a catalyst to the best economic driver the world has ever known."
-Tim Draper, managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

"Jeffrey Bussgang offers practical advice about raising venture capital from the right people at the right time for the right project. The book is insightful for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists alike."
-William A. Sahlman, professor, Harvard Business School and coauthor, New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur

"This book is excellent. It is not only a great read (I couldn't put it down) but also extremely informative on the process and the whole larger system in which VCs and entrepreneurs operate."
-William Aulet, managing director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center

"Bussgang's compelling book provides endless insights into the global world of venture capital. The discussions about China are particularly noteworthy. It is very valuable reading for entrepreneurs who aspire to scale their business into long-term leading enterprises."
-Jim Breyer, Managing Partner, Accel Partners

"Jeff Bussgang has written the definitive book on how venture capital works. I've read a lot of books on this subject, was an entrepreneur for 10 years and have been a VC for 15 years. Jeff's book is by far the best to date on this subject."
-Brad Feld, Managing Partner, Foundry Group

"There are tons of books to help entrepreneurs understand things like accounting, marketing, and sales. But until now you were left to fend for yourself to grasp the insider game of venture capital funding. Read this book right now so you can look your potential VC in the eye with confidence."
-David Meerman Scott, bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR

About the Author

Jeffrey Bussgang, a successful serial entrepreneur for ten years, is now a general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. Before becoming a venture capitalist, he was the cofounder of Upromise, the largest private source of college funding contributions in the U.S. He lives in Boston with his wife and three children.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1591844444
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio; 58251st edition (September 27, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781591844440
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1591844440
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.31 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #362,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #176 in Venture Capital (Books)
- #435 in Starting a Business (Books)
- #2,396 in Entrepreneurship (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 504 ratings

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About the author

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Jeffrey Bussgang

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Jeffrey Bussgang is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and entrepreneurship professor at Harvard Business School (HBS). His venture capital firm, Flybridge Capital Partners, has over 1 billion US dollars under management and made investments in over 200 technology-focused startups since inception over eighteen years ago (including Bowery Farming, Chief, Codecademy, FalconX, Habi, and MongoDB). At HBS, he teaches Launching Technology Ventures, a class for MBA students starting companies or pursuing careers in startups, and Venture Capital Journey, a field course for aspiring VCs.

Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Bussgang was an entrepreneur, serving as co-founder and president of Upromise and an executive team member at Open Market (IPO 1996). He is the author of two books: Mastering the VC Game, an essential guide for entrepreneurs raising capital and building their startups, and Entering StartUpLand, an essential guide to finding the right startup job, as well as over fifty HBS case studies, teaching notes and book chapters on startup management and entrepreneurship. He started his career with The Boston Consulting Group and holds an MBA from HBS and a BA in computer science from Harvard College.

Bussgang writes a popular blog and LinkedIn Newsletter (Bussgang's Bullets) and lives in the Boston area with his wife.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

504 global ratings

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Tran L

Fast shipping and great condition just like new

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2023

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Fast shipping: I order this and other Amazon’s items and this arrives earlier than others. Quality: I love when I see the book even has book cover. The real cover when you really want to protect the book. This is a very well treated book. Thank you so much!

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A. I. - Love to read

Good 'real life' stories but ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2011

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I bought this book thinking it would be more like a 'how-to' 'step-by-step' but it was more a biography of the big kahuna's in the VC world. Mr. Bussgang interviewed several of them and basically added tid-bits in along with their stories.

Overall its a good read and helpful in seeing into the mind of how VC investors think and what they are looking for. It was also very informative on how the VC crew get along with and how relationships are made or busted with the CEOs of the start-up companies.

I gave the book four stars only because it wasn't filled with more 'how-to' content. That being said, I still recommend this book. Hope this helps.

5 people found this helpful

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MattT

great overview of VC for the beginner

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2023

Verified Purchase

Enjoyed the rich descriptions of the VC world from an inside perspective. The author made the VC world come alive

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Amazon Customer

Book Review from College Student

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2010

Verified Purchase

I purchased Mastering the VC Game after Fred Wilson blogged about it at [...]. I thought the book was entertaining and well-written. Having followed vc blogs for quite some time now, I can't say that there was a lot of new information in the book, but I did think that it brought clarity to some issues that I didn't completely understand.

For example, in valuation there is a common misconception that the higher the valuation, the better the deal is for the management team. The problem is that entrepreneurs often forget to factor in the size of the option pool set aside for future employees. To account for this, Bussgang introduces a metric called the `promote', which is the (founding team's ownership percentage)*(post money valuation). Even though the book's explanation is nearly identical to the explanation on Bussgang's blog a year ago, it made so much more sense this time.

The reason for this newfound clarity is that the book introduces topics in a natural way. Bloggers often have trouble doing this and can seem random and haphazard. So when the `promote' is explained in the context of an entire chapter about valuation, suddenly it makes sense.

Another reason I was able to appreciate the nuances in the book is that I've been following vc/entrepreneurship blogs obsessively for two years now. What I most appreciate is that the book was able to touch upon so many pieces of information that I had to internalize bit-by-bit over two years. In just a few hours, you can get a broad overview of vc, dive into interesting stories, and get surprisingly detailed information that isn't widely available except in blog posts.

This immediately reminded me of Rework by the guys at 37signals. I was really disappointed by that book and thought it was a waste of time. It was incredibly repetitive and at some points I felt like I was re-reading a combination of the 37signals blog and Getting Real. Bussgang's book is still derived from blog posts, but rather than being a rehash, it brings clarity to a scattered body of knowledge. If you're interested at all in vc/entrepreneurship, and especially if you're new to blogging, I highly recommend the book.

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2020

Verified Purchase

I know little bit about this topic from before so that is said. It was many stories about sucessfull exits and startups, but I would like to include more investments stories. It was a couple of stories about exit and IPO's but very little insights. The topic about how VC makes money was very detailed and good, but I would like to now more about startups strategy for foundraising and more insights about how to master the VC game. The book covers many topic that are common for startups the elevator pitch etc, but only 30% of the book was really about the VC game. Therefor I only gave it 3 stars. With such a massive network from startups and VC I would expected more insights in VC game. The book had few pages and took very short time to read.

2 people found this helpful

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S. Marrero

Great Introduction, Outline, and Stories

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2015

Verified Purchase

This was a great book to get you warmed up for venture capital. The stories and the outline provide great context for what venture capital is and how it works. I was also reading Venture Deals at the some time which is a more thorough approach to covering terms, but this provides reach stories and cases the other does not. I recommend covering this as a great introduction before covering more dense (and recommended) reads such as Venture Deals which covers more terms in an academic approach, but gives the real opinion of the authors. This book gave the stories and context that made it all easier to remember.

One person found this helpful

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Andrew

One book, two perspectives, a myriad of unique insights.

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

What I really loved about it was how Jeff was able to showcase different perspectives within the book. At a high level, there was this idea of bringing together the symbiotic but oft fragmented worlds of a VC and Entrepreneur that was executed really well. Jeff also managed to properly showcase different perspectives even within each world with the inclusion of the other Entrepreneurs and VCs in the book. And while he was obviously recounting what they had told him, it still felt like each person had their own unique voice. That was what I loved most about it; One book, two perspectives, a myriad of unique insights.

One thing I would've liked to see though is the experiences of less prominent but still successful founders/VCs because yeah all startups generally go through similar struggles, but I would think that the lives of successful founders who have connections to the Paypal Mafia -or were in it themselves- would have starkly different experiences than a more obscure entrepreneur in terms of securing financing. Similarly, the life of a VC whose last name rhymes with 'Braper' for example would have a different experience trying to get into a high value round versus his less prominent peers. I think that most entrepreneurs -myself included- fall into the latter category in the first comparison and I would've loved to hear from the experiences of entrepreneurs who had less bulky Rolodexes readily available to them.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Client d'Amazon

hundreds of pages of condescending self promotion

Reviewed in France on November 12, 2023

Verified Purchase

The author is condescent as hell, lacks intelligence and is very eager to promote himself as a result of that, so the journey is more to convince the reader about how impressive the writer is than anything else.

But reality is having to read hundreds of pages of self promotion to get the 5 pages that really explains what vc life looks like and what they are after is a pain you should probably avoid.

At the end of the book you’ll probably want to avoid working with a vc at all and realize that you are the entrepreneur building the business so your entiteled to all of the returs and having to suffer the constant ego pumping anecdotes is probably not worth the money they can provide…

Vitor Lupo

Worth reading

Reviewed in Brazil on January 11, 2021

Verified Purchase

worth reading. one of my main worries regarding the book was its age, however the author provides a comprehensive overview of the industry with insights that don't seem to be seasoned. topics covered include the VCs structure and niches of investment, pitches and deal making, VC - entrepreneur dynamics once the deal is made and the company starts to evolve, and finally the possible routes for exit and international VC benchmarks

Amazon-Kunde

absolutely amazing book! Must read for any entrepreneurs!

Reviewed in Germany on February 23, 2022

Verified Purchase

Its the book you want to read if you want to know how to get insider game of venture capital funding!

Amazon Customer

Accessible practitioners guide - one of the best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

Of the many PE / VC guides and textbooks that I have come across this is the most accessible. All the concepts are explained and examples are related as stories. Those looking for the formulas etc should revert to textbooks but if you want to know how this industry works, its processes and what to consider when dealing with it, there is possibly no better short introduction. Easy and good read.

One person found this helpful

Global Traveller

Easy read with tons of wisdom for anyone looking to develop a VC strategy !!

Reviewed in Canada on June 7, 2019

Verified Purchase

I am not seeking to raise money but I am working on developing an angel syndicate. While my understanding of the VC play is quite strong, I was looking to spend a weekend with a well structured read on the topic. Jeff has made this a really easy read full of amazing wisdom for anyone seeking to understand how the venture capitalists work. I would say this is a must read for anyone seeking to raise venture capital. It will give you the confidence that one needs before embarking on what can be a pretty demanding process. Highly recommended.

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