Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur 1st Edition

by Dermot Berkery (Author)

80 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0071496025

ISBN-10: 0071496025

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Have the negotiating edge when getting your new business off the ground

Written by Dermot Berkery, an internationally known venture capitalist with Delta Partners, this complete toolbook thoroughly details how venture capitalists arrange the financing for a company; what they look for in a business plan; how they value a business; and how they structure the terms of an agreement. Within its pages, you'll find everything you need to successfully raise new business capital with the most attractive terms possible.

Using informative case studies, detailed charts, and term sheet exercises, Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur discusses the basic principles of the venture capital method, strategies for raising capital, methods of valuing the early-stage venture, and proven techniques for negotiating the deal. The author leads you step-by-step through:

Developing a Financing Map
Getting to the First Stepping Stone
Understanding the Unique Cash Flow and Risk Dynamics of Early Stage Ventures
Determining the Amount of Capital to Raise and What to Spend It on
Learning How Venture Capital Firms Think
Creating a Winning Business Plan
Funding Early-Stage Companies
Agreeing on a Term Sheet with a Venture Capitalist
Setting Terms for Splitting the Rewards
Allocating Control between Founders/Management and Investors
Aligning the Interests of Founders/Management and Investors

This invaluable guide also includes term sheet exercises that test your understanding of various financing situations facing companies. In addition, the book features three extensive case studies: the first covering a fictional start-up company used throughout the book, the second offering a stepping stone map, and the third presenting a term sheet used in practice by venture capitalists.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Dermot Berkery is a general partner with Delta Partners, a leading European venture capital company that invests in Ireland and the United Kingdom. He has led investments in early-stage companies in sectors such as software, electronics, mobile services, medical components, and security equipment. Mr. Berkery was formerly a Senior Manager with McKinsey & Co., where he served clients across the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Asia, focusing mainly on financial services and energy. He also lectures on entrepreneurial finance at the MBA program at University College Dublin.

About the Author

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ McGraw-Hill Education; 1st edition (October 1, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0071496025
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0071496025
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.29 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #331,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #137 in Business Development
- #153 in Business Entrepreneurship
- #293 in Venture Capital (Books)

Customer Reviews:
80 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		63%
4 star		15%
3 star		20%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Thomas D. Kehoe

So you need investors and need to write a business plan...

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2008

Verified Purchase

I did, so I bought five books. I will review them from worst to best.

"Finding an Angel Investor In a Day," by The Planning Shop (2007), told me nothing I didn't know, and I didn't know anything about business plans or angel investors. The title is ludicrous and the advice is obvious, e.g., "Your business plan should be concise, compelling, and irresistible to investors." 1 star.

"The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans," by Garrett Sutton (2005), walks you through writing business plans for a lawn mowing business and buying a pizza restaurant. If your business is more complicated, this is not the book for you. 1 star.

"The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide," by Brian Ford, Jay Boorstein, and Patrick Pruitt (2007), is a good book but hardly inspiring or insightful. If you follow this book your business plan will be competent but won't grab investors. 3 stars.

"Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs," by Susan Preston (2007). This book doesn't explain how to write a business plan, but it explains how to make a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation to investors -- a presentation that will grab investors. For example, one question is "How is your product or technology scalable?" I also learned some of the financials that angel investors look for, such as what IRR is expected. This book helped and inspired me to write an excellent presentation, that became the basis for my business plan. 5 stars.

"Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur," by Dermot Berkery (2008). This is a textbook for a business school course about venture capital. This book is full of insights. Every few pages new ideas would compel me to go to my computer and add stuff or rewrite my business plan, for example, Berkery emphasizes the need for clear milestones. Preston mentioned milestones but didn't make it clear why they are so important. The financials that were briefly presented in Preston's book are thoroughly presented in Berkery's book, for example, what gross margin investors look for (80% or more) and why they need such extremely profitable products or services. Plus you learn the jargon or key phrases of venture capitalists, e.g., "a large but well signaled market," the importance of "market power" and an effective "route to customers." I feel that my business plan now speaks to investors in their language, with the numbers they are looking for. 5 stars.

180 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jem_SDCA

Gets to the point without any fluff

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2010

Verified Purchase

I bought this book to get a crash course on venture capital and it did not disappoint. The author explains VC in plain language using understandable case studies. Clearly, Dermot Berkery has years of practical experience in equity finance and he has skillfully converted that experience into meaningful lessons and indespensible wisdom. That's what makes this book good. What makes this book great is what the author has omitted: the superfluous filler that you might find in a "For Dummies" type of text. Berkery sticks to the facts and backs up his opinions and suggestions with sound reasoning. In an age when shelves are cluttered with management books filled cover to cover with useless babble from business philosophers and pontificating tomes from celebrity entrepreneurs and CEOs, it's refreshing to to find a volume that gets to the point without any fluff.

4 people found this helpful

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Michael Hudson

Very Smart Book

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2008

Verified Purchase

I haven't finished it reading yet, but I learned more about business in the first thirty pages than I've learned in the rest of my entire life.

This book is built to give entrepreneurs the view of people who have money and vice versa. It covers presentations, milestones, business plans, and stock options.

I had never understood what preferred stock meant until I got this book.

It's very readable and not pretentious at all, even though it's talking about people giving you millions and millions of dollars. It's also focused on the point that without venture capital and people starting businesses, the economy just doesn't work.

Excellent book, I'm very happy with my purchase. It's also written very recently and takes into account a lot of other companies' recent experiences.

If you want to start a business that requires some capital and don't know much about business, this is the book you want.

10 people found this helpful

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Home Deep Peaux

Must Read for all entrepreneurs. New and Veteran.

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2009

Verified Purchase

I am a veteran of several Silicon Valley startups, having gone to raise money, and watched money being raised, and invested my own as an angel.

This book is by far the best I've ever gone through, from the point of view of someone very experienced in the field, with the gift of being able to articulate not the theory, but the true practice.

The author goes through the mindsets of the investors and the entrepreneurs in an uncannily accurate manner. His chapters on what makes for a successful business plan is so right on, and everyone should measure their plan against his required attributes. If you don't match up, you really need to consider another idea, or do alot more creative thinking on your existing idea.

This was by far the best $50 I spent as a career startup type. Thanks to the author for keeping it very real and readable.

6 people found this helpful

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MikeCh15Wa

Good Overview of Start-Up Financing

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

Easy-to-read and comprehensive guide to the advantages and disadvantages of the available financing options for a start-up. Not just a rah-rah book for one type of investment. Real-world examples of the various levels of investment capital and when you should consider moving from one to the next.

One person found this helpful

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Andrew

Extremely helpful for anyone including MBA graduates

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2011

Verified Purchase

My review will be a bit short of words but hopefully not so much of interest to a potential buyer/reader. We were raising VC capital for the first time in our lives. The project is a software development company with an existing and well-known FOSS product. The "management" (us) all had solid engineering background and that of a technical management as well. But not that extensive business one. So we were here - fresh MBA graduates who decided to start a VC-backed company. I must say here that the book help was tremendous. Despite the fact we had our MBA lessons about VC's, it wasn't nearly as useful as this book full of wise suggestions and useful information. For those who are eager to know the end of the story - we've raised the necessary capital and really planning to be a success story. Without this book we would have missed LOTS of subtleties. While you can actually grab almost everything relevant to a VC-funding from the web, it's wouldn't be nearly as productive as reading through Mr. Berkery's book.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Martin C

Good Solid Advice - But dated

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

Unfortunately the copy I got was damaged so I had to return it, but flicking through it it covered the basics for raising venture capital but a lot has changed since the book was published and so it looked dated, crowdfunding is a game changer and its absence means that this may provide people with a good grounding (the fundamentals are the same) but it won't provide the full picture.

Yemi

very easy to read and informative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2015

Verified Purchase

I work in industry and within a financial discipline but not on the investor side. This covered a lot of practical aspects of deal making between founders and investors. It outlined risks, pitfalls and opportunities from investor and founder perspectives. I am not in a venture capital company but found it useful as an introduction to shareholder bargains. The rule of thumb statements should be taken as illustrations only because I think there is research to show empirically how many investments have done well in the past, achieved flat returns vs failed. Obviously the past is no guarantee of what will happen in the future. As with anything this will only be useful if relevant to work, practiced or used as an investor.

Allen O'Neill

Just click the buy-now button...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2010

Verified Purchase

I can honestly say that this book has changed the way I look at business, and building a company in general. It is laid out very clearly, uses easy to understand examples and is accessible to the non-financial guru! I talked to a VC recently who wryly said the book gave away to many secrets. Ultimately it's a very fair, insightful, from the hip guide, that will inform and educate you in many ways. I now recommend it to everyone I meet who is considering building an enterprise of scale - even if they don't think they need it - the wisdom is there!

If you are considering building something big - get this book first, and know the game!

2 people found this helpful

jukka

Very basic, if you have no prior knowledge

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2015

Verified Purchase

Why is this book recommended by business school professors? There is absolutely nothing you would not learn just by talking to people and using common sense.

*** is a generous rating mainly as this book would have served us more in case I had read it two years ago. But really...just make a kick-ass product and you do not need to peg anyone, lest the VCs. They will beg your attention.

I. Richardson

Excellent, detailed and practical

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2011

Verified Purchase

A detailed, down to earth look at the major issues you need to consider when entering the minefield of venture capital finance. I found the step by step approach and the many practical examples particularly useful. You need to know the issues, the terminology and the potential pitfalls and this book explains all of these in detail. Well worth the money.

2 people found this helpful