Venture Capital Strategy: How to Think Like a Venture Capitalist

An approachable but disciplined overview of venture capital written by a professional musician turned business school professor over a 15-year period of teaching venture capital and startup classes at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. The book is a one-stop shop for understanding venture capital, distilling lessons from hundreds of interactions with VCs and founders.

Readers of the book will learn
• The core competencies of successful VCs
• What VC’s are looking for in startups
• How venture capital differs from other forms of startup financing
• How the sharks on TV’s Shark Tank are ruining venture capital
• The top two terms on any term sheet (and a few other key terms)
• Why VCs often behave like music industry professionals
• How to think like a VC

Understanding how venture capital works in our economy can be of benefit to a wide variety of readers, from entrepreneurs to corporate decision-makers and everyone in between. This book treats venture capital as a topic of entrepreneurial strategy, not finance, and includes a background of the industry, an explanation of all aspect of the "VC Job Cycle" and a framework called “VC Razor” for performing due diligence. Learning how to think like a venture capitalist can help anyone become a better decision-maker.