Unlock the Secrets of Venture Capital: A Venture Capital Insider's Guide to Achieving Successful Start-Up to IPO Growth

abhijeet kulkarni: Got the second hand book

India on Jun 05, 2023

Ajit Shah: a very good book to understand what the venture capital industry is about.

India on May 19, 2023

Amazon Customer: 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.

United Kingdom on May 19, 2021

Soubhik Hazra: A good introductory read for anyone who wants to get a macro-view on how VC firms think & work when it comes to investing in start ups, in general. It gives a few nice pointers for entrepreneurs to consider when pitching to VC firms. All in all easy to read & comprehend.

India on Feb 13, 2021

SANTANU BISWAS: Venture capital financing is a very fluid concept. The author has articulated the sensitive issues which if handled with extreme care & diligence can enable an Entrepreneur to pitch his idea successfully to a potential VC and obtain much needed financing for his start up. The interviews with prominent industry players also adds lot of punch to the narrative. The books resolves many ambiguities when it comes to idea pitching. The level of confidence and conviction for any Entrepreneur about his idea is the key to obtaining successful funding from a VC. The success of the venture ultimately depends on the scalability of the idea, sustaining the start up during the initial 6-12 months cash burn phase , never give up attitude of the entrepreneur and the effective collaboration between the VC and the Entrepreneur. An important key take away for any entrepreneur from this book is that the situation can get very messy sometimes and the VC will be forced to make hard choices.

India on Oct 01, 2019

Andrew: 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...

United States on Aug 02, 2018

jason abrahams: "Mastering the VC Game" is a must-read for any entrepreneur looking to start an Innovation-Driven Enterprise (IDE). Jeff Bussgang does an excellent job of providing a glimpse behind the curtain for how Venture Capitalists think and act. Because Jeff is both an entrepreneur and a VC, he is able to provide practical and actionable advice for entrepreneurs looking to get VC funding.

My favorite thing about this book is how Jeff provides real-life anecdotes, from successful entrepreneurs and VCs, in order to make the information approachable and engaging. If you’re looking for a theoretical book about Venture Capitalists, this is not your book. Instead, "Mastering the VC Game" will get you thinking about how you would have acted if you were the protagonist. More than once you’ll find yourself thinking “What would I do in that scenario?”

Another benefit of this book is the fact that Jeff references different firms and VC’s by name. He tells you which firms are known for what types of investments, and what makes a particular partner tick. For any budding entrepreneur, this is a gold mine.

From Chapter 1, “The Entrepreneurial Itch” to Chapter 6...

United States on Jan 09, 2017

S. Marrero: 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.

United States on May 22, 2015

Amazon Customer: 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...

United States on May 30, 2010