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As a young guy who tries to learn everything he can on the business of VCs and that whole world this post was awesome! -know the terminology. If you don't know
by ique 17y ago
As a young guy who tries to learn everything he can on the business of VCs and that whole world this post was awesome!
-know the terminology. If you don't know an NDA from a MOU then you will have to spend some time on that.
Does anyone have any tips on where I can spend some time studying up on that? NDA is pretty much the only term I know.
- jacquesm 17y agoA good way is to read the articles on upcoming m&a deals, once you fully grok those there isn't much that will surprise you in a basic deal. Especially the financial side of things has a whole bunch of acronyms that can be hard to remember if you don't use them daily.
- tom 17y agoRequired reading: askthevc.com the middle column, scroll down a bit for the categories list. A goldmine. Jason and Brad have done a huge service to the community with this site.
- tptacek 17y agoMOU/LOI - memo of understanding / letter of intent. More concrete and binding than a conversation. Less so than a contract. The only words you need to know are "term sheet". You will get a term sheet before you get any other form of commitment. You don't care about the other details, because when you get a term sheet, you can tell other VCs that you got it, and now you have competition. I don't think you need to know the jargon to do the VC thing, other than you should know the lifecycle of a deal, which is something that's kind of missing from this post. You need to know what should be happening before the term sheet and after the term sheet --- pitching, market due diligence, the partner meeting, term sheet, all the rest of the due diligence, 9 months of waiting with 86.7% chance of flaking, the room at the law office with the papers you have to sign, steak dinner. The VCs know you're not an MBA, even if you try to sound like one.