Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 22, 2017

Week 4 – Term Sheets: Economics & Control. Week 5 – Term Sheets Part Two. Week 1 – Introduction of key players/Form or join a team. Week 2 – Fundraising/Finding the Right VC. Week 3 – Capitalization Tables/Convertible Debt. Week 6 – Negotiations.

Term Sheet 94

Term Sheet Capitalization Table Venture Capital 94

Feld Thoughts

JULY 18, 2011

The book originated in 2005 when Jason and I wrote a long series of posts on this blog about a typical Venture Capital term sheet. We knew the term sheet series would only be a small part of the book and would have to be re-written, so we just got to work. Overview of the Term Sheet. How to Raise Money.

Term Sheet 162

Term Sheet Venture Capital Capitalization Table Finance 162

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 28, 2016

The second, on why term sheets even exist, came out of our realization that many of the investments we’ve made in the past few years were done with handshakes and email outline of terms, rather than term sheets.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet Cofounder Venture Capital Equity 70

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 2, 2010

Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR). I wrote about this in my post The Challenge of The Ideal First Round Term Sheet. Tags: financing seed documents Term Sheet. TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR).

Finance 133

Finance Term Sheet Angel Investor Early Stage 133

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 26, 2016

You also probably know that yesterday was the last day he wrote his magnificent daily newsletter The Term Sheet. The Term Sheet (now by Erin Griffith). Data Sheet (by Adam Lashinsky). If you are a VC then you know Dan Primack. It’s been a daily read of mine for – well – as long as I can remember.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet RSS Channel Email 70

Feld Thoughts

MAY 7, 2012

And even though a term sheet might be four to eight pages long and the definitive documents might be 100 pages or more, other than economics, there are really only three things a VC needs in a deal. Up: Pro-rata rights.

Liquidation Preference 143

Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Search Entrepreneur 143

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 6, 2010

As many of you know, the issue is not only the term sheet, but also the underlying documents supporting the deal. So, while a simple term sheet might be able to be agreed on, I realized that getting the actual docs agreed on would be a miserable, and likely impossible, thing to try to deal with.

Term Sheet 118

Term Sheet LP Finance Email 118

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

If you’ve never experienced a retrade, or don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the situation when you have a firm deal agreed upon or a term sheet signed and are proceeding to closing a deal, when the investor (or acquirer) decides to change the terms of the deal.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet Reputation Valuation Acquisition 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 27, 2011

Included are our standard forms for the following: Series A Term Sheet. As a step in the right direction, Jason and I decided to open source our Foundry Group form legal documents. You can find them on the Ask the VC Resources page. Series A Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement. Investor Rights Agreement. Co-Sale Agreement.

Term Sheet 136

Term Sheet Preferred Stock Merger Venture Capital 136

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 4, 2015

This is natural in this part of the cycle, when prices feel high to investors, there is a lot of competition for deals, and a goal of some investors and acquirers is to get an LOI or term sheet signed with an exclusivity period in order to give them time to make a decision. Understand the history of their deal execution.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet Finance Reputation Founder 70

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2013

In addition to these eight criteria, all members follow the established ethos (give before you get; put entrepreneurs first) of accelerators in GAN, including a thorough review of an accelerator’s term sheets and numerous conversations to vet accelerator founders’ intentions and operational practices.

Global 179

Global Networking United States Seed Money 179

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 30, 2017

I don’t know which VC or Private Equity firm first came up with this list of questions, but like many elements of a term sheet, they seem to have been passed down from generation to generation. Are there any things you would want to know if you were me?

Hiring 70

Hiring Private Equity Term Sheet Equity 70

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 15, 2019

And, if you are starting off as a VC or a lawyer for venture capital deals and you want a refresher on the core issues in a term sheet, this online course is for you. If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to raise capital and grow your business, this online course teaches you the basics you need to know for working with VCs.

Term Sheet 34

Term Sheet Capitalization Table Venture Capital Video 34

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Over the past six years, Jason Mendelson and I have heard from over 100 professors who have used our Term Sheet Series of blog posts in college (undergraduate and graduate) programs on on entrepreneurship.

Finance 130

Finance Term Sheet Open Source Programming 130

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 9, 2017

While in the midst of the start of our initial term sheet negotiations with GNIP, my team was moved under a new executive. We kept working on the term sheet and he motivated me to go to bat again. . “ And Doug, in his conclusion, reinforces the value of that approach. He kept asking questions.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet Cofounder Revenue Partner 70

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

The project started as an extension of our Term Sheet series and Letter of Intent series that we wrote on this blog in 2005 and 2006. My partner Jason Mendelson and I are in the final stretch of writing a new book.

Term Sheet 134

Term Sheet Acquisition Finance Partner 134

Feld Thoughts

MAY 5, 2012

Jason and I got an email this morning that said the following: Hi Jason and Brad, Just wanted to thank you for writing the book ‘Venture Deals’ The advice in the book seriously helped my startup get a great term sheet on the table on Friday. We get an email like this often. “Thank you for helping me.”

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Email Community Startup 120

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 11, 2010

Tags: Angel Investing angel investors Term Sheet.

Term Sheet 122

Term Sheet Angel Investor Entrepreneur Finance 122

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

And finally, for all of you that have written asking for a “Convertible Debt Series&# like our term sheet series, we’ve just started one on AsktheVC.com. The first post is up and introduces the series – we’ll be working through all of the terms in a convertible debt deal over the next few weeks.

Cloud 113

Cloud Term Sheet 113

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 23, 2011

The day we signed the term sheet, I made some Foundry Group coins (with the Foundry Group logo on the front and a $ on the back) and fedexed them to Bre. But, rather than just theorize, I bought a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic and Jason, Ross, and I put it together.

Term Sheet 154

Term Sheet Restful Partner Product 154

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

We are issuing a term sheet today to another company that I hope accepts our offer. Their competitor has raised 10x the amount of money so far (prior to our investment), and the product from the company we invested in, from my own head to head comparison, is amazing, compared to the “meh” product from its competitor.

Mezzanine 70

Mezzanine Product Term Sheet Analytics 70

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

If you can’t wait for the full series, take a look at the annotated term sheet for a convertible note on the TechStars site (also available on the AsktheVC Resources page.). If you notice anything confusing, or incorrect, please comment and/or ask questions so we can clarify and/or fix.

Term Sheet 125

Term Sheet Seed Stage Angel Investor Valuation 125

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 12, 2011

If you want to see an actual convertible debt term sheet or the actual legal documents, take a look at the TechStars Open Sourced Model Seed Financing Documents. If you feel like we missed anything, or got anything wrong, or were confusing in our explanation, please chime in on the comments on the post.

Term Sheet 138

Term Sheet Warrant Open Source Valuation 138

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 4, 2016

Barry had a long history with 3D printing and he had put in a term sheet to lead the round Makerbot was considering. This spring, Max and his cofounder Natan Linder reached out to me about having Foundry Group lead a financing. The company had only raised one major round of $19 million, led by Barry Schuler at DFJ Growth.

Finance 70

Finance Term Sheet Cofounder Boston 70

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 29, 2011

It’ll get picked up in the daily VC publications, like Term Sheet and VentureWire. For some reason, some companies want to keep their financings quiet. That’s fine – just file your Form D and say nothing about it. And, if your local paper is on the ball, it’ll show up there also.

Finance 133

Finance SEC Term Sheet Acquisition 133

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

When I was an entrepreneur there was no public information about how term sheets worked or how investors thought. Mark also has a nice call out to me that helps explain why he writes posts list this one. “When I started blogging it was because I was inspired by Brad Feld.

Silicon Valley 70

Silicon Valley Term Sheet Early Stage New York 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 15, 2015

Instead, I do it for the same reason that Jason Mendelson and I wrote around 30 blog posts about the term sheet in 2004 and 2005 and then followed it up with our book Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist. It’s also not to use this blog as a bully pulpit to negotiate, as someone suggested.

Naming 70

Naming Term Sheet Matching Security 70

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 29, 2015

in Funding: Here is the Valuation, Term Sheet and Why We’re Doing It. Another company that did an awesome transparent funding announcement was Buffer (and app and company I love, but am only a tiny investor in via an AngelList syndicate) when they announced We’re Raising $3.5m Data, data everywhere. And lots and lots of story.

Atlanta 70

Atlanta Valuation Term Sheet Finance 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 2, 2015

But if they don’t know this, and they are negotiating terms with a VC who is expecting the notes to convert in the pre-money, it can create a mess after the terms are agreed to somewhere between the term sheet stage and the final definitives.

Liquidation Preference 70

Liquidation Preference Cap Table Angel Investor Post-Money Valuation 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 1, 2015

I don’t know why I was in his address book, so I asked Dan, and he dug up his very first email to me, which happened to be about the term sheet series that my partner Jason Mendelson and I wrote that lead to our book Venture Deals.

Startup 70

Startup Term Sheet Merger Finance 70

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2010

Dan Primack, who is now writing a great column at Fortune called Term Sheet used to do this; there are now guest writers (including me) who do this column. I periodically write the first column for PE Hub. Yesterday, I wrote a column about the book that David Cohen and I just wrote called Do More Faster. Writing a book is hard.

Term Sheet 106

Term Sheet Seattle Angel Investor Bootstrapping 106

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

Samples: The samples in the Annex of the German edition, i.e., the Term Sheet and the Letter of Intent, are essentially based on the samples of the U.S. I partially dealt with the additional space requirements associated with bilingualism by merging the two-term sheet samples from the US edition into a single document.

Germany 165

Germany Liquidation Preference Option Pool Advisory Board 165

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 31, 2015

The Term Sheet: A Startup Thriller Novel : I’m a big fan of the Startup Fiction genre. It’s heavily interview style and could have benefited from a stronger edit pass, but it has tons of useful (and often contradictory) feedback from lots of different angel perspectives. This was a quick, fun read.

Angel Investor 70

Angel Investor Investment Bankers Term Sheet Texas 70

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 5, 2018

Raising money is hard. Entrepreneurs need to understand what’s involved – from what to consider when picking the right venture partner and how to think about the economic and control rights at stake, to what life will be like after the deal closes.

Venture Capital 77

Venture Capital Cofounder Video Partner 77

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 19, 2016

A new chapter (now 15) on Why Do Term Sheets Even Exist? Additions to Chapter 8: Convertible Debt. A new chapter (now 9) on Crowdfunding. A section on Corporate Venture Capital and Strategic Investors. A new and very improved Glossary. Lots of little edits everywhere.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet Venture Capital Angel Investor Strategic Investors 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

The term sheet converts all the convertible debt into a post-money valuation of $100, essentially making the convertible debt worthless. So they recapitalize the company. The new money comes in at a pre-money valuation of $100, but includes a complete refresh of founder equity to 40% of the company.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70