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Founders. Run. Amok. It Starts With a Term Sheet.

This is going to be BIG.

Last week, for just the second time ever, I passed on an investment opportunity because of the terms of the deal--both the price and the legal structure of the agreement. Perhaps they need to rethink that "back the founder at all costs" mentality. The Term Sheet. Perhaps we all should. I certainly have.

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4 Keys To A Successful Integrity Check With Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal.

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10 Tips On Due Diligence On Any Startup Funding Offer

Startup Professionals Musings

Most of these are easy to avoid if you do your homework up front, but can cost you dearly if you get sucked in. If you feel confused by conflicting time zones, differing currencies, and up-front costs, it’s time to run the other way. Deposit required to hold your terms.

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Quick Thoughts on Term Sheets and LOIs

Rob Go

When a VC invests in a startup, the two parties usually sign a term sheet that lays out the major terms of the investment round. 90%+ of term sheets result in a closed deal that is more or less equivalent to what was discussed. In the M&A process, an LOI feels an awful lot like a term sheet.

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How To Prepare Your New Venture For Investor Scrutiny

Startup Professionals Musings

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal.

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Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations - Startups.

Tim Keane

Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations. Please see later version of this post on May 16, 2010 Entrepreneurs are often not experts in the area of term-sheet negotiations and all of the surrounding issues.   Investors sometimes “present” the terms they’d like and expect the entrepreneurs to react.

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The Due Diligence Hierarchy of Pain

View from Seed

But there is obviously a cost associated with each step of diligence, and this cost is multiplied across all the investors that are doing real work. There is also social capital at stake in certain parts of the process that creates real cost as well. Thoughtful investors should know this and be respectful of that cost.