Term Sheets & Valuations: An Inside Look at the Intricacies of Term Sheets & Valuations

This is by far the most widely used title by every venture capitalist. I would highly recommend this book to every vc, lawyer, and management team member (especially) of every company looking to obtain venture financing. You could not find better advice on negotation points, changes to wording or overall guidance on a term sheet than Wilmerding's advice in this book. Especially look at Chapter 3 where Wilmerding goes through line by line what every parapraph means on a term sheet. Also check out Wilmerding's other book, Deal Terms, or Raising VC From a Tier 1 Firm (which includes the entire text from Term Sheets & Valuations and Deal Terms).

When I first received this book, I was disappointed because of its short length (106 pages). I could not have been more wrong, the book is very comprehensive. I bought this book because I was involved in a Private Equity transaction on the entrepreneur side of the transaction. We had received a term sheet from the investor and I needed to get educated about this stage of the transaction. The investor that submitted the term sheet was not using one of the 5 typical formats, so Wilmerding's approach of describing the various clauses in the term sheet and the effects on the parties was of critical importance to our transaction. As the other reviewers have mentioned, the author describes the various clauses as investor favorable, middle of the road, or company favorable. This approach was helpful in developing several ideas for "push backs" in our negotiation. The author also helped highlight "red flags" to be aware of and described their significance. The author also highlights where it is important to retain experienced council to avoid legal pitfalls. This book is a step by step cookbook for navigating the first critical steps in each round of financing a new company will do. Ignore his advice at your own financial peril.

The author takes standard term sheets and analyzes each key section according to what is investor favorable, company favorable, or neutral. This is a great approach, as it enables to explore the potential extremes in a term sheet section. The examples are indeed boilerplate, but it nevertheless serves as an excellent introduction to term sheets. I've been able to apply the concepts discussed in the book to the analyses of term sheets at our firm...a testament to this book's utility. Overall, an excellent value.

This is a first rate book-regardless if you are a seasoned venture capitalist or first time entrepreneur. Having been a venture capitalist for 22 years now, the term sheet in this book is boilerplate-but it is 1 of the 4 boilerplate term sheets every legitimate lawyer/venture capitalist uses as a term sheet-and available for the first time ever in the "public domain." In addition, what makes the book so valauble is the line by line wording and analysis for entrepreneur favorable, investor favorable and neutral. I highly recommend this book to every entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and executive of every level-it is a MUST have on your bookshelf as a timeless reference.

I would spend $1,000 for this book - simply put. Even though I am a VC, I was completely awe struck by the detailed information on raising capital, term sheets and valuations this book presented. Besides having great insight into raising venture capital, the highlight of the book is clearly an actual term sheet, put together by one of the leading law firms, with line by line descriptions of what the wording means and actual "legal wording" for "investor favorable," "entrepreneur favorable," and "neutral" terms. This is information you pay $20,000 for with your lawyers. This book is a must have for any entrepreneur, venture capitalist or financial executive.