Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook

The book got here when they said it would so I had it in time for my class to start!

Ideal for anyone involved in or looking at getting into private equity. The case studies have real substance and result in depth understanding (as opposed to just knowing) of the key challenges, issues and activities in the industry. It covers everything from staffing and careers in PE, to raising funds, developing deal flow and managing portfolio companies, with real indepth cases of the successes and failures of individuals and organisations. I've been involved with PE (from a management view point) for over 2 years, this book put many things in perspective and gave me insight into how others have handled issues similar to the ones I face. www.smartinvestorafrica.com

I couldn't put this book down; I felt like I was reading a captivating novel. It does a great job of introducing the reader to the unique terminology of the VC/PE industry. However, I wish there was more follow through or structured questions presented for the cases; without sitting in Prof. Lerner's class, I would like to see exactly what broad lessons he is attempting to present and drive home.

Over the past few years the institutional private equity market has exploded. Riding on the backs phenomenal public markets and a wave of technological innovation, private equity in general and venture capital has become one of the most sought after investments.However, given the rash of recent publicity, stellar performance, and a balooning assets, there's surprisingly little research available about the institutional private equity market. Profs. Lerner and Gompers currently account for probably half of all academic research in this market.The institutional private equity market is quite different from angel investments. The majority of the capital at the institutional level flows from large investment institutions like public pensions, endowments and insurance companies. Moreover, the personal investing into private companies do so professionally.More than anything, the book serves as a primer to the institutional private equity market.The book was intitially meant for HBS and other MBA students. Thus, almost all the content is in case study form. In a lot of respects this is advantageous. In general, a book either has the option of being a primer or providing high level analysis on a very specific topic. Clearly this book is the former. In my opinion, the downfall of most primers are the oversimplification of topics and useless generalizations. Given the early stages of the institutional private equity market, generalizations are especially questionable and difficult. On the other hand, the case method presents users with numerous situations and predicaments facing the participants. As a result, readers gain an understanding of the issues facing this market from a number of perspectives.This books provides useful information on key topics such as investing and analyzing private equity funds from an institution's perspective, fund of funds, forming a private equity fund, and the direct investments into companies by the private equity funds, along with many other topics. Whatever level the private equity professional is functioning, understanding each of these components I imagine is key.This casebook provides an very good overview of the institutional private equity market. Likewise, to the best of my knowledge, this is the only book covering this topic.

In my opinion this is best and most comprehensive overview of modern VC practices available. Dr. Lerner is cleary the nation's leading authority on VC research and his experiences are detailed in this book.The case study format is organized into 4 themes (paraphrased): 1. Raising & Structuring Funds, 2. Making Investments, 3. Exiting Invesments, 4. Other forms of VC funds.so the lessons of each individual case study support a larger and organized theme. Furthermore, the case study format makes the book more entertaining than academic texts tend to be.If you are somewhat knowledgeable about private equity then this is a "must read". If you are a beginner make sure you become familiar with the ins & outs of private equity/venture capital before reading or else you may miss a lot of the value of this book.