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Venture Capitalists At Work: How VCs Identify And Build Billion Dollar Successes
"This is probably the single most valuable resource for the entrepreneurs aspiring to build successful companies" Ron Conway, Special Adviser, SV Angel, and investor in Facebook, Google, Twitter, Foursquare, PayPal, Zappos "I highly recommend Venture Capitalists at Work. This book captures the personalities and approaches of a number of leading VC practitioners and displays the heart and soul of the venture capital process, by offering an exclusive window into the voice of the practitioners." Gus Tai, Trinity Ventures? "Venture Capitalists at Work is a foundational pillar in an entrepreneur's understanding and resources. This is a first in terms of the level of detail, quality of discussion, and value to the entrepreneur." George Zachary, Charles River Ventures and Investor in Twitter Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes offers unparalleled insights into the funding and management of companies like YouTube, Zappos, Twitter, Starent, Facebook, and Groupon. The venture capitalists profiled?among the best in the business?also reveal how they identify promising markets, products, and entrepreneurs. Author Tarang Shah, a venture capital?professional?himself, interviews rising VC stars, Internet and software investment pioneers, and venture investment thought leaders. You?ll learn firsthand what criteria venture capitalists use to make investments, how they structure deals, the many ways they help the companies they fund, avoidable mistakes they see all too often, the role of luck in a success, and why so many startups fail. Venture Capitalists at Work also contains interviews with those on the receiving end of venture money?entrepreneurs in high-profile startups that went on to achieve great success. Whether you?re an entrepreneur, an aspiring VC, an M&A professional, or an ambitious student, the knowledge you will gain from Venture Capitalists at Work could provide a significant shortcut to success. Other books in the Apress At Work Series: Coders at Work, Seibel, 978-1-4302-1948-4 CIOs at Work, Yourdon, 978-1-4302-3554-5 CTOs at Work, Donaldson, Seigel, & Donaldson, 978-1-4302-3593-4 Founders at Work, Livingston, 978-1-4302-1078-8 European Founders at Work, Santos, 978-1-4302-3906-2 Women Leaders at Work, Ghaffari, 978-1-4302-3729-7 Advertisers at Work, Tuten, 978-1-4302-3828-7 Gamers at Work, Ramsay. 978-1-4302-3351-0 What you?ll learn How venture capitalists identify promising markets, entrepreneurs, and companies What venture capitalists?are looking for in entrepreneurs and business plans How to build an ?A? team and a culture of success Successful relationship dynamics between entrepreneur and investors When to slow down, ramp up, and scale companies Knowing when to sell a business, keep growing, or shut it down Why startups fail Common entrepreneurial mistakes you can avoid Who this book is for
This book is a must-read for entrepreneurs and venture capital/private equity investors. It's also for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in emerging markets who want to apply to homegrown ventures the Silicon Valley model of building billion-dollar startups. Corporate executives focused on innovation or mergers and acquisitions will find the book's insights priceless. Finally, business students and aspiring entrepreneurs will find this book a great reference guide and how-to manual for starting companies, building new products and services, and helping move the 21st century economy forward. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital Chapter 2: Mike Maples, FLOODGATE Fund Chapter 3: George Zachary, Charles River Ventures Chapter 4: Sean Dalton, Highland Capital Partners Chapter 5: Alex Mehr, Zoosk Chapter 6: Howard Morgan, First Round Capital and Idealab Chapter 7: Tim Draper, DFJ Chapter 8: Osman Rashid, Chegg Chapter 9: Harry Weller, NEA Chapter 10: David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners Chapter 11: Michael Birch, Bebo and Birthday Alarm Chapter 12: Mitchell Kertzman, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners Chapter 13: Scott Sandell, NEA Chapter 14: Gus Tai, Trinity Ventures Chapter 15: Steven Dietz, GRP Partners Chapter 16: Paul Scanlan, MobiTV Chapter 17: Ann Winblad, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners Chapter 18: Jim Goetz, Sequoia Capital Chapter 19: Roger Lee, Battery Ventures Chapter 20: Ken Howery, Founders Fund Chapter 21: Alfred Lin, Sequoia Capital and Zappos Chapter 22: Kevin Hartz, Xoom and Eventbrite Chapter 23: Eric Hippeau, Lerer Ventures and SoftBank Capital Chapter 24: David Lee, SV Angels Chapter 25: Ted Alexander, Mission Ventures Chapter 26: Robert Kibble, Mission Ventures Chapter 27: Rajiv Laroia, Flarion Chapter 28: Jim Boettcher and Kevin McQuillan, Focus Ventures Chapter 29: Mike Hodges, ATA Ventures Chapter 30: Alan Patricof, Greycroft Partners Chapter 31: Ben Elowitz, Blue Nile and Wet Paint Chapter 32: Vish Mishra, Clearstone Venture Partners Chapter 33: Richard Wong, Accel Partners Chapter 34: Randy Komisar, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Chapter 35: Peter Wagner, Accel Partners
This book is a must-read for entrepreneurs and venture capital/private equity investors. It's also for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in emerging markets who want to apply to homegrown ventures the Silicon Valley model of building billion-dollar startups. Corporate executives focused on innovation or mergers and acquisitions will find the book's insights priceless. Finally, business students and aspiring entrepreneurs will find this book a great reference guide and how-to manual for starting companies, building new products and services, and helping move the 21st century economy forward. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital Chapter 2: Mike Maples, FLOODGATE Fund Chapter 3: George Zachary, Charles River Ventures Chapter 4: Sean Dalton, Highland Capital Partners Chapter 5: Alex Mehr, Zoosk Chapter 6: Howard Morgan, First Round Capital and Idealab Chapter 7: Tim Draper, DFJ Chapter 8: Osman Rashid, Chegg Chapter 9: Harry Weller, NEA Chapter 10: David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners Chapter 11: Michael Birch, Bebo and Birthday Alarm Chapter 12: Mitchell Kertzman, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners Chapter 13: Scott Sandell, NEA Chapter 14: Gus Tai, Trinity Ventures Chapter 15: Steven Dietz, GRP Partners Chapter 16: Paul Scanlan, MobiTV Chapter 17: Ann Winblad, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners Chapter 18: Jim Goetz, Sequoia Capital Chapter 19: Roger Lee, Battery Ventures Chapter 20: Ken Howery, Founders Fund Chapter 21: Alfred Lin, Sequoia Capital and Zappos Chapter 22: Kevin Hartz, Xoom and Eventbrite Chapter 23: Eric Hippeau, Lerer Ventures and SoftBank Capital Chapter 24: David Lee, SV Angels Chapter 25: Ted Alexander, Mission Ventures Chapter 26: Robert Kibble, Mission Ventures Chapter 27: Rajiv Laroia, Flarion Chapter 28: Jim Boettcher and Kevin McQuillan, Focus Ventures Chapter 29: Mike Hodges, ATA Ventures Chapter 30: Alan Patricof, Greycroft Partners Chapter 31: Ben Elowitz, Blue Nile and Wet Paint Chapter 32: Vish Mishra, Clearstone Venture Partners Chapter 33: Richard Wong, Accel Partners Chapter 34: Randy Komisar, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Chapter 35: Peter Wagner, Accel Partners
500 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 18, 2021
1. Who would I recommend this to read ?
To someone who likes to understand about VC, CEO, Tech World
2. Would you say Academia World and Industry are different?
Yes - Market, Customers, Product, Revenue
Academia - Novelty, Publication, Teaching & Training Students
3. So, How is this book?
Straightforward and easy to read. I couldn't boil down to some universal truths.
People have perspectives depending on market, background.
I'd wish, the author had boiled down patterns, truths from his perspective.
Although, before Foreword, Tarang had written
Fundamentals such as
• Creating customer delight efficiently
• Building passion into the team’s culture
• Scaling the company beyond $100 million in revenue; and
• Daring to be authentic so that you can dare to be great
I am not sure exactly all of them, what they mean?
4. Tell me something, that I am not aware of?
I grew up in Tamil Nadu, India.
Tamil Nadu has an active, growing SaaS Industry - so why should you care?
Maybe you'd find a different way of doing things, non-Western way - Okay, so what?
Maybe we can learn from each other.
I'd not drop names, and let you explore, and they are worth looking into for your time.
5. What else would you recommend?
To Learn about History of American Venture Capital,
I recommend,
George Doriot , French Immigrant Professor in early 20th century had career in Military, Academia, Business. He's relevant to VC World.
Contemporary market place is always changing.
"Keep Growing, Keep Learning"
Deus Vult,
Gottfried
To someone who likes to understand about VC, CEO, Tech World
2. Would you say Academia World and Industry are different?
Yes - Market, Customers, Product, Revenue
Academia - Novelty, Publication, Teaching & Training Students
3. So, How is this book?
Straightforward and easy to read. I couldn't boil down to some universal truths.
People have perspectives depending on market, background.
I'd wish, the author had boiled down patterns, truths from his perspective.
Although, before Foreword, Tarang had written
Fundamentals such as
• Creating customer delight efficiently
• Building passion into the team’s culture
• Scaling the company beyond $100 million in revenue; and
• Daring to be authentic so that you can dare to be great
I am not sure exactly all of them, what they mean?
4. Tell me something, that I am not aware of?
I grew up in Tamil Nadu, India.
Tamil Nadu has an active, growing SaaS Industry - so why should you care?
Maybe you'd find a different way of doing things, non-Western way - Okay, so what?
Maybe we can learn from each other.
I'd not drop names, and let you explore, and they are worth looking into for your time.
5. What else would you recommend?
To Learn about History of American Venture Capital,
I recommend,
George Doriot , French Immigrant Professor in early 20th century had career in Military, Academia, Business. He's relevant to VC World.
Contemporary market place is always changing.
"Keep Growing, Keep Learning"
Deus Vult,
Gottfried
December 14, 2012
This book was definitely a let down, after enjoying both Founders and Coders at Work. Most of the stories followed the same set of questions (which weren't great), which led to answers that felt cliched and uninteresting. There were some incredibly smart people interviewed for the book, who have done amazing things, but little of their creativity comes through. Their thoughts were limited to the scope of the questions, and thus quite boring.
Read
December 15, 2012I was one of the VCs interviewed for this :)
Read
March 23, 2017Useful for any investor looking to 'cheat' experience. Some very good VCs tell stories of success and failure, coding their heuristics along the way for you. That said, one must read this with the narrative fallacy in mind.
Beware: this book is very poorly edited to the point of being borderline unreadable. There is a lot of conversational elements that should have been edited out and even some typos. The interviewer/author also poorly articulated some questions and should have edited these questions.
Beware: this book is very poorly edited to the point of being borderline unreadable. There is a lot of conversational elements that should have been edited out and even some typos. The interviewer/author also poorly articulated some questions and should have edited these questions.
January 29, 2018
While this book has some useful and interesting content, it is unfortunately separated by a lot of filler. Many of the points are repeated in many of the interviews, with the feeling by the end that genuine insights are actually in short supply. With a good editor this could have been really good, but alas didn't make it.
PS 34 men and one woman interviewed. I know its not entirely the author's fault given the state of the industry, but are there really so few women worth interviewing?
PS 34 men and one woman interviewed. I know its not entirely the author's fault given the state of the industry, but are there really so few women worth interviewing?
Read
December 19, 2021Shah: Earlier, you mentioned that the first ten to fifteen people hired build the DNA of a company. What are you looking for in those employees?
Botha: The key characteristic is the desire to solve a problem for the customer. That is the driving passion, not “I think this is going to be a billion-dollar company and I want to hop in because I can get rich.”
You don’t want someone whose gut reaction is, “No, we can’t do that. We tried it before and it doesn’t work.”
Most of the time, when people are frustrated by something, they just shrug their shoulders because they’re too lazy to do anything about it. They don’t care. People with “great DNA” see problems—and they roll up their sleeves and try to solve them. It takes a very special person to do that.
Mike Maples. He has a knack for boiling the venture investment down to its core essence, an exceptional founding team and a disruptive opportunity.
What happens is, there are very disruptive technology shifts that occur from time to time and a small number of companies ride the wave created by these shifts.
We look at authenticity and unconventional, proprietary insight as the key difference.
The person who says, “I can’t imagine doing anything in my life but this idea,” just has an overwhelming advantage in terms of sticking to it.
All I am really there to do is to help provide acceleration. I am sort of like, “Hey, are there any bottlenecks I can help you with?”
is this a perpetual license business
Fooled by Randomness by Taleb. His theory is, there is a hidden role of chance in life and in markets.
That willingness to say, “If textbook rentals do not succeed, we are out of business. Therefore, we will do nothing else but textbook rentals.” That is the thing. Everybody says that is obvious, but most entrepreneurs do not do that.
You can see it early on, when Jobs got fired from Apple and they hired a great sales and marketing guy, John Scully, to run Apple because they thought then the company would be better managed. It might have been better managed, but it did not actually have better product. And at the end of the day, people want better products.
Botha: The key characteristic is the desire to solve a problem for the customer. That is the driving passion, not “I think this is going to be a billion-dollar company and I want to hop in because I can get rich.”
You don’t want someone whose gut reaction is, “No, we can’t do that. We tried it before and it doesn’t work.”
Most of the time, when people are frustrated by something, they just shrug their shoulders because they’re too lazy to do anything about it. They don’t care. People with “great DNA” see problems—and they roll up their sleeves and try to solve them. It takes a very special person to do that.
Mike Maples. He has a knack for boiling the venture investment down to its core essence, an exceptional founding team and a disruptive opportunity.
What happens is, there are very disruptive technology shifts that occur from time to time and a small number of companies ride the wave created by these shifts.
We look at authenticity and unconventional, proprietary insight as the key difference.
The person who says, “I can’t imagine doing anything in my life but this idea,” just has an overwhelming advantage in terms of sticking to it.
All I am really there to do is to help provide acceleration. I am sort of like, “Hey, are there any bottlenecks I can help you with?”
is this a perpetual license business
Fooled by Randomness by Taleb. His theory is, there is a hidden role of chance in life and in markets.
That willingness to say, “If textbook rentals do not succeed, we are out of business. Therefore, we will do nothing else but textbook rentals.” That is the thing. Everybody says that is obvious, but most entrepreneurs do not do that.
You can see it early on, when Jobs got fired from Apple and they hired a great sales and marketing guy, John Scully, to run Apple because they thought then the company would be better managed. It might have been better managed, but it did not actually have better product. And at the end of the day, people want better products.
March 30, 2014
Die Bücherreihe „At Work“, die mit Founders at Work von Jessica Livingston angefangen hat, versucht das Leben von allen möglichen Beteiligten in der Startup-Szene zu berichten (Founders, Coders, CIOs, CTOs, VCs). Das Format ist immer das Gleiche: Man nimmt eine Gruppe von relativ bekannten Personen und macht ein Interview über ihre Anfänge in der Szene, über ihre Hohe und Tiefe und über interessante Anekdote.
Venture Capitalists at Work ist nicht anders vom Format her und vielleicht deswegen liegt hier das Problem. Man stellt fest, dass das Leben als VC oder die VCs selbst nicht viel anders/interessanter ist/sind. Häufig kommen die interessantesten Stories von ehemaligen Founders, die jetzt im VC-Geschäft sind. Die Anekdoten drehen sich eher um ihr ehemaliges Startup und nicht über ihr jetziges Fund.
Dem Leser wird auch nicht klarer, wie Investoren potentiellen Investment-Kandidaten auswählen, da häufig über Bauchgefühl, Instinkte und weitere subjektive Betrachtungen geredet wird. Obwohl im Titel ganz eindeutig steht „How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes„ Außerdem ist dieses Buch nicht nur über VCs. Founders von bekannten Startups werden auch interviewt.
Deswegen stellt sich am Ende die Frage: Für wen ist dieses Buch eigentlich gedacht? Man würde erwarten, dass hier Personen, die in der VC-Industrie einsteigen wollen, gut aufgehoben sind. Leider ist dies hier nicht der Fall. Dieses Buch ist generell nur für eine sehr kleine Lesergruppe, die Insights über den Alltag von bekannten VCs wie Sequoia, Accel, Founders Fund erfahren wollen.
Venture Capitalists at Work ist nicht anders vom Format her und vielleicht deswegen liegt hier das Problem. Man stellt fest, dass das Leben als VC oder die VCs selbst nicht viel anders/interessanter ist/sind. Häufig kommen die interessantesten Stories von ehemaligen Founders, die jetzt im VC-Geschäft sind. Die Anekdoten drehen sich eher um ihr ehemaliges Startup und nicht über ihr jetziges Fund.
Dem Leser wird auch nicht klarer, wie Investoren potentiellen Investment-Kandidaten auswählen, da häufig über Bauchgefühl, Instinkte und weitere subjektive Betrachtungen geredet wird. Obwohl im Titel ganz eindeutig steht „How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes„ Außerdem ist dieses Buch nicht nur über VCs. Founders von bekannten Startups werden auch interviewt.
Deswegen stellt sich am Ende die Frage: Für wen ist dieses Buch eigentlich gedacht? Man würde erwarten, dass hier Personen, die in der VC-Industrie einsteigen wollen, gut aufgehoben sind. Leider ist dies hier nicht der Fall. Dieses Buch ist generell nur für eine sehr kleine Lesergruppe, die Insights über den Alltag von bekannten VCs wie Sequoia, Accel, Founders Fund erfahren wollen.
December 25, 2015
Every vc so far seems to say the same thing: team is the most important thing, the rest is luck.
This is great because to some extent it's true. But not so great if you plan to write this long of a book on it. Unlike Founders at Work, by Jessica Livingston (the book this book's format is copied off of), in which entrepreneurs go pretty deep into the stories that led to their success, in this book vcs seem to stay at a very high level, never delving deeper than a couple of broad anecdotes. It may be the nether of their work where they don't want to disclose more than they should because there are trade secrets to their "success," but, it makes for a dull book, especially considering it's all interviews and you can tell they are beating around the bush and not saying what truly happened.
I also get the vibe, though I may be wrong, that the vcs really don't feel like being there and just want the interviews to be over.
Here are a few very interesting tidbits and quotes and I'd be glad to share some of them if people are interested. But overall, it is just worth skimming the book and reading an interview here and there when you're at the bookstore.
This is great because to some extent it's true. But not so great if you plan to write this long of a book on it. Unlike Founders at Work, by Jessica Livingston (the book this book's format is copied off of), in which entrepreneurs go pretty deep into the stories that led to their success, in this book vcs seem to stay at a very high level, never delving deeper than a couple of broad anecdotes. It may be the nether of their work where they don't want to disclose more than they should because there are trade secrets to their "success," but, it makes for a dull book, especially considering it's all interviews and you can tell they are beating around the bush and not saying what truly happened.
I also get the vibe, though I may be wrong, that the vcs really don't feel like being there and just want the interviews to be over.
Here are a few very interesting tidbits and quotes and I'd be glad to share some of them if people are interested. But overall, it is just worth skimming the book and reading an interview here and there when you're at the bookstore.
December 2, 2012
If I see another chapter intro with "What I love about Investor X is generic attribute Y" I will scream.
Do recommend anyone running a business that needs funding to have a read. Gives you a really good insight into how VCs make their judgments about companies they want to fund, and companies that they have funded that are going off the rails.
Do recommend anyone running a business that needs funding to have a read. Gives you a really good insight into how VCs make their judgments about companies they want to fund, and companies that they have funded that are going off the rails.
January 26, 2014
I know some of the people in this book. It's reasonably accurate. Gives you a good overview of state of practice in the VC world.
Want to read
October 8, 2017Recommendation:
Халявин Никита
Халявин Никита
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews