一个有点恶作剧的提示：如果你真的比竞争对手更出色，那么见一见准备投资你的对手的VC，对你是有好处的。我们曾认真看过一家公司，我们的一个合伙人提议投资这家公司。我收到这家公司的竞争对手的电话，这个竞争对手已经拿到两个Term Sheet（投资协议条款清单）了，但还是想见见我们。我们决定见见这第二家公司，同时也把这个事打电话告知了第一家公司。第二家公司太出色了，我们决定放弃投资第一家（第二家公司因为估值太高，我们两家都没有投）。这有点耍阴谋，但可能切实有效。

More...

十年前，活跃中国的VC大多是国外机构的中国办事处，这些“海派”或“海归”的VC都会遵守很多VC行业的基本法则。但随着更多海外VC的涌入、大量“土鳖”VC的崛起，加上在中国市场环境的耳熏目染后，这个群体中有些个体（注意：是个体，不是整体）已经开始出现变质和病态。有道是：卑鄙是卑鄙者的通行证，高尚是高尚者的墓志铭。

More...

对于准备引入PE/VC的企业和企业家，在如今市场环境良莠不齐、鱼龙混杂的情况下，应该遵循“合理保护”、“有序推进”的原则，与投资者进行接触和洽谈，要记住“钱会给贫者带来幸福，却给富有的人带来烦恼”。投资者中有天使也有魔鬼。

目前，市场上私募股权投资投资者的素质良莠不齐，为合理保护拟引入投资的企业的商业秘密，我们建议首先应签署保密协议（Non Disclosure Agreement，即NDA）或者带保密义务内容的Term Sheet。

More...

On NDAs and Confidentiality

One of the most nerve-racking things for entrepreneurs is when they need to “open the kimono” and show their strategies, products, plans and financial projections to VCs.  This is especially true since many entrepreneurs know that the world of VC is very tight-knit and most VC’s know each other.

More...

4 Questions and 4 Pressure Tests To Decipher A VC's Interest In Your Company

I have heard from a number of entrepreneurs over the past couple of months about how they wished VCs would give them a "quick no" more often.  I think it's a totally fair critique and have tried to improve in this area myself.  In lieu of a "quick no", I thought I'd give entrepreneurs 4 questions and 4 pressure tests to help you decipher a VC's level of interest.  These questions presume that you have already given the VC an initial pitch of your business, so they have enough information to at least be initially interested.  After thinking about this post, I have a renewed personal commitment to make my interest level clear and prompt so that there's nothing to "decipher".  A good working relationship should start before an investment is closed – so while I hope the advice is helpful in general, I hope that it's advice you don't have to take with me.  If you feel like you do, feel free to call me out on it – I'll respect you for it.  Without further ado…

More...

VC's Don't Sign NDA's

This is basically all over the web if you search a bit. I thought it made sense to re-address it briefly here. VC's don't sign NDA's when looking at new investment targets. On the rare occasion that they do, it's an extreme exception to the rule.

I basically rather skip seeing a deal than signing an NDA. The reason is pretty simple: there is no way for us to make sure we stick to the rules of the NDA and there is no way to manage the risk involved. We see too many deals and are invested in too many companies to not infringe somewhere upon an NDA. Hence, we would never put ourselves in the position where we would need to defend ourselves against an NDA.

More...

Preparing For A First Meeting With Me

by Brad Feld

I have lots of short meetings.  I’ll try to meet with anyone that I can that is referred to me or seems to be doing something relevant to my world.  I’ll also meet with people I think are interesting or, in some cases, just to be polite. 

Some of the most interesting things I’m involved in have come out of random meetings.  One of my favorite examples is TechStars.  David Cohen somehow ended up on my “random day” meeting schedule.  We had never met before and I had no idea who he was.  He came in, sat down, and handed me a first draft of a brochure he had created.  I asked him to tell me about himself and “TechStars.”  He did.  Five minutes later I looked at him and said “I’m in – let’s figure this out.” 

I had two random meetings today (and I’ve got two more).  Each ended after 15 minutes.  I tried to be polite in both, but the people were woefully unprepared.  This makes me a little impatient as it’s so easy to do a little work in advance of our meeting to figure out what I’m going to be interested or not interested in. 

More...

What's the deal with NDA's?

by Andy Sack

I've had three entrepreneurs ask me to sign NDA's recently. As an entrepreneur, everyone knows that NDAs really aren't worth the paper they're printed on.  I occasionally used them with big companies, as a means of communicating to the big company that I cared about the value of our intellectual property. But, they generally just slowed things down and became an item that future acquirers asked about why I was inconsistent in the use of them. So, I stopped using them. Now, as an investor, entrepreneurs should know that most knowledgeable investors won't sign NDAs. As an investor, I see lots of deals -- some of which are similar to others and I don't want to have an entrepreneur :

1. Feel like they gave me an idea that is theirs and to have a piece of paper that leads to some legal letter. That's lots of unnecesary brain damage for me.
2. Angst about their intellectual property so much that they won't talk about it without legal paperwork.
3. Believe their intellectual property is so unique that they're afraid to talk about it. I think ideas are only good when feedback is provided and the whole NDA process seems to limit the entrepreneur's ability to get lots of feedback.