How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?
by Paul Gompers, Will Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan, Ilya A. Strebulaev · NBER (published in Journal of Financial Economics, 2020)
Survey of 885 institutional venture capitalists at 681 firms reporting how they source deals, select investments, set valuations, structure terms, add value after investing, exit, and manage limited partner relationships, with distributions rather than anecdotes.
More resources on Fundraising & Venture Capital
The Pitch
Podcast in which startup founders pitch real venture investors, followed by the negotiations, term discussions and funding outcomes. Host Josh Muccio shows listeners how investors evaluate companies, what makes a pitch persuasive, and how early-stage deals come together.
The Post-Money SAFE and User Guide
Y Combinator's post-money SAFE templates with the accompanying user guide: valuation cap, discount and uncapped MFN variants, pro rata side letters, international versions, and worked examples showing exactly how each converts and dilutes founders.
NVCA Model Legal Documents
Free template financing documents from the National Venture Capital Association — term sheet, stock purchase agreement, investors' rights agreement, voting agreement, right of first refusal and certificate of incorporation — used as the reference standard for priced US venture rounds.
Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist (4th Edition)
Feld and Mendelson work clause by clause through a venture term sheet — valuation, liquidation preference, option pool, control and protective provisions, drag-along — alongside how VC funds are structured, how negotiations run, and what letters of intent contain.
How to Raise Money
Paul Graham's 2013 essay on the psychology and process of a raise: getting the first commitment, running investors in parallel breadth-first, avoiding optimizing terms over closing, and treating fundraising as a mode separate from building.
A Guide to Seed Fundraising
Y Combinator's written guide to the seed round: deciding how much to raise, choosing between convertible notes, SAFEs and priced equity, setting valuation caps, finding and meeting investors, and closing the round.