Author:Scott Kupor,Eric Ries
'Worth far more than its cover price ... I wish I’d had it available to me when I was first looking for startup funding' -- Eric Ries
Every startup needs capital, and ambitious startups seek it on Sand Hill Road – Silicon Valley’s dream street for entrepreneurs. That’s where you’ll find the biggest names in venture capital, including the famed VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, where lawyer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC Scott Kupor serves as managing partner.
Whether you’re trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how VCs think. Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the first book that shows you exactly how VCs decide where and how much to invest. It will help you get the best possible deal and make the most of your relationships with VCs. You’ll learn, for instance:
-- Why most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category
-- Why the talent you need most when raising venture capital is your storytelling ability
-- How to handle a 'down round', when you have to raise funds at a lower valuation than in your previous round
-- Why bridge financing (reopening your last round to existing investors) is generally a bad idea
-- What to do when VCs get too entangled in the day-to-day operations of your business
-- Why you need to build relationships with potential acquirers long before you decide to sell
Filled with Kupor’s firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide you need to turn yourstartup into the next unicorn.
Worth far more than its cover price ... I wish I’d had it available to me when I was first looking for startup funding
—— ERIC RIES, bestselling author of tHE LEAN STARTUP and THE STARTUP WAY, from the forewordAs someone who helped a small company become a huge, valuable company, I know firsthand the power of the startup ecosystem and entrepreneurship. This is the definitive book on navigating VC as part of that
—— ERIC SCHMIDT, former executive chairman and CEO, Google; technical advisor, Alphabet IncI’ve observed thousands of founders and thought a lot about what it takes to create something important and to achieve outlier success. Kupor’s book takes founders who want to do both through everything from how VCs raise money and evaluate deals, to how to think about term sheets and set up boards. It’s a valuable resource for any founder who wants to work with VCs
—— SAM ALTMAN, partner and president, Y Combinator; cofounder, OpenAISecrets of Sand Hill Road is the definitive guide to how to engage the VC community, including governance and other best practices, in a startup’s journey to a successful public company
—— ADENA FRIEDMAN, president and CEO, Nasdaq; former managing director and CFO, The Carlyle GroupFrom acquiring startups, to leading a company, to working to select the next leader of an iconic company, I’ve seen it all. It’s become clear to me that startups drive the kind of innovation that big companies can’t easily do. Secrets of Sand Hill Road provides a useful overview for the next generation of leaders seeking to start such companies
—— JOHN W. THOMPSON, chairman, Microsoft; former CEO, SymantecDespite its explosive growth, the world of venture capital remains mysterious to many entrepreneurs seeking funding and to the public more generally. Scott Kupor provides an informative account of the way in which these investors select and nurture young companies
—— JOSH LERNER, head, Entrepreneurial Management Unit, Harvard Business SchoolAndreessen Horowitz’s managing partner, Scott Kupor, has written an indispensable guide for anyone with a big idea and an even bigger dream
—— JAMES PETHOKOUKIS, fellow, American Enterprise Institute; former columnist, Reuters “Breakingviews"A lot of people do not trust Wall Street. They regard it as a moneymaking machine for those who work there, which has little interest in practice in its stated aim of channelling capital into businesses and helping them to grow for the broader benefit of society. For such sceptics, Steven Cohen is Exhibit A.
—— John Gapper , Financial TimesA modern version of Moby-Dick, with wiretaps rather than harpoons.
—— Jennifer Senior , The New York TimesExcellent
—— The EconomistMasterfully deconstructing a massive web of Wall Street ... a true-life thriller with Shakespearian stakes ... Her chilling account of a blighted industry is as mesmerizing as a human story as it is as a financial one.
—— FortuneOne of the best books about the 2008 financial meltdown.
—— The Globe and MailThere are few financial-industry struggles as titanic as the one portrayed in these pages
—— Reuters BreakingViewsWell-written, with pointed characterizations of the ambitious players and their motives, this book is highly recommended for readers interested in finance, crime, and politics
—— Library Journal (starred review)Black Edge is the story of the Justice Department's investigation into SAC Capital, and New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar has made it as gripping as a thriller.
—— Business InsiderOne of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time ... Beautifully paced, jargon free, artfully arranged, deeply reported and properly researched... I wish all books were this good. You won’t regret reading this.
Well-written and well-reported, chock-a-block with ‘you-are-there’ moments.
—— Joe Nocera, BloombergKolhatkar has written a memorable and pathbreaking account of an era that is by no means over yet
—— The National Book ReviewBlack Edge reads like a legal thriller, except, it's all true. It also captures and defines an era on Wall Street when the only thing that mattered was: Black Edge
—— CNBCWell worth the read. I couldn’t put it down
—— Investing.com A potent book... an incisive social critique that slices through financial jargon and gobbledygook to accurately map the all-too-common corruption in America’s hedge funds that are sucking up billions and billions that used to be invested for the growth and benefit of society as a whole in building infrastructure, expanding existing and new businesses and creating jobs
An utterly absorbing look at how Cohen pushed his traders to the limit—that “black edge”—and how he mostly insulated himself from the potential ramifications. This fast-paced, true-life thriller will leave readers enraptured—and troubled