Helpful VC Readings

As I’ve transitioned into working in VC in the last year I’ve had to learn many things that are new to me. I’ve been a reader my whole life, and learn extremely well by reading. I think it still remains the best way to consume a large amount of information effectively over time, despite the growing penetration of other types of content into our life.

Here’s a list of readings I’ve found useful for my own learning in the past year. If you’re looking to transition into VC or just learn more about the space, I hope you find these helpful.

General Knowledge

• VC Glossary

Investment Structures

• YC Safe: Very similar to our Safe
• How do Convertible Notes Work?
• Convertible Notes vs Priced Rounds for Dilution

Terms

• Term Sheets Breakdown: What goes into a term sheet? What rights are investors likely to ask for and what are their implications?
• What all Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Prorata Rights: Why are pro rata rights important?
• The Liquidation Preference Effect

Investment Stages

• The Pre-seed FAQ: Great overview from respected seed investors K9 Ventures
• For Fundraising, Seed is No Longer a Round, It’s a Phase: Hunter Walk writes a great blog post on how the seed stage has changed
• The Series A Round is the New Series B Round

Being a Good VC

• What Makes a Good VC?
• Investor VCs and Operator VCs
• How VCs Get Measured: Excellent post from Rob Go of NextView Ventures on how VCs get measured
• Kleiner’s Laws
• Fear and Loathing in Venture Capital: An excellent article on the psychology, experience and anxiety of being a VC
• What Happens When A Founder is Fully Vested: A hugely important scenario in the lifecycle of a company. What might one do?
• Track Record: What is most important in an investor track record?
• You Can Do Too Much Diligence
• Optimizing the VC Career: A great framework for thinking through how to optimize your career path in venture capital

How is Venture Capital Evolving?

• The Midlife Crisis of Venture Capital
• VC Industry Evolution: How has the structure of VC evolved in recent years?
• The Hidden Cost Of Extending Option Exercise Periods: How should companies deal with options for departing employees?

Timing

• Pay Attention to the Package: Fred Wilson on how to time investing in technology trends?

Building & Returning A Fund

• Meaningful VC Exits: The math on what it takes to return a fund
• The Babe Ruth Effect in Venture Capital: What does it take to return a fund and some?
• Portfolio Construction: How should you build a seed-stage portfolio?
• Three Core Principles of Venture Capital Portfolio Strategy: What does it take to build a successful VC portfolio?
• VC Fund Structures
• How to Build an LP Base for the Long-term: Crucial advice on how to approach LPs and fundraising for the long-term
• Recycling Your Management Fees: What is recycling your management fees and what impact does it have?
• The Economics of VCs Recycling Management Fees: Brad Feld breaks down the economics of recycling management fees

Building a Thesis

• USV Investment Thesis: The most thesis-driven firm I have seen in the industry
• Marc Andreesen Debates Peter Thiel: A video debate, but a great debate on the macro-perspective on innovation
• Beyond Network Effects Digging Moats in Non-Networked Products: How else is a company defensible?
• Market, Team, Product: How should you balance the three when considering an investment?

Building a Tech Business

• Burn Rate: Thinking about burn rate, fundraising and profitablity
• Profitability in Tech: When should you aim to become profitable?
• The Only Thing That Matters: Marc Andreesen talks about team, product and market
• CAC Increases
• Challenges of Platform GTM
• 1% of Salesforce’s Revenue Makes a Unicorn

LP-GP Alignment

• Creating GP-LP Alignment — Why Terms Matter: One of the leading industry LPs — Greenspring Associates — chimes in on management fees

Newsletters to Sign Up For

• Axios Pro Rata: The best overview of latest development in VC
• A VC: Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures shares his thoughts daily, hugely valuable
• StrictlyVC
• Inside Venture Capital: Similar to Pro Rata but often show deals that Pro Rata doesn’t
• Inside AI: Good one to keep up with

Things I’ve Focused on Learning

• AI: Specifically different techniques and how they work at a highly level, the chicken and egg problem with data/models
• Go-to-market models across different industries and how best to fit your go-to-market to your industry
• Blockchain: How does it work? Get down to the nitty gritty and then you will understand its true value-props
• Markets/Marketplaces: How do markets operates? What drives them? What drives good marketplaces?
• General business terminology such as CAC, LTV and how they relate to each other

Note: This is a living list, I’m going to keep adding to it over time. If I’ve missed a reading you’ve found particularly helpful please drop me a message with a link onLinkedin.