Incentives: how VCs think
Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.Charlie Munger
A venture fund needs a few companies to return the whole fund. Once you understand that, most investor behavior makes sense: why they pass on good small businesses, why they push for size, and what your deck has to prove.
Read first
- Venture Deals · Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
The standard book on how venture rounds and term sheets work. Read it before your first raise.
Deep shelf
- AVC · Fred Wilson
Years of posts from a Union Square Ventures co-founder on how VCs decide and how rounds work.
- Secrets of Sand Hill Road · Scott Kupor
How a venture firm works from the inside, from fund math to board seats, by an a16z partner.
- Startup Playbook · Sam Altman
Short, practical notes from YC's former president on product, growth and fundraising.
- Elad Gil's blog · Elad Gil
Detailed posts on markets, AI and later-stage rounds from one of the most active angels.
- Above the Crowd · Bill Gurley
Benchmark's Bill Gurley on market size and marketplaces. The posts investors still forward.
- Essays · Paul Graham
Where most early-stage advice comes from, including how fundraising really works.
- Archive · Naval Ravikant
On leverage, judgment and bets. Useful for how investors think about risk.
- Pmarca archive · Marc Andreessen
His 2007 guide to startups, including the post that defined product-market fit.
- Startup Library · Y Combinator
YC's free library on fundraising, SAFEs, pitching and investors.
- Memos · Bessemer Venture Partners
Real investment memos Bessemer wrote on companies like Shopify and LinkedIn. How a VC argues for a deal.
- Memos · Howard Marks (Oaktree Capital)
On risk and market cycles. Why money is easy to raise some years and hard in others.
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