add "confidential and proprietary do not distribute" | Category | Takeaways | |----------|-----------| | Mindset and Perspective | 1. VC is neither good nor evil; it's a means to an end.<br>9. VCs are business folks with pressures just like you.<br>10. Your investor must be someone you trust and like.<br>17. Leverage your extraordinary informal networks from being part of this course and school. | | Term Sheet and Negotiations | 2. Focus on the Big Ticket Items in your term sheet.<br>6. The valuation cap is the most dangerous bit in the Safe.<br>14. Term sheet negotiations are a function of who has the leverage.<br>15. Receiving a term sheet means you beat out hundreds of other teams and market opportunities. | | Funding Instruments and Environment | 4. It's a chilly funding environment in '24, but world-changing firms often start during nuclear winters.<br>5. Safes (and Convertible Notes) are common for seed and pre-seed rounds.<br>7. Don't let a stack of Safes pile up and break your heart or gut your ownership stake.<br>8. What you learn today will go stale quickly; rely on current data. | | Investor Relations and Benefits | 11. Know your investor: Research them before you pitch.<br>13. Quality investors provide legitimacy, credibility, and respectability, and make the CEO's job less lonely. | | Legal and Technical Aspects | 3. Mop up messes early; tell the truth.<br>12. Lawyers know a lot; find someone who's a good match and don't cheap out.<br>16. The voice of technical founders is vital in making decisions about investors and investments. |