Venture Capital Due Diligence: A Guide to Making Smart Investment Choices and Increasing Your Portfolio Returns 
asked by jazzman on November 26, 2006 6:55 AM
The first book to offer a comprehensive framework for conducting the venture capital due diligence process
Venture capitalists and other professional investors use due diligence to uncover all of the critical aspects of a company in which they are considering investing in an attempt to estimate the ROI of this decision. The state of the market, management expertise within the firm, legal concerns, location, and environmental issues are just a few of the factors investors include in their due diligence analyses. This book is the only guide to provide investors with a rigorous due diligence framework that can be customized to fit the practice of the firm. The book provides readers with a clear and complete understanding of the due diligence process and formalizes the process for the VC community. The book is structured around key criteria presented in the form of questions. Each question is followed by in-depth explanations and analyses that incorporate the best practices of today's top VCs, including John Doerr, Don Valentine, Kevin Fong, and Ann Winblad.
Venture capitalists and other professional investors use due diligence to uncover all of the critical aspects of a company in which they are considering investing in an attempt to estimate the ROI of this decision. The state of the market, management expertise within the firm, legal concerns, location, and environmental issues are just a few of the factors investors include in their due diligence analyses. This book is the only guide to provide investors with a rigorous due diligence framework that can be customized to fit the practice of the firm. The book provides readers with a clear and complete understanding of the due diligence process and formalizes the process for the VC community. The book is structured around key criteria presented in the form of questions. Each question is followed by in-depth explanations and analyses that incorporate the best practices of today's top VCs, including John Doerr, Don Valentine, Kevin Fong, and Ann Winblad.
Reviews
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I was tremendously disappointed in this book. The cost of $35-50 is definitely a complete rip-off for what you get from the author. All you need to do is refer to pages 227-246. Those are the pages that represent the bibliography. I actually was so pissed off after reading this book that I counted them. In total the author referenced the words and work of 488 author people. There are only 223 pages of text and 6 chapters in the book. I am certain you can do the math but I'll do it for you.
There are on average more than 2 references per page and over 80 per chapter. It's as though the author has never had an original thought of his own. If I wanted to hire somebody to go out and look up the work of other people I would have done that. I was expecting the author to use his own first-hand knowledge and experience in order to help educate and inform others such as myself about the process. Instead, what I got was something a high school student would do while trying to complete a report for homework. My only question is who is less ethical: the author or the publishing company that let this slide through the screening process. For all of those that gave this book 5 stars I can only guess that you don't enjoy actually reading.
There are on average more than 2 references per page and over 80 per chapter. It's as though the author has never had an original thought of his own. If I wanted to hire somebody to go out and look up the work of other people I would have done that. I was expecting the author to use his own first-hand knowledge and experience in order to help educate and inform others such as myself about the process. Instead, what I got was something a high school student would do while trying to complete a report for homework. My only question is who is less ethical: the author or the publishing company that let this slide through the screening process. For all of those that gave this book 5 stars I can only guess that you don't enjoy actually reading.
reviewed by reader99 on November 29, 2006 12:55 AM
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This book gives a good survey on the due diligence process and attempts to teach the reader other important aspects of venture capital by connecting it to the due diligence process. However, the author comes up short in addressing some of the more important subject areas.
Overall it is a pretty good book but you will need to by a few more if you want a really good understanding of the entire process. "The Startup Company Bible for Entrepreneurs" is the best book I've come across on the topic of venture capital and it is almost three times the size of this one and contains a lot more material and topics. This book would definately fill in the gaps in "Venture Capital Due Diligence." You might want to get both since there aren't too many good books on the topic.
Overall it is a pretty good book but you will need to by a few more if you want a really good understanding of the entire process. "The Startup Company Bible for Entrepreneurs" is the best book I've come across on the topic of venture capital and it is almost three times the size of this one and contains a lot more material and topics. This book would definately fill in the gaps in "Venture Capital Due Diligence." You might want to get both since there aren't too many good books on the topic.
reviewed by redsink on November 29, 2006 2:05 AM