Venture Hacks is a new site launched by two entrepreneurs to help founders of start-ups navigate the hairy world of venture capital.
It aims to provide tips, such as how to negotiate a good deal when raising money, or how to organize a board so you don’t get axed by your investors down the road.
Behind the site are two guys who should know. One is Naval Ravikant, who now runs Vast.com, but who has had a fair share of VC run-ins. He filed a suit against Epinions, for example, when he felt VCs cheated him and other employees when Epinions merged with Dealtime. He took on big venture firms Benchmark and August — see here and here (includes copy of suit) — and won a settlement.
The other is Nivi, the long-haired drum-player who has worked at Bessemer Venture Partners, then at music browser Songbird, and most recently as Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture. Nivi can also recount some good VC tales.
Tags: people:Naval-Ravikant, people:Nivi, Venture-Hacks11 Comments
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Carl said:
Matt
You want to check below…One is Naval Ravikant, who now runs Vast.com, but who a fair share of VC run-ins.
One is Naval R, who now runs Vast.com but who HAS had a fair share of VC run-ins.
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Matt Marshall said:
Thanks, corrected.
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Dan989065LP said:
Matt, Naval is a good guy, but he has a way too jaundiced a view about GP’s, both with Aughust and Dot.Asha.
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A GD VC said:
Jaundiced is kind. No one’s going to take away their experiences and wisdom from “run-ins” (of which I’m sure they had no responsibility). But if one is this worried the VC is going to screw him or her, shouldn’t said entrepreneur ask themself why he/she is about to choose this investor anyway. You need to trust your investor won’t jack you at every turn otherwise the enterprise is doomed from the beginning.
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startupboy said:
A GD VC,
You could very well say the same about VCs. You shouldn’t invest unless you trust the founders, so why bother with complicated terms?
The core issue here is unequal negotiating power, not trust.
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Thomas said:
Should a couple of unproven dotcommers really be dispensing advice about how to deal with VCs? Vast.com? Music browser Songbird?
These guys are the gold standard? -
Makeit said:
Naval is a God….VCs are bad and Naval is good! Naval talks…I listen.
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A GD entrepreneur said:
I think such site is definitely needed…may be in a bit different form. There should be few good sites that voice entrepreneurs’ experiences with VC community. If one entrepreneur had really bad experience with a VC, that should be known to other entrepreneurs.
A platform for entrepreneurs is definitely needed to balance and keep VCs in check. It is a fair game. Some VCs are there just to “buy” the ideas.
Most VC forget that they are playing with Other People’s Money while entrepreneurs are risking something of their “OWN”.
Of course there are good and bad entrepreneurs just like good and bad VCs but balance is tilted towards investment community rather than entrepreneurs
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Andrew Fife said:
Thomas:
Why would anyone would want to discourage entrepreneurs from writing about their experiences? Dealing with VCs and building a successful startup are not necessarily the same thing. Also, one can learn a lot from failure. I know I did. Neither of the Venture Hacks authors have had a runaway success but that doesn’t mean other entrepreneurs can’t learn from their experiences. Furthermore, I believe that the bar for raising capital from professional investors is much higher than most people realize. Venture capitalists perform extensive due-diligence on there prospective investments and one of the most important things they look for is talent on the management team. Thus, there aren’t many slouches who have successfully raised venture capital and I’d be willing to bet that the Venture Hacks guys are pretty sharp. Regardless, I think their experiences are valuable and I am interested in what they have to say.
-Andrew -
Tad Askew said:
I enjoy the Take No Prisoners style of Venture Hacks.
In aggregate, the VC landscape is a vast ocean of mediocrity with the advantage of asymmetric leverage over their supplicants. This leverage is both fiscal and informational.
Venture Hacks is a zippy read, and teaches entrepreneurs to minimize that leverage and wrangle the best possible outcome from encounters with the species.
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Nivi said:
Hi, this is Nivi from Venture Hacks. Thanks for the mention!
We’ve got a Cheat Sheet of all our hacks here: http://www.venturehacks.com/term-sheet-hacks/
