Not all investors, bankers, and lawyers realize it, but the entrepreneur is the center of the entrepreneurial universe. Without entrepreneurs there would be no term sheets and no startup ecosystem.

Governance issues are always complex, especially when you have a lot of people sitting around the negotiation table.

there really are only two key things that matter in the actual term sheet negotiation—economics and control.

We also try to make fun of lawyers any chance we get.

I immediately noticed the telltale signs of a distinct lack of preparation and knowledge.

One of my goals with my AVC blog (at www.avc.com) was to bring transparency to this opaque world that I had been inhabiting for almost 20 years.

think the VC business grew up in a few small offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco, and the dozens—maybe as many as a hundred—of main participants, along with their lawyers, came up with structures that made sense to them. They then developed a shorthand so that they could communicate among themselves.

“Can you explain pre-money to me?” Thus, began my 31-year education in venture capital that is still going on as I write this.

had an office in Rockefeller Center at age 25) and said to me, “Can you model out a financing for XYZ Company at $9 million pre-money, raising $3 million, with an unissued option pool of 10%?” and then went back to the big office in the rear he shared with the other founding partner, Milton Pappas.