Chapter 8
Venture Capital
Essential Idea: Raise the Money by Going to the Funding Big Leagues
When it comes to getting the funding you need for your business, venture capital (VC) is the big time. It is Broadway. It is Showtime. No, getting VC funding is not easy, but it can make your business and career.
Example: In 2000, Jeffrey Bussgang was pitching his new business, Upromise, to John Doerr. Doerr is a legendary venture capitalist with the equally legendary venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (other KPC&B investments: Google, Amazon.com, and AOL). Bussgang was motoring through his PowerPoint when, he says, Doerr stopped him suddenly and drilled down into Bussgang's numbers. Acting nonplussed (even though he was definitely plussed), Bussgang apparently answered the questions right because Upromise eventually received millions in funding from the VC firm before finally going public.
Today, Bussgang is a VC himself, the general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, a venture capital firm with more than $500 million in assets. So Bussgang has the unique perspective of seeing the VC game from both sides of the ball. He has in fact written a great book about it—which, if you are looking for VC funding, you would be well advised to read—called Mastering the VC Game.
In the book, and in subsequent interviews, Bussgang has some interesting things to share about getting the money you need for your business. According to Bussgang, if you go the VC route, one key to ...
