How to Build a Unicorn From Scratch – and Walk Away with Nothing
A veteran VC and former founder walks through a fictional-but-realistic 'grim fairy tale' in which a founder builds a billion-dollar company and ends up with nothing, term by term: participating preferred, ratchets, guaranteed IPO returns, redemption rights.
The Option Pool Shuffle
The classic teardown of how VCs quietly lower your effective valuation by putting the option pool in the pre-money. Includes the math and negotiation scripts to fight back.
Term Sheet Series Wrap Up
Index to Feld and Mendelson's 2005 series explaining every clause of a VC term sheet: liquidation preferences, anti-dilution, protective provisions, drag-along, and which terms actually matter. Later became the book Venture Deals.
The Equity Equation
The 1/(1-n) rule: give up n% of your company only when the trade makes the remaining stake worth more than the whole was before. Applies the same math to investors, hires, and co-founders.
Holloway Guide to Raising Venture Capital
A book-length, edited, citation-heavy reference on the entire venture fundraising process, from instruments and terms through negotiation and close, reviewed by dozens of practitioners.
Founders: Please don't allow anyone to screw your early backers
Janz describes later-stage investors pressuring founders to restructure or squeeze out early angels and seed funds, and argues founders must defend the people who took the earliest risk, both morally and reputationally.