Secrets of Sand Hill Road

I decided to read Secrets of Sand Hill Road after hearing an author interview on one of my favorite podcasts. The VC market can be so mysterious and this book helped bring clarity to many aspects of the startup fundraising process. Here are just a few of the many excerpts I highlighted along the way:

Most VCs assume that the product that is initially conceived of and pitched is not likely the product that will ultimately prevail.

Max Planck, German scientist, put it best by saying "Science advances one funeral at a time." Simply put, it's hard to get people to adopt new technologies.

Products are either vitamins (nice to have) or aspirins (need to have); VCs want to fund aspirins.

How much money should you raise? The answer is to raise as much money as you can that enables you to safely achieve the key milestones you will need for the next fund-raising.

If you allow yourself or a VC to overvalue the company at the current round, then you have just raised the stakes for what it will take to clear that valuation bar for the next round and get paid for the progress you have made.

VCs love infinite learners.

Companies are definitely staying private longer, resulting in more of the appreciation of startups going to those investors in the private markets, at the expense of those in the public markets.

[Beware of becoming] the most advanced dinosaur, where you may think you look differentiated relative to others but are at risk of being the last generation in the evolutionary chain...