A NATIONAL BESTSELLER & FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE MONTH "Full of powerful, practical lessons on changing how we think and act." –Eric Schmidt, former CEO and Chairman of Google "A must-read for board members, executives, and investors.” – Amy Bance, investor and Fortune 500 Board Member The Venture Mindset is a playbook on how to adapt to a rapidly changing world, make smarter bets, launch new ventures, and transform traditional organizations into hubs for innovation, from a top Stanford professor and a technology executive. Venture capitalists are known for their extraordinary ability to spot opportunities. They know how to identify emerging trends, how to bring new industries into being, and when to hold them and when to fold. Their unique mindset has made them the force behind world-changing companies such as Amazon, Google, Moderna, SpaceX, and Zoom. Stanford Professor Ilya Strebulaev has devoted two decades to studying VCs’ counterintuitive approaches to decision-making and the reasons behind the successes and failures of corporate innovations. Alex Dang has witnessed up close how VCs’ thinking and mechanisms can create successful businesses at companies like Amazon and McKinsey. Combining their insight and extensive experience, they present nine distinct principles that will help you make better decisions, transform your business, and achieve remarkable results, no matter your industry. In The Venture Mindset, you’ll learn: • One question VCs ask that will change the way you evaluate opportunities • Why you should encourage dissent and be wary of consensus • The number one killer of innovation in traditional corporate environments • Why it’s crucial to learn when to ‘pull the plug’ on initiatives • Why failure is not just an option, but a necessity Packed with entertaining stories and scientific precision, The Venture Mindset is a must-read for anyone who wants to be better equipped for the era of uncertainty when industry, company, and career can be disrupted overnight. The Venture Mindset will teach you more than how to simply survive. It’ll teach you how to win big.

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER & FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE MONTH "Full of powerful, practical lessons on changing how we think and act." –Eric Schmidt, former CEO and Chairman of Google "A must-read for board members, executives, and investors.” – Amy Bance, investor and Fortune 500 Board Member The Venture Mindset is a playbook on how to adapt to a rapidly changing world, make smarter bets, launch new ventures, and transform traditional organizations into hubs for innovation, from a top Stanford professor and a technology executive. Venture capitalists are known for their extraordinary ability to spot opportunities. They know how to identify emerging trends, how to bring new industries into being, and when to hold them and when to fold. Their unique mindset has made them the force behind world-changing companies such as Amazon, Google, Moderna, SpaceX, and Zoom. Stanford Professor Ilya Strebulaev has devoted two decades to studying VCs’ counterintuitive approaches to decision-making and the reasons behind the successes and failures of corporate innovations. Alex Dang has witnessed up close how VCs’ thinking and mechanisms can create successful businesses at companies like Amazon and McKinsey. Combining their insight and extensive experience, they present nine distinct principles that will help you make better decisions, transform your business, and achieve remarkable results, no matter your industry. In The Venture Mindset, you’ll learn: • One question VCs ask that will change the way you evaluate opportunities • Why you should encourage dissent and be wary of consensus • The number one killer of innovation in traditional corporate environments • Why it’s crucial to learn when to ‘pull the plug’ on initiatives • Why failure is not just an option, but a necessity Packed with entertaining stories and scientific precision, The Venture Mindset is a must-read for anyone who wants to be better equipped for the era of uncertainty when industry, company, and career can be disrupted overnight. The Venture Mindset will teach you more than how to simply survive. It’ll teach you how to win big.

Buy now to get the main key ideas from Ilya Strebulaev & Alex Dang’s The Venture Mindset In The Venture Mindset (2024), Stanford professor Ilya Strebulaev and technology executive Alex Dang explore the principles and practices distinguishing venture capital from traditional corporate thinking. Strebulaev and Dang emphasize the importance of risk-taking, long-term thinking, and flexibility, contrasting the Venture Mindset with traditional approaches that stifle innovation. They discuss the significance of betting on the right people, accepting failure, having diverse networks, and making informed, quick decisions. They aim to help leaders apply these principles, showing that even traditional environments can benefit from the Venture Mindset.

The main goal of this book is to help the reader become a desirable candidate for potential employers among venture capital firms. It is designed based on the coaching program created by Renata George with the purpose of finding and bringing new talent into the venture capital industry. The book reveals how venture investors actually think--a notion that is often expressed, but seldom explained in detail. Aside from providing a framework for actually finding a VC job, the book also helps one to define personal motives and drives, design an investor profile, and create an action plan for building a solid career in venture capital. The book gives access to the working materials of the coaching program (worksheets, matrix, etc.), as well as to the knowledge base relevant to all the subjects discussed in the book.Who should read this book? Anyone who is considering working in venture capital as an investor--whether investing individually, or managing corporate or institutional funds. The book addresses all the levels in the hierarchy of a venture capital firm: young investment professionals will learn whether they should apply for an analyst or an associate position, while more experienced candidates will find instrumental advice for upskilling their mastery and finding a job that matches their personality best.

Secure venture capital? Easy. Getting a business up and running or pushing a brilliant product to the marketplace requires capital. For many entrepreneurs, a lack of start-up capital can be the single biggest roadblock to their dreams of success and fortune. Venture Capital For Dummies takes entrepreneurs step by step through the process of finding and securing venture capital for their own projects. Find and secure venture capital for your business Get your business up and running Push a product to the marketplace If you're an entrepreneur looking for hands-on guidance on how to secure capital for your business, the information in Venture Capital For Dummies gives you the edge you need to succeed.

The definitive guide to demystifying the venture capital business The Business of Venture Capital, Second Edition covers the entire spectrum of this field, from raising funds and structuring investments to assessing exit pathways. Written by a practitioner for practitioners, the book provides the necessary breadth and depth, simplifies the jargon, and balances the analytical logic with experiential wisdom. Starting with a Foreword by Mark Heesen, President, National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), this important guide includes insights and perspectives from leading experts. Covers the process of raising the venture fund, including identifying and assessing the Limited Partner universe; fund due-diligence criteria; and fund investment terms in Part One Discusses the investment process, including sourcing investment opportunities; conducting due diligence and negotiating investment terms; adding value as a board member; and exploring exit pathways in Part Two Offers insights, anecdotes, and wisdom from the experiences of best-in-class practitioners Includes interviews conducted by Leading Limited Partners/Fund-of-Funds with Credit Suisse, Top Tier Capital Partners, Grove Street Advisors, Rho Capital, Pension Fund Managers, and Family Office Managers Features the insights of over twenty-five leading venture capital practitioners, frequently featured on Forbes' Midas List of top venture capitalists Those aspiring to raise a fund, pursue a career in venture capital, or simply understand the art of investing can benefit from The Business of Venture Capital, Second Edition. The companion website offers various tools such as GP Fund Due Diligence Checklist, Investment Due Diligence Checklist, and more, as well as external links to industry white papers and other industry guidelines.

The new edition of the definitive guide for venture capital practitioners—covers the entire process of venture firm formation & management, fund-raising, portfolio construction, value creation, and exit strategies Since its initial publication, The Business of Venture Capital has been hailed as the definitive, most comprehensive book on the subject. Now in its third edition, this market-leading text explains the multiple facets of the business of venture capital, from raising venture funds, to structuring investments, to generating consistent returns, to evaluating exit strategies. Author and VC Mahendra Ramsinghani who has invested in startups and venture funds for over a decade, offers best practices from experts on the front lines of this business. This fully-updated edition includes fresh perspectives on the Softbank effect, career paths for young professionals, case studies and cultural disasters, investment models, epic failures, and more. Readers are guided through each stage of the VC process, supported by a companion website containing tools such as the LP-GP Fund Due Diligence Checklist, the Investment Due Diligence Checklist, an Investment Summary format, and links to white papers and other industry guidelines. Designed for experienced practitioners, angels, devils, and novices alike, this valuable resource: Identifies the key attributes of a VC professional and the arc of an investor’s career Covers the art of raising a venture fund, identifying anchor investors, fund due diligence, negotiating fund investment terms with limited partners, and more Examines the distinct aspects of portfolio construction and value creation Balances technical analyses and real-world insights Features interviews, personal stories, anecdotes, and wisdom from leading venture capitalists The Business of Venture Capital, Third Edition is a must-read book for anyone seeking to raise a venture fund or pursue a career in venture capital, as well as practicing venture capitalists, angel investors or devils alike, limited partners, attorneys, start-up entrepreneurs, and MBA students.

Praise from Jason Mendelson (auth. Venture Deals), "Patrick brings an educator's perspective and an entertainer's sensibilities to his overview of venture capital." An approachable but disciplined overview of venture capital written by a professional musician turned business school professor over a 15-year period of teaching venture capital and startup classes at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. The book is a one-stop shop for understanding venture capital, distilling lessons from hundreds of interactions with VCs and founders. Readers of the book will learn: The core competencies of successful VCs What VC's are looking for in startups How venture capital differs from other forms of startup financing How the sharks on TV's Shark Tank are ruining venture capital The top two terms on any term sheet (and a few other key terms) Why VCs often behave like music industry professionals How to think like a VC Understanding how venture capital works in our economy can be of benefit to a wide variety of readers, from entrepreneurs to corporate decision-makers and everyone in between. This book treats venture capital as a topic of entrepreneurial strategy, not finance, and includes a background of the industry, an explanation of all aspect of the "VC Job Cycle" and a framework called "VC Razor" for performing due diligence. Learning how to think like a venture capitalist can help anyone become a better decision-maker. "Well organized, clearly articulated, this volume spans the gamut from beginner's overview to expert's guidebook. Venture Capital has never been more important, and this volume could not have been more timely." Jerome Engel, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business "Patrick lays out important concepts and insights in an easy to understand and digest form. As he clearly articulates in the book, the way that venture capitalists think is valuable to anyone in business." John F. Clarke, Dean of Graduate Programs, Tulane University Why Write Another Venture Capital Book? From the author: Over the years as I have taught venture capital classes and run a worldwide venture capital competition, I have struggled to find materials for my students. I have been frustrated by the simultaneous abundance and lack of available content. There is an abundance of terrific blogs written by VCs and founders, often teaching specific lessons derived from specific situations. Many VCs are prolific writers and have covered a wide variety of topics of the VC investment process. However, most blog postings have a very narrow scope, and they are not organized into a coherent body of work. They go deep in the weeds, but the forest gets lost. Similarly, there is also an abundance of textbooks that treat venture capital as a topic of finance. Wrong forest! Venture capital is undeniably a subset of private equity. However, approaching the industry from that perspective ignores the vast majority of what VCs actually do. If you would like to study venture capital as a finance subject, there are many other books that will serve you better than this one. Treating venture capital as a topic of finance overemphasizes the importance of numbers. For VCs, number play a large role, but just as important is the story about the numbers. In this regard, I will argue that VCs are more like journalists and filmmakers than financiers. What I have not been able to find is a holistic overview of venture capital as a topic of strategy, explaining its place in the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is not simply entrepreneurial finance! VCs play a very important strategic role in commercializing technologies. Just as importantly, they employ specific strategies that we can learn and apply to our own entrepreneurial circumstances.

"Succinct, educational and inspiring, a must-read for those looking to grow." The Hon Bob Baldwin Stuck? Frustrated? Frightened? You know your business, you know your customers, but do you know how to grow? Your skills and talents have got you a long way. You have a loyal customer base and a good reputation. Even so, running a business brings all kinds of challenges, and you recognise that in order to move forward and grow you need to develop your skillset - and your mindset - so that you can avoid pitfalls and overcome the difficulties that present themselves on your road to successful business growth. From understanding leadership and culture through to developing a clearer picture of how your business’s finances operate, An Introduction to a Business Growth Mindset asks the questions that will get you thinking about what you need to focus on in order to take your business to the next level. With over twenty years’ experience as an entrepreneur and business owner, Kristian Livolsi has been involved with 76 companies, advised more than 500 businesses, and consulted in 18 countries. With dramatic career highs and lows, Kristian’s knowledge of what you need to succeed in business is forged from extensive experience – of both resounding success and catastrophic failure. Drawing on the lessons that he has learned, Kristian presents a straight-talking, no-nonsense guide to creating the business growth mindset that will give you the confidence and skills to take your business to new heights. “With this introductory book, Kristian Livolsi has captured all the key challenges facing entrepreneurs who want to grow their business, and better yet it gives the reader the tools to develop solutions. Succinct and easy to digest, this is a must-read for any new entrepreneur navigating the often-treacherous path of growth.” -- Elaine Stead, South Australian Venture Fund Manager, Director and Venture Capitalist “Kristian’s business growth strategies have been honed at the coal face and on the job so they’re not just theories, they’ve been tested. Founders will no doubt get some great ideas about growing their business from this book.” - Renee Hakendorf, Innovation Hub Manager, ThincLab, University of Adelaide “It is no surprise that Kristian would pen his thoughts on leadership, growth and aspiration. The young man I met in 2005 was always determined to lead from the front and by example. He is living testimony to his personal creed so well reflected in this book. The book is succinct, educational and inspiring, a must-read for those looking to grow.” The Hon Bob Baldwin