Decades ago I met Brad Feld when he was an angel investor. He later joined my advisory board at Mainspring Communications (along with Tim Berners-Lee, Linda Applegate of Harvard Business School, Mary Cronin of B.C. Carroll School of Management and others). Then when I left Mainspring, Brad was the lead investor and a Board member of Througline, Inc. Despite my losing all of Brad’s money when I shut down Throughline, we still remained on good terms.
I’ve been thrilled to see his success of these past many years and how he’s been sharing his wisdom and experience through a series of well-received books. Venture Deals is now in its third edition and is a must-read for any founder seeking funding: not just venture capital either. Brad has expanded the scope of the book to include crowd funding, corporate investments and more – it belongs on every founder’s bookshelf – real or virtual.
There are lots of very smart, very successful VCs and over the years I’ve met many of them. But what distinguishes Brad from virtually every other VC I’ve meet, with the exception of Fred Wilson, is his commitment to helping founders truly understand the VC funding process, to be totally transparent, and to help founders succeed.
I don’t have enough space to list all of Brad’s achievements, from single handedly creating the Boulder, CO entrepreneurial community to all the other books he’s written, and his successful investments. You can use Google for that.
However, there’s a post at Feld Thoughts by Brad that will give you more detail about the book and the blog itself is a goldmine of information about startups and investing.
But before, or after you do, invest in a copy of Venture Deals – it may be the best investment you make in you entrepreneurial career.
Mentorphile 