Since my recent post about The “On my terms” sheets, I’ve gotten a few notes from entrepreneurs asking about real term sheets, and which terms should be most important to them.
I’m no expert, so I want to point you to two excellent resources that I’ve used myself in the past.
The first is the simple, straightforward book called Term Sheets and Valuations. You can read it in an hour and it makes a great reference for the future. What I enjoyed most about it was that it was written for both the investor and entrepreneur audience, citing examples of investor favorable, neutral, or entrepreneur favorable terms in all cases.
The second resource is the Term Sheet Series on Brad Feld’s blog. Brad covers the common, obscure, and interesting terms that you might run across and gives you his insight and experience. And he mixes in plenty of F-bombs. 😉
Some practical advice that I can give you as an entrepreneur is to first fully understand each and every term presented before you open your mouth. That mistake can really be damaging.
