

Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in Deal Making - tommy7l
http://walkercorporatelaw.com/2009/09/29/five-mistakes-entrepreneurs-make-in-dealmaking-%E2%80%93-part-i/

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BrandonWatson
I think you forgot one...failure to understand the deal itself. Many times I
have seen entrepreneurs not understanding the content of the security they are
structuring when raising capital. Lawyers can help, but entrepreneurs need to
understand these things for themselves or risk finding out hard realitites
later - like being forced to sell and not knowing you had given up the right
to block (as an example).

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SWalker26
Thanks Brandon - excellent point. Indeed, Chris Dixon addressed this issue in
a recent post here: <http://www.cdixon.org/?p=702>. Moreover, I made a similar
comment to your solid interview with Andrew Warner on mixergy.com
(<http://bit.ly/dVkS1>):

"Lesson #3: understand the deal terms and run models as to what happens under
various scenarios. Fenwick & West puts out a quarterly survey of market deal
terms in venture capital financings (see, e.g.,
<http://www.fenwick.com/publications/6.12.1.asp?...>). At a minimum, the
entrepreneur should understand what is "market" and how each deal term plays
out in a liquidation. For example, in Q1 ’09, participation only occurred in
51% of the Silicon Valley vc deals and 40% of those were capped."

Thanks again.

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skyler39
The lawyer makes some good points and seems to know what he's talking about.
Didn't understand about not blinking first - still liked the video

