Rating: 
Summary: Praise for THE VENTURE CAPITAL CYCLE
Review: "Insightful and well-documented--excellent reading for veterans as well as anyone exploring this fascinating and challenging 'industry' for the first time."Peter O. Crisp, Founding and Former Managing Partner, Venrock Associates "Venture capital has been central to U.S. domination of the market for commercializing cutting-edge science. This book is the first analytically ambitious effort to explain the genius of American entrepreneurial finance. It will quickly become a standard in law schools, business schools, and practitioners' offices." Ronald J. Gilson, Meyers Professor of Law and Business, Stanford University, and Stern Professor of Law and Business, Columbia University "In The Venture Capital Cycle Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner bridge the gap between practice and theory, systematically describing and analyzing important issues influencing investment in entrepreneurial start-ups. By undertaking rich empirical analysis in the context of an analytically sound framework, the authors combine real-world sensibility and intellectual rigor, making this book essential reading for investors, venture capitalists, and students of finance." David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University "This book presents a systematic account of how the venture capital industry works in the United States. It is academic yet practical, thorough yet a good read. It will set the standard for future research in entrepreneurial finance." Andrei Shleifer, Professor of Economics, Harvard Universit
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent academic overview
Review: An excellent review of the academic side of venture capital investing. Topics are current, although the data tends to be dated. A must-have reference for anyone in the VC industry.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves 5 stars for what it obviously was intended to be
Review: Considering the fact that this book was written by 2 professors at the Harvard Business School and was published by a prestigious academic press (the MIT Press), it should seem obvious to anyone with some degree of intellectual sophistication that this book was intended to be an academic/research take on the venture capital industry. On that level, this book scores a solid 5 stars (especially since there is nothing like this book out there). For some strange reason people have gotten the impression that this book should be filled with 'war stories' of VCs and entreprenuers, sayings of business gurus, and other back-slapping, feel good cliches instead of rigourous scientific evidence. When these people find themselves disappointed (despite the obvious fact that this is a research oriented book) they accuse this book of being "not practical" or being only for eggheads. While it is true that this book is not going to be full of bar room banter about how one can get rich quick, keep in mind the fact that most VCs and entrepreneurs are in the business of sophisticated and highly technical ideas. If VCs and entrepreneurs have a great deal of intellectual sophistication, wouldn't they find a book full of empirical and deductive evidence about their field be interesting and possibly valuable? Food for thought.
Rating: 
Summary: Should have taken it a step further...shame on publisher!
Review: I agree with some of the previous reviewers in that this volume is extremely well researched. The analyses performed are data rich, which, in general, is difficult to do in the venture capital industry where data are sometimes hard to come by. However, I was a bit disappointed in that 10 of the 16 chapters were based on previously published material. If their objective was to truly study the venture capital cycle (and the interrelationships between the various stages), then the volume would have benefitted greatly by having a third author (or editor) who could take the results and present them in more of a "What does this mean?" format. More frameworks and more figures (diagrams) would have helped this volume dramatically. I think this should have been anticipated and acted upon by the publisher. This book requires quite a bit of digging as you read. I found myself making notes in the margin, which is perfectly fine...except for the fact that the book is positioned as "excellent reading for veterans as well as anyone exploring this...industry for the first time." If the intention was to provide an introduction, then more Figures such as those in Chapter 14 would have been helpful. I was VERY disappointed in Chapter 15 (only 3 pages?)...this last chapter could have been an opportunity to step back and look at the entire cycle (with a figure) and explore how their findings fit within the cycle framework and help readers understand the cycle. This book is ideal for entry-level Ph.D. graduate students who are looking for a rigorous introduction to the field and are perhaps considering dissertation work in this field. MBAs or other finance professionals who have extensive experience in non-linear regression may also benefit. Those searching for an introduction to the venture capitla industry should turn elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Should have taken it a step further...shame on publisher!
Review: I agree with some of the previous reviewers in that this volume is extremely well researched. The analyses performed are data rich, which, in general, is difficult to do in the venture capital industry where data are sometimes hard to come by. However, I was a bit disappointed in that 10 of the 16 chapters were based on previously published material. If their objective was to truly study the venture capital cycle (and the interrelationships between the various stages), then the volume would have benefitted greatly by having a third author (or editor) who could take the results and present them in more of a "What does this mean?" format. More frameworks and more figures (diagrams) would have helped this volume dramatically. I think this should have been anticipated and acted upon by the publisher. This book requires quite a bit of digging as you read. I found myself making notes in the margin, which is perfectly fine...except for the fact that the book is positioned as "excellent reading for veterans as well as anyone exploring this...industry for the first time." If the intention was to provide an introduction, then more Figures such as those in Chapter 14 would have been helpful. I was VERY disappointed in Chapter 15 (only 3 pages?)...this last chapter could have been an opportunity to step back and look at the entire cycle (with a figure) and explore how their findings fit within the cycle framework and help readers understand the cycle. This book is ideal for entry-level Ph.D. graduate students who are looking for a rigorous introduction to the field and are perhaps considering dissertation work in this field. MBAs or other finance professionals who have extensive experience in non-linear regression may also benefit. Those searching for an introduction to the venture capitla industry should turn elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Academic concepts
Review: I've only been able to read through the first 3 chapters of this book because it's written in a very dry, academic style. While it brings up a lot of interesting issues that affect VC's, it's done from an economic/academic perspective. For example, it describes 3 different categories of covenants that restrict VC partners (overall fund management, activities of the general partners, and restrictions on the types of investments). But, rather than offer case studies on how these covenants play out in the development of the fund, it delves into statistical correlation of these covenants with different fund variables (such as size, rate of growth, and age of venture). It's probably fascinating stuff if you're an economist, but I'm not sure it's that helpful to anyone who's setting up a fund or is interested in working for a fund.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves 5 stars for what it obviously was intended to be
Review: Loved the book. It won't appeal to someone not accustomed to reading academic work, but is thoroughly informative. They've really gone the extra mile to bring to you detailed information about this secretive industry. They leave no stone unturned. I also appreciated the non-judgemental approach. They explore all reasonable hypothesis of each question or topic - and back up their conclusions with real analysis. This is not a book of some opinionated gurus telling you thoughts off-the-cuff. Everything is substatiated.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent & Intellectual
Review: Loved the book. It won't appeal to someone not accustomed to reading academic work, but is thoroughly informative. They've really gone the extra mile to bring to you detailed information about this secretive industry. They leave no stone unturned. I also appreciated the non-judgemental approach. They explore all reasonable hypothesis of each question or topic - and back up their conclusions with real analysis. This is not a book of some opinionated gurus telling you thoughts off-the-cuff. Everything is substatiated.
Rating:
Summary: Not a practical book for VCs
Review: The authors are two Harvard b-school academics who carried out a rigorous, disciplined, statistical analysis of a venture capital deal database. Their research identified a variety of patterns -- some of them interesting, others predictable. Frankly, the conclusions could've been handily summarized in a SHORT article written for the Harvard Business Review. Therefore, I recommend that VC practitioners skim each chapter's conclusions, and skip over the rest. Only if you love the blow-by-blow minutiae of academic statistical analysis, would you feel impelled to slog through the book's dry, methodical expositions of hypotheses, statistical procedures, and summary tables. Besides, a substantial portion of the book betrays an academic's fascination with why VCs do things the way they do, rather than with identifying profitable new alternatives. All in all, not a practical book for VCs.
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Effort!
Review: The Venture Capital Cycle is a thorough overview of the venture capital market that will be edifying to those who know little about the mysterious methods of private equity financiers, but self-evident to those with a background in corporate finance. Readers who have worked in or studied finance already are familiar with the tidal cycles that govern the flow of capital into early-stage companies, as well as the process through which money moves from institutions and individuals to fledgling enterprises. But we [...] strongly recommend that entrepreneurs read this book, which provides an exhaustive tour that will answer many - if not all - of your questions about where venture capital comes from, how you can get a hold of some, and how your life and business will change after you do. And if, along the way, you think that the authors sound too much like professors with their dense, academic prose, you're right.
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