Private Equity
One of my favorite business school professors, Andre Perold, liked to say that in every transaction in the financial markets, there are only two types of actors: wolves and sheep. As you might expect, the wolves have the edge in the encounter, due to superior market information or negotiating position. If you find yourself in a market transaction and don’t know for sure that you are the wolf, then, sadly, you are the sheep. Venture capitalists are accustomed to being the wolf. During most periods, there has been a supply-and-demand imbalance that favors VCs. Entrepreneurs needed a lot of money, there were only a few VCs with money (it’s a shockingly small industry, with less than 500 or so active firms, according to the NVCA), and the VCs got to sit back and leverage their position of superior information and insight to choose their deals and drive favorable terms.
3 min read · 28 September 2010
5 min read · 15 July 2009
4 min read · 26 May 2009
2 min read · 02 September 2008
