Over the last few days I discussed debt financing (convertible notes) with a young founder — she’s in the process of raising her first outside investment in the form of a convertible note. While we were talking I realized that a lot of entrepreneurs have a somewhat limited knowledge of the topic; which is too bad as it puts you into a massive disadvantage in a field where you pretty much can make or break your company.
Luckily there are a couple of resources which are terrific and will get you from 0 to 100 in no time:
- Brad Feld’s Term Sheet series of blog posts is incredible.
- Ask the VC’s series on convertible debt is fantastic reading if you want to raise debt.
- And if you really want to learn the ropes — Brad Feld’s and Jason Mendelson’s book Venture Deals is a must-read.
I highly recommend spending some time with these topics — the more comfortable you feel with the lingua and the way you can get screwed over, the better your deal will be. :)
[ADDED AUGUST 13] Our fellow Heretic Adam Scheuring pointed this fantastic primer on Convertible Notes out. Read it.