Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook

It attempts to tell readers what it sets out to "attempt" to do in the beginning but nothing is highlighted. Wouldn't one think that the goals of a book, especially a case-study textbook, would be boldly highlighted so the reader/student could locate a prticular section without having to spend at least 20 - 45 minutes every time he picks up this book?

Practically every chapter focuses on someone who is a Harvard Business School student or graduate. Well, not everyone in the world is a HBS graduate and many have done quite well in the field of venture cfapital without a HBS degree! The book is more of a history book recanting stories of the startup of various venture firms and companies they finance but it never really gets into the "nitty gritty" -- the psychology of venture capital; the common sense tactics venture capitalists are supposed to use; even the simple question of how venture capital firms are paid on a quarterly basis is not answered. In this light, the book does not answer the question of exactly how much money does a VC firm put to work in, say, a $10 million fund and how much do they keep in escrow to pay themselves? Also, how do they quantify their quarterly "management fees"? They really don't manage anything. Yes, they attend a few board of directors meetings and keep in touch with the companies they invest in, but they really don't become active until the stock market has a thirst for the type of industry the investee companies they invest in are wanted. Then, they renegotiate terms with the investee companies (to their advantage of course), make an introduction to brokerage firms and their work, basically, is done.

Finally, the book is overpriced and it is very, very poorly bound. For the price of this book, go out and have a steak dinner, find a few stocks you can trade and forget about this dull read.


Excellent. A must read for future VC's / MBA's   July 5, 2001
 8 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is best and most comprehensive overview of modern VC practices. Dr. Lerner is cleary a leading authority on VC research and his experiences are detailed in this book.

The case study format is organized into 4 themes 1. Raising & Structuring Funds 2. Making Investments 3. Exiting Invesments 4. Other forms of VC funds so the lessons of each case lead to a larger point. Furthermore, the case study format makes the book more entertaining than academic texts tend to be.

If you are somewhat knowledgeable about private equity then this is a "must read". If you are a beginner make sure you become familiar with the ins & outs of private equity/venture capital before reading or else you may miss a lot of the value of this book.