The VC Way: Investment Secrets from the Wizards of Venture Capital

by Jeffrey Zygmont

Venture capitalists have played a pivotal role in hatching the technologies that are redefining our work and life. Alongside the brilliant innovators who dream up the ideas, VC's contribute the business acumen and development capital that feeds Silicon Valley. And it is through this process of high-stakes investing that unimaginable fortunes are made. The VC Way is the first book to take readers into this private world of extreme investing, showing how seasoned, successful VC's prosper in down markets as well as during high times. For those who want to invest like the best, it reveals their unique strategies, sectors they are tracking, screens and criteria, best and worst investments, and how individuals can use the lessons they've learned. Packed with insider's advice and fascinating stories, The VC Way contains accounts from some of the most influential and noteworthy venture capitalists in business today-Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad, Neil Weintraut of 21st Century Internet, and dozens of others. The VC Way is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to match strategies with these master investors.

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2001

About the author

I write for free people who possess rebellious impulses. My stories tell about independent characters in conflict with collected groups and their constraining beliefs. Since we all belong to groups, I expose the unwritten rules we embrace unconsciously in any organization: faith or zealous movement, political party (either), business corporation, labor union or professional association, social club, charitable organization, television audience … the list is very long.

That theme underlies three novels: I Am Bill Gates' Dog, Ad Man in the Games of 2046, and The Dropout. The pioneering web publisher Online Originals named The Dropout its “Featured Selection” in July 2002.

I have published short fiction in the anthology The Literature of Work, and in periodicals ranging from New Hampshire Journal to the magazine Twin Cities Business Monthly. My poetry has appeared in the journal Not Just Air. Two of my poems received nominations for the annual Pushcart Prize, a respected literary award. They are Wife Poem XXVII, nominated in 2008, and Menopause, nominated in 2009.

As a journalist, I have published articles in many magazines and newspapers, including Boston Magazine, Boston Woman, Business Week, CFO Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Cigar Aficionado, Gannett Newspapers, Inc Magazine, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and Robb Report. I was the automobile columnist for Omni Magazine, a technology columnist for PC Computing Magazine, and an editor and staff writer for High Technology Magazine.

My non-fiction books are Microchip; An Idea, Its Genesis and the Revolution It Created, and The VC Way; Investment Secrets from the Wizards of Venture Capital, which was translated into Chinese for sale in the Orient.

Reviews

[Manas S Lodhavia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fluidly written book that provides insightful anecdotes and a view into the life of a venture capitalist.