Venture Capital Due Diligence

A Guide to Making Smart Investment Choices and Increasing Your Portfolio Returns

Camp, Justin J.

Wiley Finance Editions

1. Edition March 2002
XIV, 258 Pages, Hardcover
Handbook/Reference Book

ISBN: 978-0-471-12650-8

John Wiley & Sons

Sample Chapter

Short Description

Due diligence is the process venture capitalists follow when considering what new business opportunities to take and which ones to pass on. This book provides a clear and concise understanding of what the venture capital due diligence process is and how investors use it to assess investment opportunities and estimate their return-on-investment (ROI). Readers will learn the rigorous framework that surrounds the due diligence process and be able to implement this technique when approaching their own investments.

Further versions

The first book to offer a comprehensive framework for conducting the venture capital due diligence process
Venture capitalists and other professional investors use due diligence to uncover all of the critical aspects of a company in which they are considering investing in an attempt to estimate the ROI of this decision. The state of the market, management expertise within the firm, legal concerns, location, and environmental issues are just a few of the factors investors include in their due diligence analyses. This book is the only guide to provide investors with a rigorous due diligence framework that can be customized to fit the practice of the firm. The book provides readers with a clear and complete understanding of the due diligence process and formalizes the process for the VC community. The book is structured around key criteria presented in the form of questions. Each question is followed by in-depth explanations and analyses that incorporate the best practices of today's top VCs, including John Doerr, Don Valentine, Kevin Fong, and Ann Winblad.

Introduction.

Chapter 1: Screening Due Diligence.

Chapter 2: Management Due Diligence.

Chapter 3: Business Opportunity Due Diligence.

Chapter 4: Due Diligence on Intangibles.

Chapter 5: Legal Due Diligence.

Chapter 6: Financial Due Diligence.

Epilogue.

Notes.

Index.

JUSTIN J. CAMP is a founder and general partner of Camp Ventures (www.campventures.com), a Silicon Valley-based seed-stage venture capital firm. Formerly, he was a corporate attorney with the Wall Street law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He graduated with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a BA in economics and political science, and received his JD degree (also with honors) from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. While working on his law degree, Mr. Camp spent a year studying venture capital and entrepreneurship at The Wharton School, where he created an Early-Stage Venture Capital Due Diligence Framework. This framework has been used in two of Wharton's graduate-level MBA courses and constitutes the basis for this book.