With the focus on key legal contracts and processes, the volume walks through all the phases of a funding round highlighting what is usually agreed upon and why – from matchmaking to negotiating term sheets, to due diligence, and finally to closing the deal. The author, legal counsel in finance and M&A, Jonathan Andersin, tells that the book was written to fill the gap of a Finnish non-academic handbook collecting common market practices on the field. Despite being written by a lawyer it serves a vast audience from newcomer business angels to startups that raise funding.

Guiding through the jungle of contracts

As one useful takeaway, the handbook sheds light on the “back-end” of a VC fund: its governance and decision-making that can seem as complex and bureaucratic but is yet beneficial to acknowledge. “Raising funding is easier when you understand the underlying principles and logic that guide the VC fund”, Andersin tells.

Valuable for angel investors, the book walks through the legal documentation and processes and illuminates what should be running from the beginning for a startup and what can wait for the operations to grow. “The essentials should include IPR related contracts, employee contracts, and general contracts including those with customers as well as keeping the cap table tidy”, he mentions a few.

What else would the author suggest for a reading list of a business angel?

“Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson was fun to read, almost entertaining even though the topic might come across as technical”.

FiBAN members are eligible for a -20 % discount from the book. The discount code will be shared for you in the next newsletter which will drop to your email at the beginning of May!