Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

Every startup needs capital; ambitious startups seek it on Sand Hill Road, the Silicon Valley street that means as much to entrepreneurs as Broadway does to actors. The most ambitious crave a meeting with Scott Kupor, the managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world. He and his peers funded companies like Airbnb, Pinterest, and Slack before they became household names.

Now Kupor is opening the black box of Sand Hill Road with an unprecedented look at how he and other VCs really think, and everything you need to know about venture capital. Teeming with insider info, Secrets of Sand Hill Road answers all the questions that keep startup founders up at night: Who gets a pitch meeting, and who doesn't? Which metrics should you stress in a presentation, and which should you ignore? Is it all just a game that rewards smooth talkers and friend-of-a-friend connections?

Lawyer turned entrepreneur turned venture capitalist Scott Kupor offers concrete advice that anyone in business can apply. You'll learn, for instance, why establishing market opportunity is the most important threshold to gaining a VC's trust; why entrepreneurs with great storytelling skills have higher success rates; and why common mistakes in your pitch--like skipping over product plan--can make all the difference.

With colorful stories and practical takeaways from Kupor's firsthand experiences, this book contains everything you ever wanted to know about venture capital. Whether you want to raise venture capital, work better with your VC, or simply keep up with the startup landscape, this is a must read for every modern entrepreneur.

If Silicon Valley is the greatest wealth-generating machine in the world, Sand Hill Road is its humming engine. That's where you'll find the biggest names in venture capital, including famed VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, where lawyer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC Scott Kupor serves as managing partner.

Whether you're trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how VCs think. In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Kupor explains exactly how VCs decide where and how much to invest, and how entrepreneurs can get the best possible deal and make the most of their relationships with VCs. Kupor explains, for instance:

- Why most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category.

- Why the skill you need most when raising venture capital is the ability to tell a compelling story.

- How to handle a "down round," when startups have to raise funds at a lower valuation than in the previous round.

- What to do when VCs get too entangled in the day-to-day operations of the business.

- Why you need to build relationships with potential acquirers long before you decide to sell.

Filled with Kupor's firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.