“Every time the other party says ‘I want’ in a negotiation, you should hear the pleasant sound of a weight dropping on your side of the leverage scales.” – G. Richard Shell, Bargaining for Advantage Most entrepreneurs don’t understand the power of positive leverage. Here’s a typical situation: After weeks of fund-raising, you find a [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Negotiation'
John Doerr: The salesman for nerds
May 26th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Negotiation, VC Industry, Video
Here are the latest videos from Venture Hacks TV (the best startup advice you can get while you’re folding the laundry). You can subscribe to VHTV via RSS, email, or Twitter. 1. John Doerr: The salesman for nerds Video: Charlie Rose interviews John Doerr I’m going to keep my eyes on [...]
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In a board room, somewhere in Silicon Valley…
February 6th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Downturn, Negotiation, Video
… a founder, a VC, and his Associate negotiate a down round. Very NSFW. Video: Old Face Andre talks economics with Omar Another business lesson from The Wire — about intellectual property: “It ain’t about right, it’s about money.”
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How to re-negotiate with your customers — and not lose a single one
January 3rd, 2010 · 4 Comments · Negotiation
Mark Suster, entrepreneur turned VC at GRP Partners: “When I was at BuildOnline (my first company) and things went ‘pear shaped’ we called all of our customers and said, ‘I know that we signed contracts with you. The reality is that the market has changed and I need to change to the new realities. We [...]
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How to share secrets in a negotiation
November 25th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Books, Negotiation
Last week, I spoke to a startup that was in discussions to license one of their products to a competitor. The competitor asked for historical sales data about the product, and the startup was wondering whether they should share that information with a competitor. Our conversation went like this: The book I mentioned in the [...]
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Books for Entrepreneurs: Bargaining for Advantage
July 14th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Books, Negotiation
This is the first in an ongoing series called Books for Entrepreneurs. We’ll use these posts to recommend books that we’ve found useful as entrepreneurs (duh). Our first book is Bargaining for Advantage by G. Richard Shell. Richard is a professor at Wharton and this is my favorite negotiation book period. It synthesizes the principled [...]
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Should I shop around?
December 6th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Auctions, Negotiation
“We took the approach of wanting to get to know the different partners and the different possibilities and to see where there was the best fit. Partnerships take a lot of work—you want to go out on a few dates before you get married. Yes, we dated a few people but didn’t get married… and [...]
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How is raising money like buying a car?
September 13th, 2007 · 8 Comments · Auctions, Case Studies, Negotiation
How many similarities can you find between hacking fund-raising and hacking a car purchase? Watch this video: The best answer gets a coveted Venture Hacks mug. (Via Lifehacker.)
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HubSpot's founder on negotiating with investors
May 31st, 2007 · 1 Comment · Negotiation, Resources
Dharmesh Shah recently wrote a very nice review of Venture Hacks. The article includes great meta-advice about fund raising: “1. VC Negotiation Is An Art Form: As an entrepreneur, there are few things more “nuanced” that you’ll deal with than raising institutional capital. Even if you decide not to raise venture capital, a lot of [...]
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