https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitali...
My recommendations are a little different from most other folks here, in that they relate to understanding the business as a whole and how finance figures into it:
Norm Brodsky's "The Knack" http://theknack.info/
Jack Stack's "A Stake in the Outcome" https://www.amazon.com/Stake-Outcome-Building-Ownership-Long...
If you're in a startup environment, Brad Feld's "Venture Deals" https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitali...
Comments:
Blatant unfairness: yes, warm intros are required. Yes, this is unfair. However, the onus is on you to make this happen. If you want to found a startup, put your time in to building your network. If you're at a startup now, get intros to the VCs. Ask to go to VC meetings.
When you're building the network of people you're going to ask for angel cash, do the same. Lots of them will be happy to give you those warm intros. So start now building a network of people you can ask for $10-$25k. This wasn't obvious to me, but an intro to a vc from an angel who has invested counts as a great intro.
The same network will get you into one of the good lawyers (cooley, sonsini, gunderson) with a warm intro who will also do a deferred fee deal for $15-$25k. You want this.
The other thing that is unfair is, at least in b2b, the more customers you have the easier a raise will be. How do you get those first customers when you have nothing except a site that breaks all the time and a tiny team? That's your problem; make it happen.
Passionate origin story: we build a b2b tech. Most VCs seemed happy with
1 - we understood this problem from working on/near it
2 - we're building a solution
Oh, and read the book _venture deals_ by brad feld and jason mendelson [1]. Seriously. It's extraordinarily valuable.
Seriously consider doing the YC pre-YC program. It's all funnel for YC, but the info is good. Though it can be summed up (only somewhat facetiously) as, "Have you talked to customers yet? Maybe you should talk to customers. If you've talked to customers, talk to more! If you've talked to more customers, talk to even more! And after that... talk to some customers!"
Understand that the seed and A all want 25%; plan accordingly. Within that range, they are less price sensitive.
If you have questions, I'm happy to answer them, but I'm busy (the startup experience is everyone in your life is grumpy at you for flaking on them) so no promises on response time.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitali...
https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitali...
Maybe what you read had some qualifier attached to it like across all VC funds "on average". With funds, the outliers are everything like with successful startups. Deal flow varies greatly by VC. A similar comment, and one that holds up, is that most startup accelerators have 0 "successful" exits.
Brad Feld's book Venture Deals [1] is a great reference if you want to learn a bit more from multiple perspectives.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitali...
https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitali...
The subtitle is tongue in cheek but also gives you a sense of how much you can learn and how rare company you are in once you understand the details.
https://www.amazon.com/Term-Sheets-Valuations-Intricacies-Bi...
https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitali...
http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalis...
1) http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalis...
If you want to know exactly what rights your shares have (and don't have), this is the book.
By no means is that complete, but that should give you a primer, and I learned about it from other startups that successfully have raised funds. (I was in the dark too at a point. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4064276)
The other big thing is just to get out and talk with other founders near you. I found (at least in our community) they were very willing to share information over a beer or soda.
[1]http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/andreessen-horowitz/i... [2]http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalis...
Not exactly, but I'd recommend reading http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalis... because I think it will help despite being focusing more on founder vs investor rather than employee asking for equity.
Amazon affiliate link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118443616/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...
Amazon non-affiliate link: http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalis...
(Choose whichever you prefer.)
If you want to know more, read Venture Deals[1]. It's very thorough and well written.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalis...
https://www.amazon.com.au/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capit...
It's worth listening to if you want to understand this stuff better.
Having just listened to this book, I would guess that this sale has not been a great outcome for the founder and employees.