The VC Field Guide: Fundamentals of Venture Capital

The Venture Capital Investment Framework
Venture capital is the economic engine that drives entrepreneurship and innovation through capital investments, board membership, advice, and relevant introductions to employees & customers.

Despite the outsized importance of venture capital, the inner workings remain hidden. Venture is still a mentor-led industry and it is an industry where you have to do a lot of self-education—you have to learn by doing, and you have to get up to speed quickly.
Until now.

Author William Lin spent over a decade in venture capital, starting in an entry-level position, helping to start a leading VC firm from scratch, and eventually becoming Managing Partner. In The VC Field Guide: Fundamentals of Venture Capital, Lin shares his unique framework, the Venture Capital Investment Framework, to help any venture capitalist, entrepreneur, or investor make better startup investment decisions, quicker. Lin delivers an incisive and practical handbook for the world of venture capital. You'll learn about the industry, how to break into it, and discover the art of investing in startups, and more, including:

• How VC deals are analyzed, vetted, and made
• Which questions experienced and successful venture capital investors ask startup founders when making investment decisions, and why those questions matter
• The venture capital mindset that dominates the thinking of the most prominent venture capital investors
• The best ways to begin a career in venture capital and tips on building your career
• Key differences between multi-stage and boutique firms and what it means for entrepreneurs
• The different factors VCs use to evaluate early-stage versus late-stage companies

If you are interested in being close to company creation and innovation while building a career as an investor, entrepreneur, or startup customer, this book is for you. If you are interested in directly impacting economic growth, innovation, and the founders, employees, vendors, and communities that support the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem, this book is for you.

Will is a first-generation anchor baby. His Taiwanese parents gave birth to him in the US and he lived without them since he was five so he could have the educational opportunities of a US Citizen.

He seeks to help others out of gratitude to his mentors. He experienced so much kindness from strangers and how they helped him figure out my place and path in this world.

When he finally had the opportunity and knowledge to give back, he found hundreds of chances to do so with a specific skill around career coaching, building frameworks around life lessons and finding win-win connections.

He hopes his writing about investing and venture capital are able to help others at a greater scale than he can accomplish as an individual. With the lessons learned that he's gained over time, he hopes to help others better understand how to make career and investment decisions that could make a positive impact on the rest of their lives.

He's helped start clubs, companies and communities in the form of a Venture Capital firm (Managing Director @ Forgepoint Capital; Cybersecurity Focused), a Non-Profit (Chairman @ Security Tinkerers) and as the CEO of a Stealth Cybersecurity Startup.

He met his longest term role model and life partner, Priya Saiprasad, while studying Economics at UC Berkeley. Today they live in San Francisco with their cat and dog family: Gandalf, Jax and Katniss. His Taiwanese family continues to live around the world!