State of VC funding 2008

Techcrunch has a very informative writeup of the realities of pitching to and getting funded by a venture capitalist, courtesy of a talk given by Adeo Ressi, founder of TheFunded. There’s a lot of good stuff in there about trusting lawyers, how much you’ll have to pitch, what to do with term sheets, and how VCs talk amongst themselves and manipulate the situation to get the deal with you. Here’s the overview (but be sure to check out Adeo’s other advice):

Despite the broader economic rumblings, it’ s never been cheaper to start a company and there’s still a ton of venture money out there. In fact, Ressi told me that there is so much money out there for startups that VCs are now offering to partially buy out founders’ personal stakes to get deals. In effect, they are paying off the founders to pick them.