Venture Deals

Official Trailer

About the course

Raising capital is one of the most stressful parts of an entrepreneur’s journey. The more insight and knowledge you have about the fundraising process, the better positioned you’ll be during negotiations with investors. Techstars, in collaboration with Kauffman Fellows, invites you to enroll in the new Venture Deals, online course. 

The Venture Deals course is based on the book Venture Deals, written by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, and was created with the goal of eliminating the massive information asymmetry between the entrepreneur and investor. 

You’ll learn from experienced diverse investors who share deep fundamentals on topics ranging from venture capital transactions and navigating through the venture capital ecosystem, to negotiating strategies, investor engagement, founder wellness, and more, to help focus one’s energy on the right things during the journey. In addition, they’ll share best practices for individuals interested in entering the venture capital ecosystem.

If you're an entrepreneur looking for insight into the fundraising process and investor perspective, we invite you to join the 50,000+ participants who have previously benefited from this FREE online course. 

Venture Deals is a self-paced, “learn-by-doing”, online course that includes educational videos from diverse investors who provide real and raw advice, knowledge, and insight to raising venture capital, as well as additional resources, tools, and a course Guide to support your learning. 

This course will enable you to:

  • Understand the people within the venture capital ecosystem

  • Target the right investors for your company

  • Learn best practices for investor engagement

  • Learn how to structure financings using term sheets, capitalization tables, and syndication, all with the goal of minimizing risks

  • Learn negotiating tactics

  • Learn more about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the venture capital ecosystem

  • Learn more about mental wellness strategies during the fundraising journey


We do NOT offer a statement of completion for this course. 

The course content is only available for 6 weeks from the opening day, then it will close and you'll no longer have access to the content. Please complete the course within that time. 


Course Outline

    1. Introduction to Thinkific

    2. Welcome to Venture Deals

    3. Course Overview

    4. Techstars Venture Deals Course Guide - Online only - Not interactive

    5. Glossary of Terms from Venture Deals book

    1. Brad Feld

    2. Elliott Robinson

    3. Miriam Rivera

    4. Nicole Glaros

    5. Jaclyn Hester

    6. Jeff Harbach

    1. People Within the Venture Ecosystem

    2. Investor Engagement and Best Practices

    1. Fundraising Options

    2. Inside a Venture Capital Fund

    3. Valuation

    4. Cap Tables

    1. Term Sheet Overview and Economics

    2. Term Sheet - Control Provisions

    3. Term Sheets - Other Terms

    4. Negotiating the Deal

    5. Sample Term Sheet - Foundry (Not available for download)

    1. Brad

    2. Elliott

    3. Miriam

    4. Nicole

    5. Jaclyn

    6. Jeff

    1. Mental Wellness

    1. Last few thoughts...

About this course

  • Free
  • 30 lessons
  • 3.5 hours of video content
  • Course hosted on Thinkific