VC Term Sheets for 2024

For startup founders and investors, term sheets are the Rosetta Stone for each financing transaction. Unlike the Rosetta Stone, terms that are considered ordinary and customary change a little every year, as economic tides flow and the startup ecosystem evolves. On this episode, two expert attorneys and I discuss term sheets for venture financings including SAFE side-letters and more. 

In this episode, I talk with two attorneys who handle many startup financing transactions on both coasts. Louis Lehot operates in the heart of Silicon Valley, while Julie-Anne Lutfi practices in Boston. They both have deep experience representing both startup founders and venture capital funds. We discuss current trends as we approach the new year (2021 ain't coming back), and the things investors and founders should be aware of in 2024 (and we even re-visit some perennial topics like SAFE's vs Convertible Notes). Also, my new book is available now!

On this episode I talk with one of my favorite social entrepreneurs in the whole world. Diana Sierra is originally from Colombia, ended up getting a master’s degree from Columbia University in New York, was an industrial designer developing products for global companies, and then founded BeGirl, a social venture startup focused on menstrual health for women in Africa. I met her originally through my work with Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship. She’s amazing, and I think you’ll enjoy our discussion. 

On this episode, a panel of US-China experts discuss President Biden's recent executive order which subjects private US investments into China to screening. This obviously has a pretty big impact on venture capital and private equity firms, but in the discussion we got into the larger picture of the US-China relationship, and the "conscious uncoupling" that is going on. The panel includes Ker Gibbs, noted US-China scholar, Christopher Swift, lawyer specializing in national security regulations, H.K. Park, who runs the national security practice at Crumpton Global and specializes in outbound investments, and Louis Lehot, Silicon Valley lawyer who represents many VC and PE clients. This was a great conversation, co-hosted by 4thly and Foley & Lardner. You can also view video of the conversation.

On this episode I talk with Alice Bosley, Co-founder and CEO of Five One Labs. She and her cofounder met in grad school at Columbia and decided to create a startup focused on solving a really big problem - getting refugee populations back up on their feet. The UNHRC estimates the number of people in the world who have been forcibly displaced is now almost 110 million - the highest in history. I think you’ll enjoy this conversation with Alice about how her organization is tackling this problem, and what she’s learned in her six year journey as a social entrepreneur. I met her originally through my work with Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

On this episode I talk with Sylvana Quader Sinha. With a master’s degree from Columbia plus a law degree from Harvard, she was a high-achieving international lawyer, a foreign policy advisor for Barack Obama, special consultant to the World Bank, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Then in her 30’s she decided to pivot to a real challenge -  being an entrepreneur focused on fixing health care in Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Her startup, Praava Health, is now the fastest-growing healthcare brand in Bangladesh, serving a half-million people, and has been featured in Forbes, the Financial Times, and Fast Company. She’s amazing, and I think you’ll enjoy my conversation with her. 

Christopher Zaw runs Warc Africa - a social enterprise based in Ghana and Sierra Leone. Their goal is to get smallholder farmers out of poverty and address food insecurity across Africa. They design and sell regenerative farming input packages while providing access to training, mechanized services, and markets. I met Chris as part of my work with Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and Warc Africa is a great example of a successful social enterprise, treating poor populations as customers and partners rather than charity cases.

Jeff Bradley was working with Large Language Models long before most of us had heard of them. He's now CEO of Phrasia, a startup with a deep learning platform that helps companies to get actionable insights by going through all the natural language information (app reviews, survey comments, customer comments, social media, customer service transcripts, etc). On this episode Jeff talks about his own journey as an entrepreneur, and the future of AI and Large Language Models.

Biotech remains a red-hot area for startup founders and investors. Next-generation gene therapies, precision medicine, using AI and ML for speeding discovery and development of new drugs, and entire new delivery methods. What does the future look like, and how should investors and founders parse the opportunities in this sector? On this episode I talk with Marguerite Hutchison, Kent Hawryluk, and Louis Lehot about these topics and more.

Climate is a threat to the planet, and an area of great opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors to be part of the solution. Last year saw over $70 billion in venture capital invested in Climate Tech ventures. There are huge opportunities for founders and investors in this sector, as climate resilience becomes a growing imperative worldwide. I hosted this panel along with Louis Lehot and Jeffery Atkin of Foley & Lardner, and our expert guests included Kathleen Egan, CEO of ecomedes, Kristin Wegner Guilfoyle of the National Renewable Energy Lab, Gopal Erinjippurath, CTO of Sust Global, and Charlie Crocker, Co-founder of Zonehaven.