State of Terms - A Cheat Sheet for Founders (& Investors😉)

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya

So, you’ve finally decided to raise external capital to fuel your growth. And based on your due diligence, it also feels right to partner with the investor who has proposed these “market standard” terms on the table.

But how can you as a founder with only limited fundraising experience know if the terms offered by the investor, who completes tens of transactions per year, are really fair and not far off from what’s “market” these days?

To help you overcome this information asymmetry, as well as to provide you with some guidance for your next term sheet negotiations, I’ve collected a bunch of resources that summarize the “state of terms”.

Let the negotiations begin!

• Demystifying Venture Capital Term Sheets - by Mountside Ventures
• Financing Trends for Q3 2022 - by Wilson Sonsini
• Venture Capital Market Study 2022 - by PwC
• Q3 2022 Venture Financing Report - by Cooley
• European Venture Capital Deal Term Review 2021 - by Orrick
• State of Private Markets: Q3 2022 - by Carta
• Real-time Startup Valuation Data - by AngelList
• *DE only* Venture Capital Verträge und warum sie so sind, wie sie sind - by Holger Wagner

Let me know in case I forgot something cool, happy to add :)