Chapter 6
Leading Deals
Chapters 1-5 prepare you to support a deal. This one is about owning one: winning it against other firms, pricing it so it can matter to the fund, sitting on the board afterward, and building the thesis that brings the next one to you. It's written for the principal and VP seat, and for senior associates starting to lead. It closes with the part nobody puts in the job description: what it takes to make partner.
Leading a Deal End to End
Supporting a deal and leading one are different jobs. The lead finds or wins the company, builds the partnership's conviction, sets the terms, coordinates the other investors and gets the round closed, then owns the relationship for years. This module walks through that sequence: getting to conviction early, pre-wiring the partnership before IC, what founders weigh when several firms want in, what you can actually control in a competitive process, and the mechanics of running a round as lead. The goal is to be the person a partner trusts to take a deal from first meeting to wire.
5 resources
Ownership, Pricing & the Fund-Returner Test
The lead sets the price, and the price sets the ownership. That ownership, after years of dilution, decides whether success at this company can matter to the fund at all. This module covers the math a lead should run before offering a term sheet: entry ownership, dilution to exit, the exit value needed to return the fund, and what reserving for follow-ons buys. It also covers the judgment around it: when to hold the line on price, and when discipline just means losing the best companies.
4 resources
Your First Board Seat
Leading a deal usually means taking a board seat or an observer role. It's the part of the job with legal duties attached, and most investors learn it by doing it. This module covers the difference between an observer and a director, what a director owes the company, the conflict built into being a fund's representative on a board, how good board members actually spend their time, and the moments where it gets hard: down rounds, sales and replacing a CEO.
5 resources
Building and Publishing a Thesis
At the principal level, sourcing stops being about volume and starts being about being known for something. A thesis is how: a specific, falsifiable view about where value will be created and why now. Done well, it tells you what to look for, gets you to conviction faster when the right company shows up, and brings founders to you because they've read it. This module covers what makes a thesis useful, how to build one, how firms like USV and Bessemer use them, and why publishing is the point.
5 resources
The Road to Partner
Making partner isn't a longer version of being a principal. The unit of work changes from the deal to the fund and the firm, and the decision to promote you is partly an LP decision. This module covers what actually changes at partner, how firms judge a track record that takes years to mature, how carried interest is allocated and vested inside the GP, what LPs look for in the people they back, and the alternative path of raising your own fund.
5 resources